8/26: Ted Kennedy, 1932 - 2009

Liberal bloggers are paying tribute to the late Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-MA), who died last night at the age of 77. Lefty bloggers are calling Kennedy "our best and most effective senator" and praising his many legislative accomplishments. Many are arguing that the best way to memorialize Kennedy is to achieve his goal of passing universal health care. Meanwhile, conservative bloggers are divided in their reactions to Kennedy's passing. Some are paying Kennedy tribute even as they criticize his actions, while others are arguing that he "represented all that is wrong with Washington."

What else is happening in the blogosphere?

• Liberal bloggers (Klein, Benen, Morrill, Yglesias) are mocking RNC Chair Michael Steele for criticizing Medicare one day after vowing to "protect" the program. Meanwhile, conservative bloggers continue to criticize Steele for defending Medicare in the first place.
• Liberal bloggers (McCarter, Benen) are criticizing Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) for making contradictory statements about the possibility of reaching an agreement with the Obama admin. over health care reform. Liberal bloggers (Yglesias, Benen) are also criticizing Grassley for vowing to vote against an "imperfect bill."
• Liberal bloggers (Greenwald, BooMan) are criticizing Rep. Peter King (R-NY) for making the following statement about AG Eric Holder's investigation of CIA interrogators: "It's bullshit. It's disgraceful. You wonder which side they're on." Conservative blogger Allahpundit thinks King went too far with his remarks.
• Conservative bloggers (Hewitt, Johnson) are urging their readers to donate money to NV SEN candidate Danny Tarkanian (R), who is currently the only declared opponent to Senate Maj. Leader Harry Reid (D). Meanwhile, righty bloggers are wading into the CA SEN GOP primary, with some questioning ex-HP CEO Carly Fiorina's pro-life credentials and others defending them.

KENNEDY: The Left Loses Its Lion

Liberal bloggers are paying tribute to the late MA senator:

• BooMan: "I think we lost our best and most effective senator."
• TalkLeft's Jeralyn Merritt: "I'm at a loss for words right now [...] R.I.P. Teddy, thank you for your lifetime of service and dedication to our country."
• Daily Kos' Meteor Blades: "Kennedy was a liberal fighter in the old mold. The plethora of legislation he helped pass made life better for children, for the poor, for African-Americans, for immigrants, for workers. He didn't just give lip service to the rights of workers, he stood in their corner. He fought for access to health care and for quality education. And he opposed the likes of Robert Bork and others who wanted to trash the gains American women, workers and minorities had made over the years. He will be sorely missed."
• MyDD's Transplanted Texan: "The man who gave us SCHIP, the Americans with Disabilities Act, and COBRA, who erased immigration quotas, who defined liberalism, who stood up to [Ronald] Reagan. A real American hero."
• The Huffington Post's Robert L. Borosage: "We have lost a giant. The Senate is a smaller place today -- a special measure of joy, political passion, irrepressible energy has been lost. [...] He will be missed. And the great cause of his career -- health care for all -- will pass the Congress as his final triumph."
• The Washington Monthly's Steve Benen: "The greatest legislator of his generation, and one of the giants of Senate history, Kennedy will be remembered for an unrivaled legacy that has touched the lives of the nation and the world."

Several lefty bloggers are arguing that the best way to memorialize Kennedy is to pass universal health care:

• TPMCafe's Robert Reich: "Most Americans will never know how many things Ted Kennedy did to make their lives better, how many things he prevented that would have hurt them, and how tenaciously he fought on their behalf. In 1969, for example, he introduced a bill in the Senate calling for universal health insurance, and then, for the next forty years, pushed and prodded colleagues and presidents to get on with it. If and when we ever achieve that goal it will be in no small measure due to the dedication and perseverance of this one remarkable man. We owe it to him and his memory to do it soon and do it well."
• Balloon Juice's Anna Laurie: "The glee of Senator Kennedy's enemies and ours will be unbounded over the next few days. I'm sure the birfers, astroturfers, industry shills, talibangelicals, Blue Dog DINOs, glibertarians, neocons, and general malefactors of great wealth will weep crocodile tears as they lament that Teddy's death should not be used as an opportunity by crass liberals to pass the kind of serious health care reform he spent the last thirty years championing. And that, my friends and President Obama, is why it's time to come back after Labor Day with a single coherent Senator Edward M. Kennedy Health Care Reform Bill, and to twist whatever arms, ears, or other parts are necessary to get a good strong comprehensive bill passed and signed, NOW. We owe the memory of a great man no less."
• Transplanted Texan: "[M]y health insurance is through COBRA -- I wouldn't have paid for my annual physical and semi-annual dental checkup this summer, and I would be subject to preconditions, if not for Ted Kennedy. Health care reform must pass, and let that be his legacy more than any family relation."

