Teddy

 I'm going to miss the old galloot.

I'm enjoying the NYT obit, which describes Ted Kennedy as flawed, but gifted. A friend of mine was a staffer for him in the 1980s. He said that he was brilliant before 11am. After that, he was loaded.

He was a complicated person. While his personal life was a mess, he had excellent political instincts and experience in DC. He cared about the issues that I care about -- healthcare, education, housing. I'll always admire the Kennedy clan for their commitment to children with special needs.

Comments

[dave.s.]

It's gotta be dreadful for Chris Dodd that this Michael Kelly article about Kennedy is now back in play: http://men.style.com/gq/features/landing?id=content_5585

[bj]

I prefer this piece by Kelly:

http://www.jewishworldreview.com/michael/kelly070600.asp

"G-D BLESS OUR UNIRONIC NATION. We are, this birthday week, still earnest after all these years. Nothing so marks America, and Americans, as the quality of unironic earnestness, and for nothing else are we so mocked. Must we be so serious? Why, yes."

and

"France is the exemplary ironic nation. France has been ironic for nearly the entire modern age, which is why it has been impotent for nearly the entire modern age. No nation provides so clear an illustration of the dangers of irony as France: You sit in a cafe long enough, wearing black and muttering ironic observations on the passing scene, and one day the passing scene is the German army, again. Isn't that ironic?"

I miss Kelly's voice, even though I disagreed with him most of the time. Unlike Krauthammer, he had a sense of humor.