All The Senator’s Women

For Eleanor Clift, (who also wrote, or perhaps her editor at Newsweek, the above title) the ends obviously justify the means:

For some women, reverence for Kennedy stopped with Chappaquiddick. The rest of us have a very different view: Kennedy had the gift of time to make amends, and we were the beneficiaries of that.

And speaking of all the senator’s women, here’s Huffpo contributor Melissa Lafsky:

…It doesn’t automatically make someone (aka, me) a Limbaugh-loving, aerial-wolf-hunting NRA troll for asking what Mary Jo Kopechne would have had to say about Ted’s death, and what she’d have thought of the life and career that are being (rightfully) heralded.

Who knows — maybe she’d feel it was worth it.

(Emphasis via Guy Benson at NRO’s Media Blog.) And via Newsbusters, here’s Andrea Mitchell:

MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell on Friday used an interview with former Vice President Dan Quayle to gratuitously highlight Lloyd Bentsen’s famous 1988 slam, “You’re no Jack Kennedy.” Although Quayle appeared on “Andrea Mitchell Reports” to share his reflections on the passing of Ted Kennedy, the cable anchor sniped, “One of your toughest moments was during the debate with Lloyd Benson when you compared yourself to John F. Kennedy…”

As though Quayle was unfamiliar with what happened 21 years ago at the vice presidential debate, Mitchell recounted, “And Lloyd Bentsen memorably said, you know, ‘I knew John Kennedy. I served with John Kennedy and you are no John Kennedy.’ What happened after that?”

What happened four years later, when it no longer would aid Bentsen and Michael Dukakis, the man who nominated him, is that fellow GE-employee Tom Brokaw, of all people pointed out that it was a lie:

“At the Kennedy Library, just outside Boston, they went through all the files. They couldn’t see much evidence Lloyd Bentsen knew John Kennedy very well. But it certainly was an effective campaign ploy for him.”

Of course — because people like Brokaw, Mitchell, and Clift were asleep at the wheel of the Oldsmobile, just as willing to obfuscate for whichever Democrat was seeking the White House, rather than reporting facts.

By the way, at some point, likely within the next decade or so, the left will have to go out and defend, not to mention whitewash — if you’ll pardon the obvious pun — the record of Sen.  Robert Byrd (D-KKK) when he passes away (he’s currently 91). That should be fascinating to watch as well. A post on Byrd and Teddy Kennedy from earlier this week on the Website of England’s leftwing Guardian, while not directly mentioning Byrd’s past, has a curious pun/immense Freudian slip within it:

By the way, in case you think Ted’s comment is overstatement, I remind you that JFK’s win in the West Virginia primary in 1960 was the crucial win on his way to the nomination. So the clan was deeply indebted to the state’s voters. We’ll save the question of how much money the Kennedys spread around the state for another day.

For an additional sneak preview of the obfuscations (forgotten deliberately and otherwise) to come, check out this post by the Rhetorican.

Update: All the Senator’s Men are quite a cast as well. Craig Crawford, MSNBC contributor and co-author of Listen Up, Mr. President with Helen Thomas tweeted the following missives today:

My guess is that in 50 years more people will visit Ted Kennedy’s grave than Pope Benedict’s, and for good reason. The Vatican just blew it.

* * *

How could the Pope not personally respond to Ted’s amazing letter? What a jerk! Ted wins the moment. He’s the one in God’s hands now.

* * *

Ted Kennedy turned out to be a bigger man than the Pope.

You stay classy, GE!

More: The eponymously named blogger at Snark And Boobs — who does not qualify for this post’s title — asks, “What Would Jesus Do? Promote Liberal Policy, Using a Child at a Funeral, Natch!”

More: At the Washington Times, Kerry Picket adds, along with accompanying radio audio, “Kennedy biographer Klein: Kennedy and Obama were not that close”:

STEVE MALZBERG: This relationship between Obama and Ted Kennedy led Chris Matthews, wacko of all wackos in my view, to say that he’s now the next, he’s the last brother. Obama’s the last brother.

ED KLEIN: Yeah, I, I heard that. Yeah.

MALZBERG: What do you think of that? What was their relationship, and what do you think of that description of it?

KLEIN: Makes me want to puke. To tell you the truth.

MALZBERG: Why, why, why?

KLEIN: Because it’s so patently untrue, number one. And number two, they weren’t, they weren’t that close. They, there was a political meeting of the minds, but a lot of the backing for Obama was Kennedy’s paying the Clintons back for stealing the Democratic Party and bringing it to the center rather than to the left.

MALZBERG: So you’re saying this is fiction basically the close kinship between Teddy and Barack Obama?

KLEIN: Listen, I think Barack Obama’s very grateful, very grateful for what Ted Kennedy did. I mean, after all, it certainly helped. But I don’t think they ever had a very close relationship. They had a political relationship which Teddy said, “Look, I’ll back you but you better make healthcare your first priority when you become president.” That was the deal.

Besides, as I noted last year in an early Silicon Graffiti video, after and endless succession of would-be “Next JFKs”, Obama was simply the latest example of This Year’s Model.