Political dynasties shift in election-year tremor
After the November election, there will not be a Kennedy in Congress for the first time in almost half a century because Representative Patrick Kennedy, the son of the late Senator Edward Kennedy, has decided to retire from his Rhode Island seat.
“My life is taking a new direction and I will not be a candidate for re-election this year,” Patrick Kennedy said in a video announcing his decision nearly six months after his father, the “Liberal Lion” of the Senate, died.
Of course there is still time for another Kennedy to step forward and declare intentions to run for office, but we haven’t heard any whispers.
On the other hand, Ben Quayle, 33, the son of former vice president Dan Quayle, has thrown the gauntlet down and plans to run for the Arizona congressional seat of retiring Republican John Shadegg.
“The big news is my son, Ben Quayle, today filed his papers for congressman of the third Congressional district here in Arizona,” Dan Quayle announced on Fox News. “It’s the next generation of leadership. The Republican Party’s got to move on.”
And while no one from the Bush family tree has announced running for office at the moment, there are a couple of branches being watched as possible contenders for national election down the road.
Mindboggling in Massachusetts
The Republicans are coming, the Republicans are coming… to Massachusetts.
The Senate seat comfortably held by Edward Kennedy for nearly half a century has gone to Republican Scott Brown.
We can only imagine what the late “Liberal Lion” of the Senate would have thought if he were still alive.
Democrats politely congratulated Brown, who defeated Democrat Martha Coakley, knowing full well that the dynamics have changed. Democrats no longer have a 60-vote filibuster-proof Senate — and that can affect their plans for healthcare reform.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid made clear he wanted to make sure procedure was followed to seat Brown. “We welcome Scott Brown to the Senate and will move to seat him as soon as the proper paperwork has been received.”
(We’re not implying anything but anyone who has worked in Washington knows that paperwork can mysteriously arrive or not as convenient).
Brown made clear he is in a rush to take his place among the 100 senators in Washington. “I’m ready to go to Washington without delay,” he said in his victory speech.
Congratulations to you Scott Brown. I sure am happy that we finally got a republican voted in and to overturn a democrat run state just goes to show how screwed up things are. Evidently the democrats wanted a more open door policy to have voted a republican in to office. Thanks to all the Democrats that seen it necessary to vote this way. It goes beyond political bound when it comes to the issues that we are having to address in this country. Our politicians should do as the people of Massachusetts did in voting for what is really important to the people of this great nation. These people have shown that they will vote for what is best for our nation and not within political bounds. All you people are true US patriots. Thanks again for voting to improve our nation through more open door policies.
Kirk follows in Kennedy’s footsteps on healthcare, without the roar
If Ted Kennedy were alive, he would have been proud.
He also would have likely been counting votes.
And even raising his thunderous voice.
On Capitol Hill on Tuesday, Kennedy’s temporary replacement in the U.S. Senate echoed the fallen lawmaker’s call for Democrats and Republicans to work together and finally overhaul the U.S. healthcare system.
In his first Senate speech since being sworn in last month, Paul Kirk said: “Of all the issues on which he led the Senate and our nation, the one Ted Kennedy called the cause of his life was the battle for affordable, quality health care.”
“After decades of falling short of the mark … (it) is at long last within reach,” said Kirk, who was appointed by the Massachusetts governor to fill Kennedy’s seat until a successor can be elected in a special election in January. Kennedy died of brain cancer in August.
During nearly a half century in the Senate, Kennedy was known as the “Liberal Lion” who roared in pushing legislation to help the needy.
No deal.
Obama has a supermajority. He can do as he pleases. He doesn’t need bipartisanship or republican support.
The real issue here is that his reforms are a pipe dream. Even if he could pass it, he can’t impliment it. Even if he could impliment it, he can’t finance it.
These reforms have the stink of failure on them. Obama knows it, and now he is trying to figure out how to wipe some of the stink off onto the republicans.
Bipartisanship would be just what Obama would want. That way if (or when) his reforms fail, the Democrats will not take all of the blame for bad policy. After all, the Republicans supported the policy too, right?
