The Real Teddy Kennedy

As much as it pains OffHisMeds to speak of the odious Teddy Kennedy, his death must be remarked upon, if for no other reason than to put the passing of "the Lion of the Senate" in perspective. As tributes cascade over the airwaves, and prominent Conservatives line up to offer their (hopefully) qualified tributes, let us remember the real Teddy, the Hyper-partisan Hack who defined everything that is wrong with American politics in general, and the Democrat Party in particular. Reaching back for just a tiny bit of perspective, we recall that there were many Teddy Kennedy's, and not a one of them was worth a damn:

- The NIMBY Teddy, who fought tooth and nail against the building of a Wind Farm off the coast of Hyannisport. Never mind that the turbines would not be visible from the lawn of the "Kennedy Compound", it was enough simply that they would be there, detracting from the exclusivity and privilege so ingrained in Royalty - or in this case - Limousine Liberals. In this respect, Kennedy exhibited most pathologically the "Not In My Back Yard" mentality of Democrats when it comes to actually experiencing the consequences of Democrat policies.

- The Ingrate Teddy. George W. Bush should have been a Democrat's wet dream of a Republican President. Bush vetoed not a single spending bill in the first 7 years and six months of his presidency; he collaborated with Kennedy on "No child Left Behind"; he championed Medicare prescription drug benefits; he opened the spending faucets and doubled the size of the federal government. In other words, he did everything Teddy Kennedy as a Democrat could have asked of him. In return, he was the subject of Kennedy's singular vitriol, and described by him in terms that Teddy would not use to describe America's enemies.

- The Character Assassin Teddy, who described Judge Robert Bork during his nomination to the Supreme Court as a man of such evil that he would restore Jim Crow and subordinate all Black people.

- The Unilateral Surrender Teddy, who proclaimed the Iraq War "lost" in July of 2003, a mere four months after the invasion. He kept up the drum beat and eventually managed to turn his entire party from war enthusiasts to Defeatists, giving aid and comfort to Islamic terrorists the world over.

- The Tax And Spend Teddy, who more than any other politician promoted the expansion of the federal government, growing it 25 fold from $141 Billion in 1964 to over $3.5 Trillion in 2009.

- The Economics Retard Teddy, who - along with Hubert Humphrey - proclaimed in the mid-60s that Medicare spending would be a scant $20 Billion in 2010. Medicare is over $700 Billion today. Teddy also championed Social Security, as clear a Ponzi scheme as has ever been devised without somebody actually going to prison.

- The Hypocrite Teddy, who loudly and often proclaimed his devout Catholicism, notwithstanding that he drove his wife Joan to alcoholism with his serial infidelities, then divorced her in 1983, and topped it all off by using his station to have his marriage annulled, thus making bastards of all his children.

- The School Cheat Teddy, who was expelled from Harvard for having another student take his Spanish exams for him.

- The Gluttonous Teddy, so committed to the gratification of his personal needs that there was no amount of food or alcohol he would not consume, and no congressional page, barmaid, co-ed or waitress he would not force himself on. It is one thing to finally resemble Jabba The Hut, quite another to take on his persona.

And for a taste of Irony, OffHisMeds will give you one last example, wherein you will experience the man when he had occasion to speak well of the dead, and you can contrast that with the orgy of tributes Kennedy himself receives in the coming days. In this instance, it is Teddy giving a speech about Ronald Reagan upon the occasion of a tribute at the Reagan library, as clear a demonstration of OHM's axiom that Democrats are never expected to speak so well of their opponents as their opponents are expected to speak of them:

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0407/3743.html

This is the key excerpt:

Apr 29, 2007 SIMI VALLEY, Calif. – Despite their many political battles in the 1980s, Sen. Edward M. Kennedy praised the late President Ronald Reagan here Saturday, particularly noting Reagan’s role in ending the Cold War, describing it as "a bipartisan enterprise by Republican and Democratic Congresses and administrations from the first moment to the last.”

The entire article is worth a read, because with this so-called "tribute", Kennedy spun a web of mendacity and revisionism that came to him as naturally as breathing. The single virtue he found in Reagan's character seems to be the extent to which he collaborated with Democrats; He distracts from the tribute to Reagan by speaking of others, not surprisingly, Democrats; He totally ignores Reagan's domestic accomplishments, "damning him with faint praise", as it were.

And in claiming that Reagan's Cold War fight was "a bipartisan enterprise by Republican and Democratic Congresses and administrations from the first moment to the last", he scored a three-fer, perpetuating a revisionist lie portraying Democrats as Cold Warriors, attempting to clothe himself and his party in Reagan's virtue, and absolving Democrats of their complicity in actually extending the Cold War.

In truth, for Kennedy's entire career the Democrat Party (with a very few notable exceptions) mostly gave comfort and support to pro-Soviet operatives and initiatives. Prominent Democrats including Kennedy himself threw up obstacles at every turn, including misrepresenting the U.S. role in Viet Nam, decimating our Intelligence services in the 70s, consistently understating the Soviet threat, opposing the Strategic Defense Initiative which broke the Soviet's back, and constantly portraying Republicans - and particularly Reagan - as dangerous provocateurs in relations with the Soviet Union.

That mendacity is what makes this speech classic Teddy Kennedy, dancing on another's grave so as to elevate himself, albeit rhetorically in this instance. The dancing was not so rhetorical back in 1969, though, when he cravenly left Mary Jo Kopechne in a pond to drown, lied about it, and got away with it. OffHisMeds hopes Teddy enjoyed all his earthly pleasures and privileges, because when he stands before St. Peter at the Pearly Gates, this single event will net him something less in the Afterlife than what he's used to, and nowhere near what his Apologists think he's entitled to as "The Lion Of The Senate".