Edward Kennedy, 1932-2009

I don't wish death on anyone, and I don't (yet) have any enemies that I can think of that I would wish death upon, and Ted Kennedy is included in that group of people. But even though I don't wish death on Ted Kennedy, I know that the only way his assault on our freedom would ever stop is by his death. Another option may be his retirement, but since he was a walking example of the need for term limits, and he would never have retired, even if he lived to be 100, that option goes away pretty quickly.

Could a 77 year old career politician change his ways? Unlikely to say the least. But he did have his moments. This is probably his greatest:



But those days are long gone. The fact that he's gone with them doesn't mean any assault on freedom will ever stop. There will be more and others without him. In fact, it may be that his death will prompt congress to pass the terrible heath care bill this fall, as a service to him or as some kind of vendetta. Hot Air: Let’s pass this trillion-dollar travesty for Teddy

It's a bit of a stretch to say he deserved death for the Chappaquiddick debacle when Mary Jo Kopechne died, but did he deserve no punishment through a suspended sentence and a subsequent 40 years of power, prestige and privilege? Absolutely not. He should have been sent to prison for 10 years and stripped of his office in the US Senate, never to return.

It is for this reason I have no remorse, and am even a little cynical over his death.

This may seem uncompassionate, but there are simply some people who I have no love for and I am not affected by the media's fawning over him and the mindless pap they are putting out right now (This just in...we're 48 hours into this important breaking news story and we want to inform you that Ted Kennedy is, in fact, still dead. Stay tuned...).

If I'm uncompassionate what of everyone else who uses all their compassion for a man they've never met or respected, and how do those people regard the losses and tragedies in their own lives and the people they love, who they should feel true compassion for?

No thanks. I'll save my compassion for when it really counts.

Somebody has to counter the constant wailing about being "the Lion of the Senate", or "the conscience of our country." That stuff just can't go unanswered. It may as well be me.

But I'm not alone.

Andrew Klavan of PJM:

"Bad men can support good ideas. We can’t condemn liberalism itself on the strength of Kennedy’s character. It’s only a coincidence that the man who left Miss Kopechne...also spent a lifetime promoting policies that have endangered our freedoms, harmed our economy and damaged the lives of the poor people they were presumably intended to help."

And then of course there's the health care bill, which I wonder if passed, and Ted Kennedy had to live under it like everyone else (unlikely given his position and ability in the field of hypocrisy), if his illness would have been treated the way it was: Ted Kennedy vs. Universal Healthcare: A Double Irony.

...Senator Kennedy chose his surgeon for this difficult operation after very careful research and consultation with his physicians in Boston. Using his free and independent judgment, Kennedy chose Dr. Allan Friedman, a surgeon renowned for his experience and expertise in the field of neuro-oncological surgery.

No government regulations restricted the Senator in this extremely important personal choice...no bureaucrat forced the Senator to chose his surgeon nor hospital from a government "approved" list...Kennedy was not forced to sacrifice his life, liberty nor property in the name of the so-called "greater public good."

The above article was written by a DOCTOR, by the way...

More good reading from PJM: Roger Kimball, Some important lessons from Ted Kennedy

His life is just an example of how some people can get away with anything and the rules just don't apply to them, depending on how famous or influential they are, and if you're a Kennedy, well then that's even better, because if you are, you can get away with a lot of crap, and even be famous and respected despite it all.