Ted Kennedy, 1932-2009

*sniff*

Grow a spine and get the bastids on health care, Barry. Teddy put the Family behind your election, and you owe it to his legacy.

“The oldest have borne most.
We that are young
Shall never see their like
Nor live so long.”

Farewell, Sen. Quimby, uh, Kennedy.

Typical Kennedy. Finally has a chance to do something useful and shows up dead.

The right’s lunatic fringe is already at it. The Anchoress (fake nun):

But Kennedy’s death -outside of the coastal enclaves- will not have the drama and sentimental heft some might expect. Given a grim diagnosis in May of 2008, Kennedy managed, with the help of some of the best care available, to see another Christmas, another spring and even another summer. It’s entirely possible that what Kennedy’s death will really do is bring into stark relief the fact that under Obamacare, this overweight 77 year-old man with liking for the drink would probably have faced treatment rationing and an offer for “physician aid-in-dying”.

There goes healthcare reform.

@blogenfreude: Didn’t those fuckers learn, with the Stephen Hawking debacle, that the “this person would be dead” argument is stupid, useless, and ghoulish?

@Marcel Parcells: No.

@Marcel Parcells: No, nor do they realize that their examples make the case for government-funded health insurance. I’d love to swap health insurance plans with any of the US Senators or Representatives fighting reform. Better yet, they can switch plans with any of my friends who are uninsured because (a) they have lost their jobs; (b) they work for businesses that cannot or will not provide insurance; and/or (c) they have pre-existing medical conditions ranging from the silly to the serious that the insurance companies deem makes them uninsurable.

RIP, Teddy. It’s the end of an era.
During the campaign, Obama said he wanted to give Americans the health care Congress had. Why that great idea and sound bite was allowed to fall by the wayside I don’t know. Barry and Rahm need to channel LBJ, yank the Dems into line, and push health care thru in honor of Teddy.

@rptrcub: There goes healthcare reform.

My first thought exactly — back to 59 pretend votes, no orator who can shame the sheep.

My second thought: Hey, why not name the reform bill after Teddy and make a crusade out of it?

Robert Byrd agrees.

@Benedick:

You made me tear up, dammit!

@nojo: Ball’s in the Massachusetts legislature’s court. Teddy knew that people would play politics with his death and had the good sense to get out in front of it.

@Tommmcatt Floats: Beautiful, isn’t it? The whole play is fab. Seemed apposite today.

@Benedick:

I carried spears for that a couple times, and played Edmund once. It is my second-favorite play in the cannon, the first being “Richard II”.

@Benedick: @Tommmcatt Floats: Fine, fine, but now you have to name the daughters.

@nojo: Goneril, Regan and Cordelia, which was the first part I ever played at age 12 in a long flaxen wig.

The Beachy Head Cliff Jump is just about my favorite scene ever anywhere.

@Benedick: My bad — I meant allegorize the daughters. Which I think here involves envisioning Senators in dresses.

@nojo: Allegorize? Sounds like the kind of thing done by dramaturges enjoying a night on the town.

@Benedick: Speaking of allegory, you familiar with Mac Wellman? I had to sit through “Description Beggared; or the Allegory of WHITENESS” once. That was a long couple of hours.

@mellbell: Never heard. But . There is nothing quite like being bored in a theatre.