From Right Wing News:
After someone shakes off their mortal coil, I believe a certain amount of deference is due. Their friends should be able to say nice things about them and the people who disagree should show enough class and tact to either say something nice or say nothing at all…I find angry attacks on Ted Kennedy, before his body’s even in the ground to be extremely offensive. The same goes for the people who are already exhorting the American people to pass the health care bill “for Ted Kennedy.” There’s a time and a place for everything. Now is not the time or the place for those things.
…This post, titled “Now’s Not The Time To Debate Ted Kennedy’s Legacy”, is immediately followed by a post entitled “Liberals Already Using Senator Kennedy’s Passing For Their Agenda”…
And in the comments at Hot Air:
All I know is that, today, after hearing of Teddy’s death, the breeze smells more fresh, the sky is more blue, and there is an air of hope that I haven’t felt for quite awhile.
I would hope that Mary Jo was there to greet him, but since she’s in heaven that obviously isn’t possible.
(…and that’s one of the nice ones.)
A comment on Sister Toldjah:
In view of the tremendous respect the people of Massachusetts must have for the Senator’s monumental legacy, it would seem only fitting that his seat be retired in perpetuity. Allow no one, ever, to attempt to fill the seat so long and masterfully occupied by the “Lion of the Senate.”
Kathryn Jean Lopez @ National Review Online:
All politicos need to remember the Wellstone funeral when a well-known politician dies. Instead of memorializing his life, his service turned into a political rally. Some of the MSNBC coverage today I’m catching looks like a Obamacare convocation. Human life is about more than poltics. And politics isn’t American Idol. Or, even, The Lion of the Senate.
Etc., etc.
OK, I think I get it now: If liberals (e.g., notorious loose cannons like Jimmy Carter and Robert Byrd) state that they want to honor Kennedy by continuing the effort that was his life’s work, and bring his lifelong dream to fruition, that’s crass political exploitation of personal tragedy.
If conservatives use the occasion to either crank the self-righteousness knob up to 11, spew hate, or try to put the brakes on any momentum-building or inspiration that might affect the outcome of health care reform, that’s not exploitative, as long as one tacks on the obligatory and insincere “prayers go out to the family”, etc.
I guess I have to assume that it was the lifelong dream of every 9/11 victim that the Constitution be suspended, that every American’s freedom of movement be restricted (ironically, Ted Kennedy made the “No-Fly” list at least five times), and every neighbor be recruited as a spy. Otherwise, that would have been exploitation, wouldn’t it?
How many times has a football coach died, and the game goes on “because he would want it that way”? My father led a New-Orleans-style traditional jazz band for 27 years; were the musicians who came from across the country to give him a proper jazz funeral just crassly exploiting the opportunity to play another gig?
Go ahead and call me crass, opportunistic, whatever; we as individuals shouldn’t miss any opportunity to make sure there’s a health care bill passed that our late brother Ted Kennedy would be proud of.
shillelaghlaw says
Howie Carr on the radio pleading with his listeners to keep their comments civil, and reminding them of the seven-second delay!
jconway says
Your father’s funeral while a tragic and sad event for your family also sounds like an incredibly awesome send off. My father, who has no connection to New Orleans or jazz for that matter, has insisted he get one of those bands for his funeral just because he thinks they’re wonderful, but that sounds like an amazing tribute to your dad.
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p>Onto your points, I don’t want to excuse you of cherry picking the bad eggs, but most conservative responses have been restrained at least on local blogs like RMG and from the likes of conservative commentators and politicians from John Cornyn to Charles Krauthammer who have all been much more brutal towards Teddy in the past.
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p>That said, I think it is simply natural for funerals of statesmen to become quasi-partisan events since they are reflections on someone’s life’s work and if that life happened to be spent fighting for a partisan cause than those reflections will sound somewhat partisan. Remember when the MSM helped turn the Reagan funeral into an advertisement for the GOP in 2004? There was no discussion of how terrible his policies were, only praise from both sides, and relatively partisan praise from the conservatives. No manufactured outrage there like there was over Wellstone.
