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Senator
Teddy
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I write this just as it was announced that Senator Edward M.
“Teddy” Kennedy, D-Massachusetts since 1962, has
suffered a potentially serious medical setback, giving cause
anew for reflection upon his family dynasty. Whole libraries
have been written about JFK; far less historical perspective
on his youngest sibling Teddy has been available, perhaps because
his political career, long as it is, is still a work in progress.
At his best, Teddy has been a relentless champion of legislation
aiding the poor and oppressed; at his worst, he has seemed to
suffer the consequences of his fondness for Chivas Regal. But
irrespective of one’s political views, it is impossible
not to admire Teddy’s tenaciousness through his lifetime
of very public tragedies and misfortune. He is truly a survivor.
“Teddy” was born Edward Moore Kennedy on February
22, 1932, the youngest of nine children of Joseph and Rose Fitzgerald
Kennedy. He followed the footsteps of his older three brothers
to Harvard, but was expelled for cheating on a Spanish exam
in 1951. Teddy returned to Harvard following a two-year stint
in the army. After scoring Harvard’s only touchdown against
Yale in 1955, he graduated the following spring and went to
law school.
When JFK vacated his senate seat to assume the presidency, the
Kennedy family persuaded Massachusetts Governor Foster Furcolo
to appoint one of their reliable family friends to hold the
seat until Ted reached the minimum age of eligibility. He successfully
ran for an abbreviated senate term in a special election in
1962, and then for a full term in 1964 and then every six years
thereafter through 2006. During that campaign in 1964, Teddy
barely survived the western Massachusetts crash of a small plane
that left him with two fractured ribs and three broken vertebrae.
The pilot and another passenger were killed.
As a freshmen senator in 1963, Teddy was sitting (at Vice President
Johnson’s pleasure) as senate president pro tempore when
the horrible news from Dallas came over the wire. In 1968, in
the wake of his brother Robert’s assassination, Teddy
received a smattering of sentimental presidential votes from
the Democratic convention delegates. He was clearly on a trajectory
that would eventually land him in the White House, most pundits
agreed.
But in late July of 1969, Teddy shared headlines with the moon-walking
astronaut Neil Armstrong after his Buick strayed from a bridge
on Martha’s Vineyard in the wee hours, killing a young
woman trapped inside as well as his chances of ever becoming
president. Nonetheless, in response to Jimmy Carter’s
well-intentioned but ineffective presidency, Democratic party
insiders cajoled Teddy into mounting an ill-fated 1980 challenge
to Carter for his party’s presidential nomination. Though
it was his last attempt at higher office, Teddy’s influence
in Washington has grown over the intervening decades…in
proportion, one could say, to his expanding waistline.
Democratic presidential candidates value Teddy’s endorsement
above all others. In this 2008 presidential election, Teddy
shocked many observers by abandoning his long friendship with
the Clintons and instead endorsing Barack Obama. He has appeared
with the Illinois senator at numerous campaign stops, including
a visit to south Texas, in which he attempted to sing in Spanish
to an assembled throng of Mexican-Americans…demonstrating,
perhaps, why he had to cheat on that test back at Harvard.
Speaking of this most unusual campaign of 2008....
There has never been such a close race among candidates of either
party during primary season. If one were to reduce the running
delegate tally to an equivalent football score, Barack Obama
would be ahead of Hillary Clinton by roughly 18 to 17 with a
few minutes left in the game…no wonder she won’t
quit just yet. And yet both candidates have been bashing each
other so hard and for so long that the eventual Democratic nominee
will surely carry debilitating battle scars and bruises into
the autumn showdown with the presumptive Republican nominee
Senator John McCain. A year ago, the Democrats’ path to
regaining the White House seemed relatively smooth and obstacle-free.
But with all this damage from the primary wars, the outcome
of the general election seems far less certain.
As one who finds politics fascinating, I think it is useful
to search history for parallels and precedents in races of yore,
campaigns similarly fought. As I’ve said, this year’s
primary season is unique among election cycles in recent history.
But it does have an eerily similar antecedent, a race so strikingly
similar to this year’s that I’m frankly surprised
that no one has yet to mention it.
I refer, of course, to the 1979 Daytona 500.
As they entered the final two-and-a-half mile lap in NASCAR’s
most prestigious race that February, drivers Donnie Allison
and Cale Yarborough were locked in a fierce duel for first place
a full mile ahead of their nearest challenger. Their two cars
repeatedly bashed sidelong into each other, “tradin’
paint” until they finally crashed into the outside wall
together at Daytona Raceway’s Turn Three. As the two furious
drivers engaged in a fistfight beside their wrecked cars, Richard
Petty came from half a lap back to take the checkered flag.
Perhaps Senator McCain should consider painting Petty’s
famous #43 on the side of his “Straight Talk Express”
campaign bus for good luck.
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
Closer to home, meanwhile, a few Massachusetts budgetary items
have arisen for public discussion—a proposal to raise
the cigarette tax by a full dollar (to $2.51 per pack) and another
to tax the endowments of wealthy private colleges. Both reflect
the well-established instinct among politicians to close budget
gaps by either raising taxation on the rich, or increasing the
existing levies on activities perceived as sinful. We will post
a discussion of these and other political issues of interest
every week beginning in June in HomeStyle’s online edition
at www.berkshirehomestyle.com. ¶
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