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January 9, 2006“Splash” Kennedy the Water Dog - UPDATED:::SEE UPDATE BELOW - the Breeder named the dog before Kennedy bought him - END UPDATE::: Professor Bainbridge wonders if there is something Freudian about the name Ted Kennedy gave to his dog, or even in his choice of pet, a Portugese Water Dog. He writes: Was the choice the result of an utter lack of self-awareness? Or is the Senator giving us all the finger? I doubt he’s that self-aware. But the question reminds me of what Buster wrote last year in his predictions: 3) Ted Kennedy will drink a Virgin Mary and, in a moment of clarity, finally “get” why he should not have named his dog, “Splash”. Even when I was a Democrat, I didn’t much like Ted Kennedy, but I’ve always kind of felt bad for him. He may have power and money but the rest of the picture is pretty grim. I don’t believe he has any business sitting in judgement of Sam Alito or John Roberts or Clarence Thomas or any other public figure, for that matter (my whole turn rightward can be traced to the Clarence Thomas debacle, and the sight of Kennedy sitting there pretending outrage over the possibility that Thomas may have told a naughty joke, or asked a woman for a date) but on the other hand it cannot be easy to have spent so much of one’s life identifying the bodies of your dead siblings, nephews and nieces. It cannot be easy to know that the most promising lives were cut short, while he, the lesser and least of the clan, remains, with not much of a legacy. The old saying is, you’re born with the face God gave you, you go out with the one you’ve earned. I find it almost unbearable, anymore, to look at Ted Kennedy http://theanchoressonline.com/2006/01/09/splash-kennedy-the-water-dog/trackback/ 14 Responses to ““Splash” Kennedy the Water Dog - UPDATED” |
January 9th, 2006 at 1:58 pm
So Teddy Kennedy wants to revisit Samuel Alito’s judicial record. I think we need to revist Teddy Kennedy’s driving record and determine which record has had the most detrimental effect on America and Americans.
January 9th, 2006 at 2:23 pm
Or as Dennis Leary once put it, “The good die young; we shoot the really great ones and useless people live forever. We shot Jack and Bob and Ted’s still walking around.”
January 9th, 2006 at 2:31 pm
I’d imagine “Splash” can swim. Mary Jo couldn’t.
January 9th, 2006 at 2:57 pm
Recently, Kennedy attacked Judge Alito as “not forthcoming”. Here is the definition from MS Bookshelf 2000:
forth·com·ing
forth·com·ing (fôrth-kum?ing, forth-) adjective
1.About to appear or take place; approaching: the forthcoming elections.
2.a. Available when required or as promised: Federal funds were not forthcoming. b. Affable and outgoing: a considerate, forthcoming person. c. Candid and willing to cooperate.
noun
(fôrth?kum´ing, forth?-)The act or an instance of coming forth.
Excerpted from The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Third Edition Copyright © 1992 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Electronic version licensed from Lernout & Hauspie Speech Products N.V., further reproduction and distribution restricted in accordance with the Copyright Law of the United States. All rights reserved.
I don’t believe Kennedy was “forthcoming” in reporting the drowning of Mary Jo Kopechne.
January 9th, 2006 at 9:23 pm
Kennedy seems to further illustrate your earlier observation about Cyndy Sheehan: namely, that suffering does not always ennoble people. Sometimes, it hardens and coarsens their character.
I, too, find it difficult to listen or look at him for more than a few seconds.
January 10th, 2006 at 6:09 am
Remember when Roger Mudd interviewed him? He uhhed and awwed and stammered all through the interview. I never thought much of him before then, and now I think less of him. There are very few people I hold in contempt. He’s one of them.
January 10th, 2006 at 2:08 pm
I think it’s kind of funny all those who hate Ted Kennedy wouldn’t mind him at all if he was a conservative republican. I find him no worse than some of those scoundrels on the right. Whatever happened to fair and balanced?
January 10th, 2006 at 2:15 pm
Based on what evidence do you make that assertion, Lyle? Nothing in what I wrote could be construed to mean that I would somehow find him less deplorable, even admirable, were he only a conservative. My feelings about Ted Kennedy are resolute and they won’t change were he to suddenly step right. The fact is he played a huge part in lowering the standards of what we should be able to expect of our public servants, and he has no business sitting on any committee judging the fitness of others. I am not sure he has any business in a senate seat at all, but he’s been elected, so there you go.
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No worse than the scoundrels on the right? You’ll have to point me to any other senator (on either side, in fact) who has done the things he has done. Can you do that? Do you honestly believe that anyone on the right could leave someone to die while he confered with his lawyers, and he’d still have a career? Do you think the image of him walking around his house, partying with his young nephews and not wearing pants is an image we should encourage of our senators? Can you find the GOP equivalent? Sorry, but this time you’re WAY off base.
January 10th, 2006 at 6:32 pm
First of all, I want to make it clear that I am not defending Ted Kennedy for whet happened 37 years ago. Only Ted Kennedy knows what really happened. Besides, it would not make too much of a difference anyhow to conservatives because all one has to do is look at how John Kerry has been vilified by the right and his crime wasn’t even close to Chapaquiddick. The sentiment here is liberals are immoral period. Personally, I find people like Tom Delay more repulsive than Ted Kennedy.
January 10th, 2006 at 6:40 pm
No, sorry, the sentiment is not “LIBERALS are immoral, period.” When have you ever seen me write so sweeping a generalization as that? But it’s very hard to take TED KENNEDY seriously when HE is moralizing.
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And if Tom Delay’s as-yet-un-fully-disclosed wrongdoings seem to you more repulsive than Ted’s (nobody knows what happened? Maybe he should finally come clean about it, then?) then I don’t know what to say to you. I don’t think anyone’s accused Delay of costing someone their life.
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And poor John Kerry’s been vilified…well, I never accused him of a crime - whatever crime you’re alluding to - but I’m sorry…it’s really hard for me to feel bad for Kerry taking a little bit of heat while the papers were carrying him on their shoulders. My president takes that heat unrelentingly, everyday, from both the press AND the blogs…and all he’s trying to do is protect our sorry asses.
January 10th, 2006 at 9:39 pm
I didn’t say Tom Delay’s wrongdoings were more repulsive then Ted’s. I was talking in terms of character. At least Ted doesn’t claim to be a born again Christian. I don’t care for people like Tom Delay, they are not nice people.
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Also Anchoress, I am not a wordsmith so I don’t always come across very well as to what I mean. I didn’t mean “crime” and “immoral” literally. There is no question a lot of liberal bashing goes on here, but I expect that.
January 10th, 2006 at 10:25 pm
well, good!
I’ve never pretended that I don’t vent my spleen over here about liberals, but as a former lib myself, and someone who would really LIKE to see the Democrat party become a serious party, once again, for the sake of our nation and the two-party system, I don’t think this site is any more “bashing” than others (left or right) and I think in some ways it does manage to be more temperate. Not in ALL ways, of course! 
January 11th, 2006 at 10:28 pm
Lyle- maybe you and deanieboy have the same trouble w/wording?
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Nah, I think deanieboy oughta learn how to keep his mouth shut- to prevent foot and mouth disease! You just have to *say what you mean, and mean what you say*. Stand by it, not change the meaning by rearranging the wording. I’m no wordsmith, either- and- small world- I, too, milk cows for a living!!! :)!
May 8th, 2007 at 9:46 pm
Not that I don’t notice the irony, but for the record, the dog’s name was already Splash when Kennedy got the dog. And they got a Portuguese Water Dog in the first place because his son wasn’t allergic to that type of dog.