The Senate Loses An Unindicted Murderer

I awoke yesterday to a slate of issues to handle. It could have been a tough morning.

Then I turned on CNBC and my day became brighter as I learned the good news.

Ted Kennedy is dead.

Finally, the unindicted murderer of the Senate is gone. The womanizing, drinking, cheating Senator of some 37 years is gone.

Teddy Kennedy was wholly a creature of his family. If he'd been born elsewhere, or into another family, he'd likely have been unknown.

But, thanks to two well-known older brothers and a wealthy family, Teddy became the last hope after the death of every other male son in the Kennedy family.

On his own, Teddy was known for cheating in law school, womanizing while married to his ex-wife, Joan, thus driving her to drink. Oh, yes, and being responsible for the death of his campaign staffer, Mary Jo Kopechne.

As Charles Krauthammer noted on Fox News last night, even Kennedy's welfare legislation was largely gutted later on by Gingrich's House, with Clinton's signature on the bill.

Ted Kennedy, aside from being born to wealth and social prominence, added very little to society.

A walking- well, hobbling- poster boy for term limits no longer blemishes the US Senate.

Perhaps the best evidence for Kennedy's low regard for democracy and his own constituency was his attempts over the past five years to change the way Massachusetts fills Congressional vacancies.

When he thought fellow Senator John Kerry would become President, and Republican Mitt Romney was Governor, Kennedy convinced the Democratic state legislature to change the existing law from gubernatorial appointment to special election.

When, this year, Kennedy realized he was unlikely to make it to a health care bill vote, he wrote his state's legislators to appeal to them to change it back to gubernatorial appointment, after all. You see, the state now has a Democratic governor who is sure to appoint another extreme liberal in Teddy's place.

What a scoundrel! How much more contempt could Teddy have shown for voters in Massachusetts? He behaved as if he, then, his party, owns that Senate seat.

Good riddance!

Now Teddy Kennedy will have final justice visited upon him. A verdict rendered absolutely, from which there can be no appeal. One that can't be bought, nor avoided with his family's money and influence. And can't be spun by friendly, fawning media outlets.

A truly final verdict on Teddy for all eternity.