Thoughts on the passing of Ted Kennedy

I posted within minutes last year after Senator Kennedy was diagnosed with the brain tumor that claimed his life late Tuesday night. It has taken me a little longer this time, but I know my thoughts, along with those of all Americans, have been with the Kennedy family over the last couple of days, especially since they so recently experienced the loss of another family member, Eunice Shriver.

My parents were, to say the least, not political types at the time I was growing up. They still aren't, but they do vote now. Hard to say where I acquired my politically oriented genes. In any event, one of the less than 10 books of a pseudo-political nature that we had on our bookshelf growing up was a coffee table-type book on the JFK assassination. (Don't ask. I don't know.) A very youthful Teddy (31 years old at the time) was featured prominently in a number of the photos. Dad also subscribed to "US News and World Report", which I am pretty sure is still in circulation, but was one of 3 weekly magazines that were widely read even by non-news junkies back in those days when dinosaurs roamed the earth. One of the first pictures I remember seeing back when my political appetite was beginning to be whetted was a picture of Senator Ted Kennedy with the rest of his family at a candlelight memorial vigil for his other fallen brother, Robert F. Kennedy.

And from that point on, Senator Ted Kennedy loomed large on the political landscape, even though the issues on which I agreed with him were few and miniscule.

It is no exaggeration when Kennedy is referenced as the "Last Lion" of the Senate, much as I hate to admit it and wish a conservative could hold a similar title. Kennedy simply was a legislative and political giant, with a name that contained the historical resonance of a bygone era. One of the highlights of an early visit back in 2001 that Pam and I made to the U.S. Capitol in Washington, DC was a brief glimpse of Ted Kennedy on the Senate floor. Funny the things you recall...I remember how florid his complexion was and that his back was a little hunched. The latter was probably due to a plane crash he survived back in the late '60's. As to the facial redness...I will kindly spare further comment.

Kennedy was a genuine liberal and made no bones about it. He never pretended to be other than what he was. For this, I respect his memory and wish for more politicians who would be willing to be correspondingly honest and forthright regarding their convictions.

It is sad, but I must do my 2 cents worth to help set the record straight about the mainstream media spin we have endured for the last 1 & 1/2 days on Ted Kennedy's record and outlook. It is understandable that Kennedy's acolytes in both politics and the media are trying to attach the sentimental appeal of his memory to a health care bill that will prove devastating to the nation if it is passed. After all, this was, by Kennedy's own admission, the cause to which he devoted his career.

It is inexcusable, however, when these same people, in reverential tones, counsel kindness and noncensoriousness to us all, while invoking Ted Kennedy's reputation. This is pure and simple falsehood, at best, and disingenuousness at worst.

As Bill Kristol accurately pointed out on "Special Report" last night, no conservative can ever forget the smear campaign that Kennedy led against the illustrious Judge Robert Bork, one of the most powerful legal minds of the 20th century. Here, courtesy of Townhall.com, is the famous clip that ended up destroying Bork's chances of occupying a seat on the Supreme Court, one of the greatest losses in the history of the American judiciary.

Enough has been said about Chappaquiddick and the story is well known. I will not revisit it further.

American politics will never be the same, and even though my sympathies are with the Kennedy family at this time of grief, I cannot pretend that I will miss the vigorously leftist activism of Senator Ted Kennedy. I do, however, desperately wish that we could produce a lion on our side who would fight for the Constitution and its tenets with the same enthusiasm and zest with which Senator Kennedy championed progressive causes.