Ted Kennedy Dies

Uncle say Morgan VERY FUNNY with Gong Sow, but I am being too unliking of spicey Chinese foods.
 
statler said:
...if the remaining term is <1 year, than it will just be a permanent appointment until the general election, if >1 year, temporary appointment until special election.
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I like that idea best, and as I understand it, that was basically Kennedy's wish. An appointment by the governor to put someone in his seat, who would vote in favor of healthcare. A dying man's last wish. Then, come the general election, this appointment would not be allowed to run, and a 'regular' election is held.

This really is a tragic event for Massachusetts, and the country as a whole, regardless of ideology. I was appalled at school, some of my less-informed, conservative-minded peers making snide remarks about how "he's finally gone" and commenting that "maybe this will put an end to the liberal corruption in Congress." Zero respect for one of the most influential Senators in American history. It was disturbing, to say the least.

I believe the Kennedy family is a source of pride for Massachusetts, and we've just lost the last of a generation. Perhaps the next few generations of Kennedys will be such great catalysts of change.

Or maybe I'm just biased because I share the same name.

Either way, rest in peace Senator.
 
What will be the first public building named after the late senator?
 
http://www.forbes.com/2009/08/27/te...eagan-opinions-columnists-peter-robinson.html



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Man Friday
Ted Kennedy's Soviet Gambit
Peter Robinson, 08.28.09, 12:01 AM ET

Picking his way through the Soviet archives that Boris Yeltsin had just thrown open, in 1991 Tim Sebastian, a reporter for the London Times, came across an arresting memorandum. Composed in 1983 by Victor Chebrikov, the top man at the KGB, the memorandum was addressed to Yuri Andropov, the top man in the entire USSR. The subject: Sen. Edward Kennedy.


"On 9-10 May of this year," the May 14 memorandum explained, "Sen. Edward Kennedy's close friend and trusted confidant [John] Tunney was in Moscow." (Tunney was Kennedy's law school roommate and a former Democratic senator from California.) "The senator charged Tunney to convey the following message, through confidential contacts, to the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, Y. Andropov."


Kennedy's message was simple. He proposed an unabashed quid pro quo. Kennedy would lend Andropov a hand in dealing with President Reagan. In return, the Soviet leader would lend the Democratic Party a hand in challenging Reagan in the 1984 presidential election. "The only real potential threats to Reagan are problems of war and peace and Soviet-American relations," the memorandum stated. "These issues, according to the senator, will without a doubt become the most important of the election campaign."


Kennedy made Andropov a couple of specific offers.
First he offered to visit Moscow. "The main purpose of the meeting, according to the senator, would be to arm Soviet officials with explanations regarding problems of nuclear disarmament so they may be better prepared and more convincing during appearances in the USA." Kennedy would help the Soviets deal with Reagan by telling them how to brush up their propaganda.


Then he offered to make it possible for Andropov to sit down for a few interviews on American television. "A direct appeal ... to the American people will, without a doubt, attract a great deal of attention and interest in the country. ... If the proposal is recognized as worthy, then Kennedy and his friends will bring about suitable steps to have representatives of the largest television companies in the USA contact Y.V. Andropov for an invitation to Moscow for the interviews. ... The senator underlined the importance that this initiative should be seen as coming from the American side."


Kennedy would make certain the networks gave Andropov air time--and that they rigged the arrangement to look like honest journalism.
Kennedy's motives? "Like other rational people," the memorandum explained, "[Kennedy] is very troubled by the current state of Soviet-American relations." But that high-minded concern represented only one of Kennedy's motives.



"Tunney remarked that the senator wants to run for president in 1988," the memorandum continued. "Kennedy does not discount that during the 1984 campaign, the Democratic Party may officially turn to him to lead the fight against the Republicans and elect their candidate president."
Kennedy proved eager to deal with Andropov--the leader of the Soviet Union, a former director of the KGB and a principal mover in both the crushing of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution and the suppression of the 1968 Prague Spring--at least in part to advance his own political prospects.
In 1992, Tim Sebastian published a story about the memorandum in the London Times. Here in the U.S., Sebastian's story received no attention. In his 2006 book, The Crusader: Ronald Reagan and the Fall of Communism, historian Paul Kengor reprinted the memorandum in full. "The media," Kengor says, "ignored the revelation."


"The document," Kengor continues, "has stood the test of time. I scrutinized it more carefully than anything I've ever dealt with as a scholar. I showed the document to numerous authorities who deal with Soviet archival material. No one has debunked the memorandum or shown it to be a forgery. Kennedy's office did not deny it."


Why bring all this up now? No evidence exists that Andropov ever acted on the memorandum--within eight months, the Soviet leader would be dead--and now that Kennedy himself has died even many of the former senator's opponents find themselves grieving. Yet precisely because Kennedy represented such a commanding figure--perhaps the most compelling liberal of our day--we need to consider his record in full.
Doing so, it turns out, requires pondering a document in the archives of the politburo.


When President Reagan chose to confront the Soviet Union, calling it the evil empire that it was, Sen. Edward Kennedy chose to offer aid and comfort to General Secretary Andropov. On the Cold War, the greatest issue of his lifetime, Kennedy got it wrong.


Peter Robinson, a research fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University and a former White House speechwriter, writes a weekly column for Forbes.
 
Wow. Forbes was quick. The body is still above ground. Can't wait for their scathing investigation of the Chappaquiddick incident.
 
JohnAKeith said:
What will be the first public building named after the late senator?
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Boston.com
Lawmaker proposes adding Kennedy's name to Logan International Airport
September 2, 2009 01:54 PM
By Matt Viser, Globe Staff

A Massachusetts lawmaker is proposing naming Logan International Airport after Senator Edward M. Kennedy, in what is likely to be one of a series of proposals to memorialize the senator's nearly half-century of legislative accomplishments.

Representative Lori Ehrlich, a Marblehead Democrat, filed legislation today that would name the airport Logan-Kennedy International Airport.

?An outpouring of local appreciation was accompanied by tributes from several luminaries from around the nation and the world,? Ehrlich wrote in a letter to lawmakers, asking them to sign onto her legislation. ?We now have an opportunity to memorialize Senator Kennedy and keep his legacy alive.?

"It's an interesting idea that has merit," said Matthew Brelis, a spokesman for Massport, which operates the airport.

Mayor Thomas M. Menino proposed last week that a pilot school that trains children to get into the health care field be renamed after Kennedy.

The airport would continue to bear the name of Major General Edward Lawrence Logan, who served in the Massachusetts House and Senate and also fought in the Spanish-American War.

?Their names and distinguished careers would serve as a beacon to welcome millions of travelers who fly into our state from lands near and far,? Ehrlich wrote. ?I believe this would be a fitting way to remember the significant contributions [Kennedy] made to our state and country.?

?It?s a tribute and honor to Ted Kennedy?s decades of public service,? Ehrlich said today in an interview, coincidentally, from Logan as she waited with her daughter to catch a flight to Cleveland. ?Ted Kennedy made himself a welcoming light and extended a welcome to those who traveled here. It?s a symbolic gesture, but one I feel that he deserves.?

?We all know he loved to sail and he loved the water, but ? there?s something central and profound about the image of the air ? daring, dreaming, taking flight,? she added.

The airport was first known as the Boston Airport, which was changed in 1944 to the Commonwealth Airport. In 1956, the Legislature changed the name to Logan International Airport (though Major General Logan never flew in an airplane).

Matt Viser can be reached at maviser@globe.com.
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Please. Weren't the Greenway and the federal tower in Government Center enough?
 
In all honesty, perhaps the new convention center. Only because it would piss off Mumbles.
 
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