The Senescent Man

I have to write really fast here, so forgive my mistakes.  I have to be somewhere, and frankly the topic doesn’t deserve too much of one’s time, but it is a milestone for which to take notice.  The death of Senator Ted Kennedy has raised a plethora of interesting political issues:

For one, what the affect will be on the health bill which Democrats now threaten to name the Kennedy bill in honor of the man that pursued socialist medicine and other overtly socialized causes for years.  Somehow the naming of this turkey as the “Kennedy” bill is going to tame all the town hallers and make us all go into a slumber of good feeling.  What it will do is encourage some unthinking voters to favor it for reasons of nostalgia.  Imagine finding yourself in front of one of those death committees at some godforsaken nursing home in a few years and learning that the government bureaucrats have decided your number was up, and just because you were a fan of the Kennedy clan, and made the grave error of deciding to support his stupid socialized medicine bill to give honor to the name?!

And then what about all the sleazy things Ted was well known for over the years.  Not to speak ill of the dead, but his cheating in college, the unnecessary death of Mary-Jo Kopechne at Chappaquiddick, the defending of alleged rapist and relative Will Kennedy Smith with whom he and son Patrick (yes, RI’s own) hung out together in Florida years ago.

Several good books were written about Chappaquiddick, and all of them pretty much condemned Ted’s terrible, immature and self centered behavior designed extemporaneously to save his own hide and preserve his political career.

Okay, so the Senate is a lady’s and gentleman’s club, and a lot of conservative colleagues respected Ted as he got older and as he finally matured when he reached his 70’s.  Why, then, why must we have socialized medicine shoved down our throats simply because the man was transfixed with the idea and the majority of his fellow Democrats wish to honor him?  Honor him with a trophy or something.  Give him a great send off, but please name this bill after him, and use that to get it passed when it should be deep sixed.

Sure, he was the brother of John F. Kennedy, and even conservatives thought well of anti-communist, tax reducing JFK (except perhaps for his own personal exploits), but it started when brother Robert needed a way to distinguish himself from Texas Democrat LBJ who took over after John’s assassination.  Robert saw that in the late 60’s he could carve out a constituency in a run for the presidency in the leftism that became popular and then prevalent at the time.  Ted merely followed Robert’s designed strategy.  Perhaps he could have been more moderate a Democrat, and how that would have changed history.  Too bad he hadn’t an idea of his own in this regard, except to move deliberately and inexorably leftward.  Too bad.  RIP.

Labels: Age of Obama

The debate is currently raging over health care. Barak is pushing it as hard as he can; for the most part the Senate and House are running away from it; and Secretary Seblius is parsing it. One point of contention are the so-called "death panels,"--which are to counsel people to end their treatment (and thus their lives) perhaps earlier than justified. Some say this provision is in the bill, some say it isn't. Some say it was in the bill but now isn't, some say it was never in the bill. Some say it's fear-mongering lies on the part of one side, some say it's the ultimate price for a government run systems.

Truth be told, I haven’t time to access and read the bill, and so don't know which side is telling the truth. Concerning any type of public option for health insurance, I’ll follow my normal knee-jerk reaction: Leahy and Shumer are for it, so I'm against it.

But why have the rumors (or lies) and distortions and the extreme interest in the death panel provision gone this far? It is simply that it is believable, based on Barak's own words in that sound bite played so often. You know the one where he tells the woman with a 100 old mother who was faced with the decision of whether to have an operation. What was it Barak said? "Maybe it would have been better for her to take a pain pill." Something like that. And I hope I'm getting the context correct; always difficult to tell from sound bites.

This is the same man who said determining when life began was "above my pay grade." It appears that knowing when a life should be ended is NOT above his pay grade. If he is willing for a senior citizen to take a pill to ease suffering as an earlier than necessary death comes on, it is believable that the government would push the elderly toward choosing death.

The source of the death panel rumors? Barak himself.