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p>Similarly I think Ted Kennedy would have wanted his death to be a reflection of his life long fight for the causes he believed in, including universal healthcare and he explicitly stated so in his swan song in Denver and in his recent letter to the MA lege. He wants this bill passed and if it has to be literally passed over or with his dead body so be it, and he was fairly clear on that.
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p>My MA political idol is Tip O’Neill whose biographies were partisan reflections on the ideals he stood for and fought for as Speaker, and his funeral was similarly a referendum on the New Deal and President Clinton also tastefully shilled for his healthcare plan in the eulogy. Its not unique to America where overseas’ high profile political funerals are used as partisan events all the time. Trudeau’s in Canada, Bhutto’s in Pakistan, Kinnock’s in Britain. So to criticize liberals for wanting liberal legislation that their liberal hero advocated as crass is a little silly to me.
billxi says
http://www.christy2010.com/ind…
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p>Not all of us are democratic buzzards.
joets says
Would a rose by any other name not smell so sweet?
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p>Would the Obamacare Bill with any other name not make people so damned nervous?
christopher says
As with Hillarycare it’s once again starting to look like people favor the details of the plan, but when identified with Obama due to all the negativity they get nervous.
johnd says
if liberals would not mention politics (like healthcare reform) during that same period. So far today I have heard people using Teddy’d death as a call to organize for healthcare reform so as far as I’m concerned their is no truce.
shiltone says
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christopher says
…but when someone just died, if you can’t say something nice about someone…
ryepower12 says
Teddy’s life was health care. After all these decades, passing meaningful health insurance reform that would benefit everyone would be the greatest tribute to our Senator that I could possibly imagine.
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p>That scares the hell out of the right wing. Thus, they’re trying to get us to shut up about it, threatening to turn this into a Paul Wellstone moment. Not going to happen. That’s not what Ted Kennedy would have wanted.
huh says
Today’s column would make an excellent journalism school class on how not to write an obit/memorial:
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p>Paragraph 1 – I never liked him.
Paragraphs 2 and 3 – The specifics of why I didn’t like him.
Paragraph 4 – Damn with faint praise, he was strong in his advocacy of his wrongness.
Paragraph 5 – Conclusion: He could have lived a life of non-productive ease like me, but instead he was heroic in his defense of all those people I devote my life to belittling.
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p>I guess I didn’t expect much more. Still.
kbusch says
There’s always the possibility that he didn’t write it.
kate says
I had scheduled a phone bank that was going to include then candidate Tim Murray and State Rep. Deb Blumer. Deb passed away suddenly that morning. I made the decision to hold the phone bank in Deb’s honor and in her memory. I did this for a nuumber of reasons. For Deb’s friends and supporters, it was important for us to be with other people who knew her. For those who didn’t know Deb, they had blocked the night out to help and it would have been a lost opportunity and a disruption to their schedules. And the calls needed to be made. I recall thinking that, “This is what Deb would have wanted.” Later, as details of her day came out, I learned that her last words as she left a morning meeting were along the lines of, “If you want to be sure that Deval Patrick and Tim Murray get elected, get on the phones.”
huh says
Jon Keller really did himself proud covering the Kennedy motorcade.
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p>Very classy.
christopher says
Salon has had several Kennedy-related articles over the past couple of days. Many of the commenters can do nothing but bring up Chappaquiddick:(
huh says
JohnD and JoeTS appear to be competing in a race for the bottom.
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p>I don’t think there are any winners.
christopher says
Obviously it was not the most lauditory comment, but I don’t think it was nasty and trollish either.
huh says
It should be obvious from the other ratings and comments that many folks disagree.
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p>The fact remains that JoeTS was the first on this blog to make disparaging comments about Ted and to bring up Chappaquiddick. That he did so in a tribute thread and went on to make a “joke” about Teddy being a raging alcoholic is what I find nasty and trollish. Not to mention utterly classless.
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p>There will be time for discussion of Ted’s faults and weaknesses after he’s buried.
huh says
His tribute to Teddy brought me near tears. Just amazing.
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