Senator Edward Kennedy was the epitome of everything that is amiss with American politics. Without fail he put party interests before those of the nation and the American people.
Although his personal life was a sham and he was a moral reprobate, he still could not stop himself from condescending to others at every opportunity. Not particularly bright, not particularly articulate, without his family name and fortune he would have sunken into alcoholic anonymity years ago.
Yet there was seemingly never a time when he wasn’t willing to grandstand and he took every opportunity to monopolize the limelight. His skillful self-aggrandizing was amazing to behold.
His guiding doctrine seemed to be that Teddy (and his prestigious senate seat) came first, the Kennedy clan second, cronies, sycophants and suck-ups third, and the scraps were left over for the nation that he so proudly “served.”
He showed throughout his career, but particularly in the case of the senate confirmation hearings for Robert Bork, a willingness to stoop to any level of personal attack, spitefulness, and pettiness. He was willing to attack below the belt on a whim. Although personally a proven and reprehensible coward, the “Kennedy Machine” systematically bullied their way through any opposition with Teddy at the helm.
Perhaps the only thing truly interesting about the man was the dichotomy in his character that allowed him serve equally well as a dictatorial taskmaster or, if and when that position was unavailable, his willingness to be a servile lapdog lackey for those in higher positions.
His hypocrisy knew no bounds. Despite his crocodile tears for the poor and displaced he continued to the end to live a life of conspicuous consumption and excess. Bloated and red-faced, he never missed an opportunity to strut along the corridors of D.C. or to be seen at the helm of one of his many yachts sailing off Hyannis Port. (Although the perennial liberal do-gooder he still bridled viscously at the very idea of having wind turbines generating “clean” electricity for the masses anywhere near where he liked to sail…)
In failing health, even though he had known for a long while that his prognoses was poor, that he was old, ineffectual, and unable to complete his sworn duty, he still refused to relinquish the reins of power and selfishly held on till the bitter end without regard for what was best for his state and his country. Astonishingly, even in the final days of his existence, this nasty old man played politics, trying to reverse a state law which is was originally championed by him, in order to make sure that Massachusetts had a democrat in line to replace him.
“Ted the Toad” was the embodiment of the old cliché that, “Only the good die young.”
Those of us who are sickened at the media’s sycophantic adulation of this pitiful excuse for a “statesman” can take solace in knowing this: He is finally dead and America is better for it.