But the republicans are wise to it. And they have no intention of playing patsy for Obamacare.
Which leaves Obama with two options. Stride boldly forward and risk his re-election on bad healthcare policy. Or sit back, and continue the uncomfortable silence which is starting to worry his Obamafans.
Kennedy successor joins Senate, takes up health reform battle
Former Democratic Party Chairman Paul Kirk has a few months in his new job to help accomplish what his friend, the late Senator Edward Kennedy, devoted much of his life to: Trying to provide affordable healthcare to all Americans.
Kirk was sworn in on Friday to take the Senate seat held for 47 years by Kennedy, his party’s liberal lion and leading advocate for healthcare reform.
The ascension of Kirk again gives Democrats, provided they stick together, the 60 votes needed in the 100-member Senate to clear Republican procedural roadblocks.
This could be critical in a pending Senate floor fight over efforts to expand healthcare, which Kennedy had called “the cause of my life.”
Kirk was sworn in a day after Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick named him as Kennedy’s temporary successor until voters elect a new senator in January.
Kirk took the oath just hours after a judge in Massachusetts rejected a request by Republicans for an injunction to prevent him from taking office.
Kirk was administered the oath in the Senate by Vice President Joe Biden.
getplaning. Really. You have no idea what you are talking about. Nice try. I know you will keep trying. I know all the headlines from the from ABC and Wall Street Journal. Also, I know you hold tight to the “generalizations” the present.
It was by far the largest march in DC, ever. Up to 2,000,000 people. But even if it was a mere 750,000 then that is quite contrary to those news media outlets that insisted on a few people would show up.
It doesn’t matter what you “think”, the truth is the people of this nation are PO’d at what is going on and time will prove me right. Likely at the next elections. The first start in Nov 2009 for some governors races.
The First Draft: After the crash, pushing for financial reform
President Barack Obama tries to revive his push for financial reform on Monday.The president heads to Wall Street on the anniversary of the collapse of Lehman Brothers to try to make his case for stricter regulatory oversight of U.S. markets.He’ll also be discussing how he plans to wind up government involvement in the financial sector.The federal government took large stakes in banks and other firms over the past year as it tried to stabilize the economy in the midst of recession and financial collapse.Obama’s financial reform effort has hit resistance in Congress, as has his bid for an overhaul of the U.S. healthcare system.A new poll in The Washington Post on Monday showed public opposition to Obama’s healthcare reform is high but could ease a little if the president dropped his bid for a government-run public health plan to compete with private insurers.Obama argues a public plan is needed to ensure private insurers face enough competition to force them to control costs.The late Senator Edward Kennedy’s memoir “True Compass” is out on Monday and his sons, Representative Patrick Kennedy and Ted Kennedy Jr., spoke with the morning shows about their father and his book.Patrick Kennedy recalled the first time he became aware of the constant threats his father faced.“On the campaign trail in 1980, I remember one time I was with my dad and someone took one of the (campaign) buttons … They took the pin out and they jammed his hand when he came by,” Kennedy said.”I remember the Secret Service after the event were wondering whether he’d gotten poisoned because they didn’t know it was a button he’d gotten stuck with. It was the first time that I remember ever feeling that this was something that was a daily part of his life that he had to worry about.”Patrick Kennedy said the book, completed over the past year as his father struggled with the cancer that killed him, was a revelation to him.”Everybody knows my dad wasn’t the most sentimental, emotive guy,” he said. “For us this was an enormous revelation, in a sense, because this book really was one where he talked about his feelings and emotions at various points in his life.”For more Reuters political news, click here.Photo credit: Reuters/Larry Downing (Obama meets with economic team in March); Reuters/Kevin Lamarque (People line up to sign condolence book at Kennedy’s Senate office after his death in August)
After death, Kennedy’s words still ring in healthcare debate
Two weeks after his death, Senator Edward Kennedy’s words on healthcare rang out before a joint session of Congress when President Barack Obama quoted from a letter that he received from the liberal Democrat posthumously.
