A SOBER LOOK AT TED KENNEDY
Whoa! I bet you didn't have to look far for this article. I bet all the conservative blogs have links to it. Sadly, its written in 1990 at the low point of his life and doesn't look at how he turned around his private life after 1990. Sadly, it nearly ignores the assassination of his two brothers and the impact their deaths must have had on his life. Sadly, its very judgmental expecting Kennedy to behave in his private life the way the author expects a senator to behave. When Kennedy was getting drunk and fooling with all those women......he wasn't married.....he wasn't breaking any laws.......however, the author didn't think a man of his stature should cavort in that way. Frankly, it was none of his business.
But no matter how excellent it may be, staff work can take you only so far. Much of what Kennedy does every day he must do himself, no matter how he feels in the morning. And you can’t look at his labors without being impressed by his willingness to stick to the tedious daily tilling of the legislative field. Take congressional hearings. Please. As chairman of the Labor and Human Resources Committee and of the Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Immigration and Refugee Affairs, and as a member of the Armed Services Committee and of the Joint Economic Committee, Kennedy must chair or attend a couple hundred hearings a year. And while some of them are fascinating, a great many more are dull morality plays. Even more so than life itself, congressional hearings are not one damn thing after another but the same damn thing over and over again. Still, unlike many senators, who are content to make only brief appearances at these hearings, Kennedy often plays an active role even in the hearings that he does not chair.
See that's the difference between a Sanford and a Kennedy or a Vitter and a Kennedy. Ted Kennedy got things done. He changed civil rights laws, impacted education, worked to change the health care system in this country, helped the common man, et al. Sanford didn't do squat except criticize others and piss people off.
But truth be known for all his flaws, Kennedy was a great man and he doesn't need me to defend him. His long and august legislative record speaks for him.
You all need to try and work through your jealousy.......you will be healthier for it. |
