Joe Conason: Ted Kennedy wanted the public option

[babylonsister]

:cry: So very nice.

Joe Conason: Ted Kennedy wanted the public option


Ted Kennedy wanted the public option

His list of achievements is epic, but he worked to fix healthcare for 40 years. Let's finish the job in his name

By Joe Conason
Pages 1 2


AP Photo/Susan Walsh

Sen. Edward Kennedy speaks during a news conference on immigration reform, June 5, 2007, on Capitol Hill.


Aug. 28, 2009 | The rise of Edward M. Kennedy to the greatness now so broadly acknowledged with his passing was a process of years and decades, a journey interrupted by family tragedy and personal failure, a story of focus, determination and principle that placed him in the pantheon of America's most influential statesmen.

Kennedy worked hard for what he became. Those qualities that meant so much in the Senate — from his marvelous gift for friendship to his eagle eye for intellectual talent to his strategic parliamentary skills — surely could have served very different purposes than the important causes he adopted as his own. All that passion, charm, exuberance and competitive drive might have been directed toward much smaller things. Or he might have turned away from the harshness of politics, which often placed his own flaws under unforgiving scrutiny, instead sailing his boat and tending the monuments to his fallen brothers John and Robert.

Now much is being said and written about supposed contrasts with those otherKennedys, who are remembered as more pragmatic and less progressive than he. Much is being said and written, too, about how unpromising and aimless he seemed during his youth, when he was ushered so comfortably through Harvard, the Army and into the Senate, and then the prolonged adolescence that brought misconduct, embarrassment and the tragedy at Chappaquiddick.

Yet those redundant observations possess little meaning in assessing a political career of nearly 50 years. Kennedy's life was a continuation of what his older brothers began, and his political character was formed under their tutelage. They were each liberals in and of their time, as was he. Kennedy was privileged and perhaps arrogant, but no more so than the scions of the Bush clan or many another wealthy politician. His ignominious episodes no longer shock in an era when the iniquity of the righteous right-wing seems to be exposed every day.

What matters about Kennedy — and what he would want remembered about him — is what he did in his resolute, enduring effort to better the lives of Americans, and perhaps how he did it. What deserves to be discussed in detail, beyond anecdote and gossip, is that incomparable record of hundreds of legislative acts that improved education, healthcare, consumer protection, environmental preservation, working conditions, national service, government integrity, human rights, racial and sexual equality, and foreign policy.

The sheer scope of Kennedy's work is simply staggering. The beneficiaries of his achievement numbered in the many millions. They were poor, elderly, women, gays, minorities, immigrants, veterans, students, workers, the disabled, the mentally ill and, perhaps above all, children. To catalog the landmark bills that he sponsored and managed into law is a challenge; to enumerate his entire achievement may be virtually impossible.

more...

http://www.salon.com/opinion/conason/2009/08/28/kennedy/

[Cha]

1. Yes, he did..you got that,

Baucus.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x6404749

[babylonsister]

2. Boy, did that make me angry.

:grr: I hope it backfires on his ass. :grr:

[Cha]

3. I guess it's okay for that dino

to take his cues from the karl rove playbook.

[dflprincess]

4. What Senator Kennedy really wanted

was single payer.

[babylonsister]

5. Yes, he did. But he'd go as far as the PO, not what that idiot Baucus

was suggesting...one of our own and the most important voice in the 'gang of six'? WHY?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=6404749&mesg_id=6404749

Look Who’s Lying About Teddy: Baucus Invokes Kennedy to Push Sham “Compromise”