Obama in seeking to turn public opinion his way in a primetime speech to Congress referred to Kennedy’s letter before an audience that included the late senator’s widow, Vicki, and two sons. The White House released it publicly after the president’s address.
The letter was written in May shortly after Kennedy was told that the brain cancer he was battling was terminal. The senator called healthcare reform “the cause of my life” and said he was optimistic that it would be achieved.
“When I thought of all the years, all the battles, and all the memories of my long public life, I felt confident in these closing days that while I will not be there when it happens, you will be the President who at long last signs into law the health care reform that is the great unfinished business of our society,” Kennedy wrote to Obama.
The senator also made a comparison to when his brother, John F. Kennedy, was president.
“I entered public life with a young President who inspired a generation and the world,” Kennedy wrote. “It gives me great hope that as I leave, another young President inspires another generation and once more on America’s behalf inspires the entire world.”
Eric h the prospect of a form of socialist state was always the reality,many people anticipate this prospect,I sold all my portfolio in 2007 when the market 12500,i followed Soros in investing in currency when the dollar goes down which is the trend i make money. but also a trend that i am hearing in conversations with people that i know that they are tempted to break with life long practices and possibly utilize the entitlement mentality that is now going to increase. Example a friend of mine she hates her job, she is 57 and knows that in the past if she packed in her job she would not find another one at her age and she needs the job for her health insurance.But what she is now saying is that she has the resorces to manage out of work and if she can get free health care because is unemployed for the 8 remaining years till she is 65,so this is going happen Eric h it could chance the dynamic of the country.
Democrats seem certain to retain Kennedy’s Senate seat
If history and emotion are any indication, Democrats seem certain to retain Edward Kennedy’s Senate seat, which the Massachusetts liberal held for nearly a half century before succumbing last week to brain cancer.
Political analysts note that Massachusetts has traditionally voted Democratic, including in last year’s U.S. presidential election. The last time Massachusetts elected a Republican to the Senate was 1972 when it gave Edward Brooke a second six-year term.
Analysts also point out that Kennedy’s death created a tidal wave of emotion, one that his party will likely ride to victory in a special election to replace him.
Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick announced on Monday that the special election would be held on Jan. 19 and he also made a plug for one of Kennedy’s final pleas — that state law be changed to allow for the governor to appoint an interim senator until a special election is held.
If the governor is permitted to name a temporary successor to Kennedy, the new senator would become the sixth appointed rather than elected lawmaker in the 100-member Senate.
If Democrats keep Kennedy’s old seat, they would potentially retain the 60 votes needed to clear Republican procedural roadblocks. But the Senate Democratic caucus has already split on a number of issues, including Kennedy’s efforts to provide all Americans health insurance.
Nathan Gonzales, who tracks Senate races for the nonpartisan Rothenberg Political Report, said he expects Democrats to prevail in the special election.
More wonderful ‘journalism.’ What seem to be left out of this repeater, err I mean reporter’s article is the fact that the democrats changed the law in 2004 to prevent a republican governor from naming an interim appointment if Kerry won the election.
Nice that the democrats don’t want to live up to the standards they set for other people, a nice that a so-called journalist seems to think that’s not important to mention.
The Pope blessed Ted Kennedy
As a divorcee who was pro-choice on abortion, the United States’s most prominent Catholic politician was not exactly in the Vatican’s good books.
Yet Pope Benedict XVI blessed the terminally ill Senator Edward Kennedy, according to correspondence made public at his burial in Arlington National Cemetery on Saturday.
Kennedy, whose political career was marred by scandal, asked for the Pope’s prayers in a letter that was handed to the pontiff by President Barack Obama in Rome on July 10.
“I am writing with deep humility to ask that you pray for me as my own health declines. I was diagnosed with brain cancer more than a year ago, and, although I continue treatment, the disease is taking its toll on me. I am 77 years old and preparing for the next passage of life,” Kennedy wrote.
“I know that I have been an imperfect human being, but with the help of my faith, I have tried to right my path.”