KENNEDY II: Give The Man His Due

Several conservative bloggers paid Kennedy tribute even as they criticized his actions:

• NRO's Bill Bennett: "Whatever one thought of him, there is no one in the Senate of his force, sheer power, and impact. If you think there is his equal in this, tell me who it is. [...] To the American Left, he was their lion. To the American conservative movement, he was our bane. But today, we put the politics aside and wish him and his family God's peace."
• AmSpec Blog's Quin Hillyer: "Decent people do not take potshots at others (unless the other is a Hitler or Stalin) in the 24 hours of the other's death. I have never, literally never, written any good words about Ted Kennedy. But there was one time when I was impressed and in a weird way inspired by him. At the Democratic convention last year, when he willed himself out of the hospital, in a terribly weakened condition, to make what truly was a superbly written and even, despite his ailments, a well delivered speech in support of the man, Obama, who WOULD NOT have been about to be the nominee without Kennedy's support, Kennedy's speech -- with its deliberate echoes of his 1980 convention speech, 'the dream shall never die' -- was a triumph of courage and commitment. Sitting in the convention hall covering it for the Washington Examiner, I literally got chill-bumps. In terms of valiance, it was like seeing Willis Reed hobble onto the court in the NBA finals against the Lakers, only to an even greater Nth degree. In a reckless life spent pursuing the wrong goals through wrong and often vicious means, it was a magnificent moment of grace."
• AmSpec Blog's W. James Antle, III: "I hope to have more to say about this later, but for now I'll say this: Ted Kennedy is beloved and earned the love of those who admire him. Ted Kennedy was hated and while I can't say anyone deserves hatred, he certainly earned that too. He stood for many things with which I disagree and his irresponsible behavior led to a young woman's death, without him ever paying the price. Yet he was also generous to those in need both with public funds and his personal commitment to children who lost too many fathers. Both stories ought to be told."

Several righty bloggers urged their readers to hold off on criticizing Kennedy until more time passes:

• Michelle Malkin: "Put aside your ideological differences for an appropriate moment and mark this passing with solemnity. There is a time and place for political analysis and criticism. Not now. Yes, there will be a nauseating excess of MSM hagiographies and lionizations -- and crass calls to pass the health care takeover to memorialize his death. That's no excuse to demonstrate the same lack of restraint in the other direction. Not now."
• NRO's Jim Geraghty: "There will be plenty of time to recall all of the reasons Ted Kennedy made enemies in this life, plenty of time for our traditional, 'Mary Jo Kopechne could not be reached for comment.' I've got the Michael Kelly collection that includes 'Ted Kennedy on the Rocks,' his definitive profile from the early 1990s, which showcases all the highs and all of the lows. I'll go through it sometime soon to recall those sides of Kennedy that won't be showcased in the montages today, stories like that 'sandwich' with [CT Sen.] Chris Dodd, but today's not the day for that."

Meanwhile, NRO's Kathryn Jean Lopez prays for Kennedy's soul: "He's responsible for things that are deeply offensive to my conscience and diametrically opposed to the teachings of the Catholic faith, and he probably led some people astray by his example. But our faith also teaches that we are all sinners and that there is redemption. He had some incredibly good forces in his life, not least among them his sister, Eunice, who just died. I pray for the repose of his soul and for his family."

KENNEDY III: No Tears Here

Other conservative bloggers were less kind to Kennedy:

• Robert Stacy McCain: "Whenever Kennedy would inflict his pompous self-righteous liberal moralizing on us, I'd always hear Ann Coulter's immortal words: 'Mary Jo Kopechne could not be reached for comment.' And so I've used that line for the last time. And the knowledge of that finality is the only sadness I feel about Ted Kennedy's death."
• RedState's Erick Erickson: "I can't say that I'll miss him. He, to me, represented all that is wrong with Washington -- a kingdom of nepotism and worship at the alter of failed liberal policies that get repeated ad infinitum. He opposed school choice for the poor while segregating his kids from the poor in school. He supported policies opposed to life except when life could be advanced through the destruction of the unborn. He opposed a strong national security against even the evidence of its necessity during his brother's Presidential administration. Ted Kennedy supported the expansion of the welfare state and a culture of dependency on government, made all the more tragic given how ensnared his life was to dependency. He should have known better given his own life and that of his family. And then there's Mary Jo Kopechne. May she rest in peace."
• AmSpec Blog's Doug Bandow: "There is much to criticize in his career, particularly leaving Mary Jo Kopechne to die after the auto accident on Chappaquiddick Island in July 1969. The ensuing cover-up kept him out of jail and preserved his Senatorial career, but effectively ended his presidential hopes. Even in the twilight of his career he failed to take responsibility for his actions, which tragically and unnecessarily ended another life. The result is an indelible stain on his legacy, which should disturb even liberals, whose cause he so effectively (and unfortunately) championed."
• Power Line's Scott Johnson: "We live in Edward Kennedy's America not only in the consequential legislation that he sponsored and saw through the Senate, but also in the afterlife of the vulgar political sham on which Senator Kennedy relied to defeat the nomination of Judge Bork."

THOUGHT OF THE DAY: A Lesson For Progressives?

Think Progress' Matthew Yglesias:

"Ted Kennedy's speech from the 1980 Democratic Convention is probably his most famous, and rightly so. Its closing line is, I think, crucially important: 'For all those whose cares have been our concern, the work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives, and the dream shall never die.'

I'm never able to express myself nearly that well, but what I take Kennedy to be doing here is trying to offer an alternative to the boom-bust mentality that I think often overtakes American progressives. There's a tendency to get extremely wound up with optimism about the imminent dawn of sudden and radical change for the better, and then intensely bitter, cynical, and depressed when that fails to materialize. The reality, however, is that change is hard. That's not an excuse for the people who stand in its way, it's the reality. But if you respond to the difficulty of making things better by giving up or getting frustrated, then it only gets harder.

Building a better country and a world is work -- hard work -- and it's work that goes on. And on. And on."

LEST WE FORGET: No One Expects An Electric Fence

From Overheard in the Office:

Coworker #1: Well, I climbed over the fence and knew that it hurt for some reason, but I didn't realize it was an electric fence until I climbed back over a second time.
Coworker #2: So you're pretty much telling us that cows have more sense than you?