“Gifted and Flawed Legislator, 77, From a Storied Family”

So reads the NY Times headline this morning.

He was the first presidential candidate that I heard speak live when he came to Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine, in 1980.

That’s a good headline from the NY Times.  Rest in peace.

I had the pleasure of meeting him once when we sat next to one another at a dinner party. He was incredibly friendly, knowledgeable and polite. I am glad that I had the chance to thank him. The less fortunate in our society have lost one of their greatest champions. I feel incredibly saddened to think that he isn’t around to inspire and encourage us anymore. May God grant him eternal peace and I hope he, at long last, is surrounded with his family who have gone before.

Inappropriate comment deleted by elf.

I found myself in philosophical disagreement on a number of issues, with Senator Kennedy. 
Having acknowledged that, I have prayed for his peace and courage as he has waited on the progress of the brain cancer, and I pray now for his rest, and the peace and comfort of the Spirit for his family, as they grieve his loss. 
“Each man’s death diminishes me. . .”

Thanks elves.

I am deeply sorry about Ted Kennedy’s death.  Although he certainly did not “inspire and encourage” me, as he did some others, his death is saddening to me, not to mention his family and friends.  God’s peace to them and him.

Pax vobiscum, Senator.

I was in complete philosophical and political difference with him, and pray for his rest. As the monks say: now he knows more theology than all of us.  May it carry him to heaven.

When I was assigned to Otis AFB, I remember seeing him and his brothers in Hyannis, and they were mingling with common folks in town.  I was impressed, and I never lost respect for any member of the family.  Rest in peace, Ted!

Kendall’s advice to “read it all” above is good advice.  The article, while overwhelming in it complimentarianism for Sen. Kennedy’s legislative accomplishments, does not shy away from his character problems throughout his life.  I have said prayers for him and for his family.  But I think I have to stand with his first opponent for the Senate seat he held so long and ask, if his name had just been Edward Moore, would he be having the deification he is receiving today.

#10, Perhaps if his name had been Edward Moore he might not have been elected in the first place.  BUT, I think if his name was Edward Moore and he had accomplished the things he did in his career for the betterment of American society (and notably championed the “least of these” among us) I think we’d still be honoring him.

#11, you want to give adulation for his legislative achievements, many of which were politically motivated, given the party with which he was associated.  But the character issues have been ignored for all of his political life.  I could not ignore them in his life and I cannot ignore them in his death.  My point is that many of his accomplishments were due to his longevity in the Senate, to which he kept being re-elected by the MA voters, who were not voting for Edward Moore, but for a dynastic family, of which he was the last scion, and which voting required overlooking and ignoring his unbelievable character flaws.

As I said, I have prayed for comfort for the grief and loss of his family and for his soul.  But I cannot give him the unbridled adulation so many are giving him now.

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Comment deleted by elf.

RE: “BUT, I think if his name was Edward Moore and he had accomplished the things he did in his career for the betterment of American society (and notably championed the “least of these” among us) I think we’d still be honoring him.”

Despite the things he did I am honoring him; perhaps liberals are honoring him for his record, but not I.  Were his name Edward Moore and had he done none of the things Kennedy did, I would still honor him, as well as George Bush and Ronald Reagan and Nancy Pelosi upon their deaths. 

Really.

From a conservative viewpoint he had a ghastly record, but that does not matter.  His record is pointless, he is dead now and his family and friends very sad.

Peace to Edward Kennedy’s soul, for his being a human being made in the image of God, and no matter his actions, either pro or con depending on what political philosophy is looking at them.  Peace to his family and friends, who are grieving.

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Let’s remember the camp song:  “And they’ll know we are Christians by our love.”

Nick Gillespie at Reason swings a few brickbats at Kennedy but also lays some love on him for a couple of uncharacteristically libertarian moves he made:

There is, buried deep within Kennedy’s legislative legacy, a different set of policies worth exhuming and examining, precisely because they were truly a break with the normal way of doing business in Washington. During the 1970s, Kennedy was instrumental in deregulating the interstate trucking industry and airline ticket prices, two innovations that have vastly improved the quality of life in America even as—or more precisely, because—they pushed power out of D.C. and into the pocketbooks of everyday Americans. We are incalculably richer and better off because something like actual prices replaced regulatory fiat in trucking and flying. Because they do not fit the Ted Kennedy narrative preferred by his admirers and detractors alike, these accomplishments rarely get mentioned in stories about the late senator. But they are exactly the sort of legislation that we should be celebrating in his honor, and using as a model in today’s debates about health care, education, and virtually every aspect of government action.

May God have mercy on his soul.

Tonight on McNeil-Lehrer, a third grader somewhere in MA was in a short piece, and talking about how “Mr. Kennedy” came to her school twice a month or so, to read with her, and specifically with her.  Apparently, she benefited from the special reading assistance.
I pretty much despised Senator Kennedy’s political philosophies, and a lot of his actions.  I had some real questions about his personal life as well. 
But I am forced to acknowledge that he never said a word on the networks about the little third grader he helped to read, never tried to use her to score a single political point.  If he didn’t do a single other thing in his entire lifetime, it seems to me we have to forgive a lot to a person who will go into an elementary school, sit down on a little chair, and try to help a little girl figure out how to read. 
Rest in peace, Senator Kennedy.