In his nearly 50 years in the Senate — Kennedy wrote — he championed the rights of the poor, opposed the death penalty and fought to end war. His commitment to accessible healthcare for all Americans was the political cause of his life, the dying senator wrote to the pontiff.
“I have always tried to be a faithful Catholic, Your Holiness, and though I have fallen short through human failings, I have never failed to believe and respect the fundamental teachings. I continue to pray for God’s blessings on you and our Church and would be most thankful for your prayers for me.”
Sally is right. It is not the place of the Pope to judge; Jesus does that. One wonders if the Pope’s message to Kennedy was not more detailed like, “repent for your promotion of abortion, etc…” Prayers for the sinner are very powerful inducements to the power of the Holy Spirit to help the dying. Many holy biblical characters blessed people. I am sure it meant more than just a little. Maybe the blessing will initiate a process of reconcillation enabling the sinner to be “born again” or accept Christ before the moment of death. Did’t Jesus give us the parable of the prodigal son or the parable of the laborers that were paid the same wage dispite the fact that they started at different times of the day? Maybe Ed gave himself over to the will of God just before he died and maybe we will see good ol’ Ed if we make it to Heaven. Wouldn’t that be great?
Ted Kennedy Jr brings self, others to tears
Senator Edward Kennedy’s son, Ted Kennedy Jr., served up one of the most emotional moments of his father’s funeral on Saturday when he recalled how the late senator stood by him while he struggled after losing his leg to cancer.
Calling his father “my best friend,” Ted Kennedy Jr told of a winter day – a few months after his leg was amputated — when his father urged him to go sledding on their steep driveway.
“And I was trying to get used to my new artificial leg. And the hill was covered with ice and snow. And it wasn’t easy for me to walk. And the hill was very slick. And as I struggled to walk, I slipped and I fell on the ice. And I started to cry and I said, I can’t do this. I said, I’ll never be able to climb up that hill. “And he lifted me up in his strong, gentle arms and said something I will never forget. He said, ‘I know you can do it. There is nothing that you can’t do. We’re going to climb that hill together, even if it takes us all day.’” “Sure enough, he held me around my waist and we slowly made it to the top. And you know, at age 12 losing your leg pretty much seems like the end of the world. But as I climbed on to his back and we flew down the hill that day, I knew he was right. I knew I was going to be OK. ” “You see, my father taught me that even our most profound losses are survivable, and that is — it is what we do with that loss, our ability to transform it into a positive event, that is one of my father’s greatest lessons. ”
“He taught me that nothing is impossible.”
Kennedy’s voice broke as he told the story, and paused to wipe his eyes.
He went on to tell other anecdotes: his father was a Green Bay Packers recruit but he opted to go to law school instead; the elder Kennedy was a Civil War buff and he used to pack the family up into a car or rented camper to visit the great battlefields; and family vacations “left us all injured and exhausted.”
Photo credit: Reuters/Brian Snyder (Ted Kennedy Jr wipes away tears as he speaks at his father’s funeral)
exactly my argument florence thanks!,skim the surface with Teds imperfections (no mention )and demeanour Sarah in the same breath, a true democrat.
Youngest Kennedys remember Ted Kennedy’s causes
In one of the most poignant moments of the funeral service for Ted Kennedy on Saturday, the youngest members of the Kennedy clan offered up prayers for some of the causes dearest to the late senator’s heart.
Max Allen, one of Kennedy’s youngest grandchildren, offered up a prayer:
“For what my grandpa called ‘the cause of his life.’ As he said so often: ‘In every part of this land that every American will have decent quality healthcare as a fundamental right and not a privilege.’”
Other Kennedy children mentioned his work with the poor and to ensure that all people are respected for what they can do.
His niece Kym Smith prayed:
“For my uncle’s stand against violence, hate and war. And his belief that peace can be kept, through the triumph of justice and that truest justice can come only through the works of peace.”
His youngest namesake, Teddy Kennedy III, ended the section of prayers with one referring to his grandfather’s support of President Barack Obama during last year’s presidential campaign:
