Cold Enough
Ted Kennedy is dead.
Bambi’s bunny-friend Thumper’s mama once said, ‘If you can’t say anything nice…’ You beachcombers know the rest.
I suppose I have something, at least, quasi-nice to say – which is that I may now have empathy. To wit, when Ronald Reagan died, some of my liberal friends were nearly gleeful over it. Not being a Reagan worshiper, but not a hater either, I didn’t quite understand the smug happiness they felt over his passing. Then Senator Kennedy passed, and my empathy for my liberal friends surfaced. While I can’t say I completely understand the Reagan-death-love, I think I can sort of empathize with it. As Mike said on last night’s America’s Debate Radio, Ted Kennedy was “what’s wrong with America.” I can’t sum it up better than that.
Without remorse, I write to share that we have four winners in the Death Pool 2009 because of Senator Kennedy’s passing. Congrats and kudos to DaffyGrl (her 2nd), Eeyore (his 4th – scary!), and to Ted and Mike for scoring their first hits. I’m kicking myself for not going with the obvious choice. I guess they’re always obvious after they’re dead. Congrats, all.
What struck me about Kennedy’s passing was the time perspective. If any of Rose’s famous sons had emerged on the political scene in this era, I have little doubt, save maybe for Robert, that any of them would have gotten even a sniff of the White House. Ted would have been a one term senator after Chappaquiddick. John’s indiscretions would have made Mark Sanford & Jon Kyl blush. I don’t know enough about Bobby to say either way what his fate would be.
That being said, Ted imo was an outstanding senator, especially for this era, and a very flawed human being who spent much of his life trying to atone for some of his more obvious human failures.
Doc