My own eulogy to Ted Kennedy

The hagiographic tributes to the "Lion of the Senate" continue to pour in - the latest coming from the left-leaning New Republic which appeared in today's Forum section of the Sunday Sacramento Bee. So, let me simplify things for everyone. You want to remember Ted Kennedy? Here is all you need to know:

1. Chappaquiddick. 'Nuff said on that one.

2. His slanderous lies against Robert Bork when Bork was nominated for the Supreme Court in 1987. Kennedy actually said the following words on the floor of the Senate not 45 minutes after Bork was nominated, and Kennedy paid no price for it:

"Robert Bork's America is a land in which women would be forced into back-alley abortions, blacks would sit at segregated lunch counters, rogue police could break down citizens' doors in midnight raids, schoolchildren could not be taught about evolution, writers and artists could be censored at the whim of the Government, and the doors of the Federal courts would be shut on the fingers of millions of citizens for whom the judiciary is -- and is often the only -- protector of the individual rights that are the heart of our democracy... President Reagan is still our president. But he should not be able to reach out from the muck of Irangate, reach into the muck of Watergate and impose his reactionary vision of the Constitution on the Supreme Court and the next generation of Americans. No justice would be better than this injustice."

3. Kennedy was instrumental in transforming the face of the United States by ensuring the mass immigration of millions of people from third world countries who had and have no business coming here, either because of their political ideologies which are incompatible with our tradition of individual freedom, their dependence upon our welfare system, their refusal to assimilate into our national culture, or because of diseases that they reintroduce into our country. If you think Kennedy was proud of this so-called accomplishment, you wouldn't know it from the speech he gave in favor of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 that caused all this mess:

"First, our cities will not be flooded with a million immigrants annually. Under the proposed bill, the present level of immigration remains substantially the same.... Secondly, the ethnic mix of this country will not be upset.... Contrary to the charges in some quarters, [the bill] will not inundate America with immigrants from any one country or area, or the most populated and deprived nations of Africa and Asia.... In the final analysis, the ethnic pattern of immigration under the proposed measure is not expected to change as sharply as the critics seem to think.... The bill will not flood our cities with immigrants. It will not upset the ethnic mix of our society. It will not relax the standards of admission. It will not cause American workers to lose their jobs."

So how did that work out for us?

4. According to Republican political consultant Marc Nuttle, Ted Kennedy revealed his true colors - both politically and egotistically - during a Senate hearing on January 20, 1995. Kennedy demonstrated a moment of candor in front of no less a luminary than economist Milton Friedman, who was testifying in favor of a constitutional amendment that would require a balanced budget. Kennedy began bellyaching about how such an amendment would prevent government from helping people in need and would restrict the federal government from fairly distributing resources in an equitable manner. To this assertion Friedman responded,

"Senator, socialism hasn't worked in 6,000 years of recorded history. Why won't you give up on it?"

According to Nuttle, who was present to witness it, Kennedy stood up and uttered,

"It hasn't worked in 6,000 years of recorded history because it didn't have me to run it."

Do we really need a #5?

Good Day to You, Sir