Le Lion est Mort
August 26th, 2009 by 
Celeste Fremon
Like many, I have very mixed feelings about Ted Kennedy—strongly pro and con. But we can all rest assured that there will be many flowery and impassioned speeches made about the liberal lion of the U.S. Senate in the next few days.
And to those who will inevitably be making them, I would like to suggest that there is one tribute, and one tribute only that would really matter to the man: Pass a decent damned health reform bill.
Posted in Life in general, National politics | 
2 Comments »
August 26th, 2009 at 10:24 am
I only saw Ted K once “live”, during the Obama primary in an African-American church. It was like watching a piece of history. Like you I’ve always had conflicted feelings about the guy, but it was apparent that he’d truly given his public self over to fulfilliing the best of the RFK/JFK legacy. (That’s not a very consistent legacy in itself – “RFK/JFK” – but the Bobby of ‘68 was one of the country’s greatest losses in our history, IMHO. I think much of the ensuing quarter century of political horror shows – from Nixon to Reagan – could have been avoided.) His role in the Obama election was a nice cap on his political career.
And as you say, effective health care reform would be the only tribute to the man that matters. I’m thinking, frankly, that if there’s any sense of integrity or empathy among the waffling cluster of Dems, this might turn out not to be the loss of one vote on the Senate floor, but a window of opportunity for some of their more deft comrades – and the President – to firm up a few stragglers and pass a strong bill that includes a cost-containing public option. The eulogies to the last Kennedy should, consistently, remind the country of why health care reform is essential (frankly, for “budget-hawk” as well as moral and public health reasons.)
I put up a couple of major obits – the definitive NYT, McClatchy and the UK Guardian (“warts and all”, Brit style) – at BH, linked at “reg”.
August 28th, 2009 at 2:24 pm
AMEN, SISTER!