Whatever HuffPo paid Amanda Terkel to read, and then write about, the “five steamiest passages” in former Sen. Arlen Specter’s memoir, it wasn’t enough. It couldn’t be. Reading a book is one thing, if you don’t have to write about it, but quite another if you do have to write about it. Terkel has an eye for detail, or she did before this particular assignment. No one would blame her for gouging that mind’s eye after reading Specter’s book. She has pulled five highly disturbing anecdotes from it; here’s just one of them. Get the mind bleach ready, because what follows is an offense against all that is good and right.
“I was in the whirlpool at the Senate gym in 2008, recovering from Hodgkin’s, when Ted Kennedy came over and climbed into the bath. Kennedy was one of the Senate’s giants, in many ways.
I see what you did there, Arlen. Wish I hadn’t, though.
It was as though a gigantic walrus had plunged into the sea, causing the level to swell. I’d never seen two men in the whirlpool before, but the tub was big enough for two or more.
I’m sure Ted had made sure of that in some earmark or another.
There was a sign that you had to shower before entering. I hadn’t checked that out with Kennedy, but I had neither an objection nor compunction about his coming into the bath. We chatted.” (p. 40)
Snarlin’ Arlen and “Waitress Sandwich” Ted, two dudes in a Beltway human stew.
And I don’t even want to know any more detail about the Senate massage room, Arlen.
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