The Kennedy Family

Teddy's got brain cancer

http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1808037,00.html

wow. I just saw him a few months ago at an obama campaign rally as well. It was pretty exciting!

Somehow I'd missed he was first elected in 1962. Crazy.

due to that longevity, Ted has done more for this country than the rest of the clan combined. well, except Jack saved our asses in Oct '62 whereas Nixon wd've fried us.

Teddy - they didn't shoot him

I saw him the weekend before last at a hotel downtown when my parents were visiting. He didn't look well.

teddy hasn't looked well since pre-chappaquiddick.

We do these things not because they are easy, but because we just don't give a shit.

At least he's going out in style.

This makes me kind of sad. Ive always had a soft spot for TeddyK.

morbs OTM. ted kennedy doesn't deserve a third of the shit he gets.

espec compared to st. bobby, whose admittedly tragic death obscured the fact that he was a complete shit until, like, the last 4 or 5 months of his life.

or as Gore Vidal called RFK, a phony little Torquemada.

morbs, we don't give a shit about gore vidal

Is that a Royal we? Gore Vidal is at least mildly entertaining with the patrician gay touch of Highsmith/history prof thing he's got a gaun' on.

that's a we for Americans who don't prefer another country

http://individual.utoronto.ca/salvo/samflag.jpg

Sen. Robert Byrd breaks down in tears when discussing Kennedy on the Senate floor. Says “Thank God for you, Ted” and “I love you.”

http://cache.boston.com/bonzai-fba/Original_Photo/2008/05/17/1211048397_5295.jpg

Sen. Robert Byrd Ben Affleck breaks down in tears when discussing Kennedy on the Senate floor. Says “Thank God for you, Ted” and “I love you.”

Morbs was fine to post that.

Gab, stick to what you personally believe and don't even pretend there's a 'we' you represent - you're too much of a loner to get by with that, or somehow you have the full backing of non-expat Amurrrica but ehhh, don't think so somehow.

yeah, or create another gratuitous campaign thread you can jizz over.

Suzy's right: Alfred also cares about Gore Vidal.

gabb otm

how did I KNOW this was going to start?

Since I know little about Bay Colony politics, can a homegrown citizen give me an idea -- without consulting Wikipedia -- of Ted's legislative accomplishments? I'm genuinely interested.

suzy, i'm sorry if the royal mien of my extremely excellent opinions cramp your style, but i assure you that your objections and epithets will not stand in the way of my continuing to give them their fullest exercise

if that's your idea of a good time

"what was truly singular about robert kennedy (was that) he aroused extravagant political hopes while standing opposed to all that was best and most promising in his day. ... he was a man who regarded grass-roots movements as something for 'the professionals' to bring under control, who spent most of his adult life envisioning this republic turned into a hideous sparta. ... he was a man so thoroughly estranged from the principles of a democratic republic that the foolish left-wing journalists, who think the constitution a bankers' plot, saw in kennedy another julius caesar come to rescue the peasantry from republican trammels. that estrangement revealed itself even in kennedy's best moments, for while he calculated how to serve a corrupt party oligarchy he offered his compassion to its most conspicuous victims, the benevolence of a prince toward his impotent subjects." -- walter karp, harper's, 1978

That Karp book we always cite, J.D., has some damning stuff on Teddy, who, according to Karp, represented the revenge of the Democratic establishment on the dense insurgent Jimmy Carter. I always thought this line was too easy. Counter-arguments welcome.

Ted's legislative accomplishments? I'm genuinely interested.

It isn't a legislative accomplishment, but against a very strong (and self-serving) tide among Democrats, Kennedy openly and vocally opposed the Iraq War. That took political courage. So if your question is, more broadly, "Why does Ted Kennedy matter?," I think that's a good example of why he does.

alfred: i think karp's argument is more that a vain TK was being used by the dem establishment as a weapon against carter than that he was himself a reactionary (kennedy, after all, was more liberal than carter).

http://thepage.time.com/2008/05/26/sen-kennedy-completes-massachusetts-sailing-race/

Ted's been rushed to the hospital...

http://thepage.time.com/senator-kennedy-returns-to-senate/

Sen. Ted Kennedy collapsed Tuesday during a luncheon held in President Barack Obama's honor hours after the nation's first African-American president was sworn in.

CNN reported that Kennedy, who is being treated for a brain tumor, suffered a "seizure" and was still suffering seizures as he was put into a wheelchair and taken out of the luncheon.

In his address to the luncheon shortly before 3 p.m., Obama said his prayers were Kennedy and his family.

CNN said paramedics were called at 2:35 p.m.

What an attention hog.

Ted said to be speaking in hospital, doing "well"

just like rosemary kennedy