The Big Dig - Burying Ted

Finally, it's over, I think. A week of listening to tales about the 47-year career of the "lion of the senate" was more than enough thank you. Is the public really this gullible? Ted Kennedy was the weakest male and biggest sot produced by Joe and Rose.

Ted has been described as a "guy's guy" - although I'm not sure what a "guy's guy" is ... but since the phrase is attributed to Dan Quayle need I say more. Hmm... a man's man is a traditional male, a stud, doing the manly things men want to do but many can't or won't - risky frisky behavior, drinking, womanizing, flaunting danger, a man who swears and spits and winks, a bad boy - until slowed down by age or feebleness - a woman is often credited with "reigning or reining-in" these manly codgers when they reach 60 years, unless you're Hugh Hefner and made a living at playboyhood, then it takes 3 young women pulling on the bridle and bit.

I won't ponder long the silly sentimental references to Camelot, the 3 brothers, the dynasty, or the insane blogger over at HuffPo who stated Mary Jo Kopechne was "a catalyst for the most successful Senate career in history."

And said blogger didn't have the sense to end it there but continued with "So it doesn't automatically make someone (aka, me) a Limbaugh-loving, aerial-wolf-hunting NRA troll for asking what Mary Jo Kopechne would have had to say about Ted's death, and what she'd have thought of the life and career that are being (rightfully) heralded. Who knows -- maybe she'd feel it was worth it."

Yea, but would such bloggers feel it worth drowning a kid or two of their own to launch a political career?

I watched a few minutes of the hearse carrying Ted's body and heard the crowds applauding and occasional cheers. Applauding? When did it become socially appropriate to applaud the carcass of political figures? Other than maybe Hitler or Stalin or Mussolini. Oh well, etiquette has changed so much ...

I read a few accolades, supposedly from Ted's constituency - and realized it was Ted's Era that killed off any semblance of political statesmanship and decency in the republic, to be replaced with porkers having their staff make enough phone calls to ensure that a sufficient percentage of constituents receive the free stuff to which they are entitled. Maybe you can't buy love but you can buy the next best thing - votes.

"Here in Rome, Ted Kennedy is nobody. He's a legend with his own constituency," says the Vatican official.

That about says it ... a legend in his own constituents' mind.