Print article -

Email article link to friend(s) -

Facebook -

That Ted Kennedy is a Democrat is irrelevant. That Ted Kennedy is a liberal doesn't matter, either. The fact that Ted Kennedy is a buffoon should be of concern to all of Americans. The United States, collectively, should be embarrassed to have Ted Kennedy serving in the Senate.

So many liberals are concerned about America's image abroad. They coddle the corrupt United Nations because it matters to them how America is perceived.

If anyone outside the United States watched Kennedy's performance during the confirmation hearings for Judge Samuel Alito, they would come away with only one impression of the state of American politics. The circus has come to town. The only thing missing from Kennedy's wardrobe was a red rubber nose and oversized shoes.

Do the voters of Massachusetts realize that Ted Kennedy is regarded as a court jester in the other 49 states? What does that say about residents of Massachusetts and their blind obedience to a political antique who rode his dead brothers' coattails to the national spotlight four decades ago? The gene pool dried up by the time Joseph and Rose Kennedy had young Teddy.

I propose a Constitutional amendment prohibiting Massachusetts from voting in national elections until the good folks of the Bay State stop electing the likes of Ted Kennedy and John Forbes Kerry to the Senate.

When it comes to politics, Republicans are good at policing their own. Tom Delay was the most powerful member of the House of Representatives a year ago. Delay hasn't been convicted of any crime and his indictment by a Democratic prosecutor in Texas is politically motivated. But DeLay had become damaged goods for the party. He was a lightning rod for the left-wing attack dogs. Republicans took care of their problem. Delay is no longer in a position of authority and his days in Congress are numbered.

Liberals refuse to deal with embarrassments like Ted Kennedy or Dick Durban or Barbara Boxer. Kennedy, the captain of the Chappaquiddick Swim Team, has been in the Senate for 44 years. Durban compared American soldiers fighting in Iraq to "Nazis." Boxer is just plain batty.

By the time the Alito hearings were done, all Kennedy could show his radical left puppet masters was the ability to bring Alito's wife, Martha-Ann, to tears with absurd accusations that Judge Alito was a bigot because he joined a conservative college club at Princeton that wouldn’t admit women and minorities.

By the way, Alito will be confirmed by the Senate with at least 60 votes.

Imagine if the tables had been reversed. How would Ted Kennedy like to answer questions about his past, specifically, the suspicious and untimely death of Mary Jo Kopechne?

For those not old enough to remember, Mary Jo Kopechne was a 28-year-old woman that a married Ted Kennedy was driving home after a party on Martha's Vineyard. Kennedy was one of five married men at the party, which was also attended by six young single women. On July 18, 1969, Kennedy, driving on an expired driver's license, drove his car off a narrow wooden bridge into a pond on the tiny island of Chappaquiddick, adjacent to Martha's Vineyard. The car sank in eight-feet of water, landing on its roof. Kennedy saved himself, walked back to the cottage where the party was taking place and told a couple of his buddies about the crash.

Kennedy didn't report the accident to police until the next day when Kopechne's body was fished out of the water. Kennedy was never charged in Kopechne's death — this was Massachusetts after all — but Kennedy's presidential ambitions drowned with Kopechne. He did plead guilty to leaving the scene of an accident and was given a two-month suspended sentence and a year's probation.

Here's a man with a history of alcoholism who caused the death of a woman attempting to smear the good name of a judge because Alito joined a college club the liberals don't approve. Only in America.

Led by Kennedy, Senate Democrats made fools of themselves during the Alito hearings. The site of a bunch of liberal millionaires attempting to tarnish the stellar reputation of a man who grew up in a working class Italian neighborhood in Newark, N.J., speaks volume about how disconnected Democrats have become from the country.

This is not the party of the working man, the immigrant and the churchgoer. This is the party of Ivy League snobs, of West Coast loons, the radical left and the abortion-on-demand lobby. This is a party that couldn't find the American heartland if you gave them a map and pointed them in the right direction. It's a party led by cynics grasping at straws as they see their grip on political power slip away.

If Democrats want to know why they're becoming the permanent minority party, look no further than the rogue's gallery they have for leaders: Ted Kennedy, Hillary Clinton, Howard Dean, John Forbes Kerry, Dick Durbin, Barbara Boxer, Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi and Joe Biden.

Ted Kennedy, who turns 74 in February, joined the Senate in 1962. He's running for re-election in November and will probably retain his Senate seat until he's 80. Someday there will be no Ted Kennedy. And the world will be a better place.

E-mail Tony Phyrillas at tphyrillas@pottsmerc.com

Tony Phyrillas
http://tonyphyrillas.blogspot.com (Columnist)