When Massachusetts public opinion drifted left, Ted Kennedy followed--on the Vietnam War, taxes, abortion, and a whole host of issues. Where Ted Kennedy walked, Democrats followed. What ensured Ted Kennedy's political longevity in Massachusetts undermined the Democrats' ambitions as a national party. Read my piece @ City Journal the Democratic Party's long, strange trip tagging along with Ted Kennedy.
Unfortunate they didn't follow him when he drove, as well.
From another one of your TK commentaries:
"Here in Rome, Ted Kennedy is nobody," a Vatican official bluntly told Time. "He's a legend with his own constituency. If he had influence in the past, it was only with the Archdiocese of Boston, and that eventually disappeared too."
This about sums up how a local pol, held dear and blindly followed by a hometown constituency, may not be such hot potatoes outside of they own realm of influence but remains god-like in his own backyard. So it’s not a good thing necessarily when the nation is subjected to these tin pot rulers when they reach the national level and wield inordinate power over all of the country.
I mean, who else but the mind-numbed voters of Massachusetts would continue to revere Kennedy and blindly pull the lever for him time and time again because of some family legacy? He wielded great national power because folks here relinquished to him great local power. Other political reprobates could fall into the same category – Pelosi, Reid, Frank, Rangel, Dodd…the list goes on.
From another somewhat related offering, it was written in the linked article:
“Shamefully, we now learn that Saddam’s torture chambers reopened under new management—U.S. management”
Maybe I’m missing something here but I think Saddam’s use of wood chippers to dispose of prisoners or days of brutal electric shock leading to eventual death or live dismemberment of his contrived foes might be slightly more radical than what happened in the same place at a different time. Stripping, human pyramids and barking dogs don’t seem to reach the same levels in terms of “torture”.
See, it can be done. Even Bulgaria is getting it.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125228134375289591.html
