Wednesday, July 28, 2004

Ted Kennedy, Hatriot

Fisking Kennedy is too easy, but I would like to highlight a few choice lines from his speech last night:

In the depths of the Depression, Franklin Roosevelt inspired the nation when he said, “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” Today, we say the only thing we have to fear is four more years of George Bush. 

Apart from the obvious absurdity given 9/11, how clearly this shows the degradation of the modern Democratic party, diminishing both the speaker and the paraphrased in the same breath.

We hear echoes of past battles in the quiet whisper of the sweetheart deal, in the hushed promise of a better break for the better connected.

Presumably, this refers to Halliburton.  I won’t belabor the fact that there are basically three companies in the world truly qualified to handle a task like this.  (They are, for the record, Bechtel, a private American company, Halliburton, a public American company, and Schlumberger, a French company - which alone put them out of the running.) But it’s not this supposed sweetheart deal to the better connected but all the ones Kennedy and his ilk prefer. Like better access for environmental groups to certain senior senators to influence judicial decisions.  Like buying pardons from soon-to-be-ex-presidents.  Like making a hundred grand off a buck investment.

We hear them in the cries of the false patriots who bully dissenters into silence and submission. 

No Republican senator, no Republican member of Congress, of the Administration, or in office anywhere has ever questioned the patriotism of the Democrats.  Not Kerry’s, not Max Cleland’s, not even Ted Kennedy’s. The statement is a lie. But here we have Kennedy not questioning the patriotism of the other side, but stating that it’s false.  The call has been made.  Oh, and who’s bullying dissenters into silence?

Is it any wonder they put Kennedy on the least watched night of the convention?

Posted by Matt on 07/28 at 10:07 AM
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