During the 2:00AM ET hour of CBS’s Up to the Minute on Wednesday, shortly after news broke of Senator Ted Kenney’s death, historian Douglas Brinkley exclaimed the Massachusetts Democrat was: "...going to be a – a martyr because of all that he’s done and he very well might help, in death, Obama get his health care plan."
Fill-in anchor Michelle Gielan discussed Kennedy’s legacy with Brinkley, soon turning to the current debate over health care reform: "And one of those causes that he was championing was health care reform, and yet, he had to sit out these last few months. How difficult was that for him?" Brinkley began his response: "Well, it was very difficult for him....he’s been forced to be sidelined and unable to talk at town hall meetings. It’s been hard not to watch the nightly news and kind of wish that you had a fiery old Ted Kennedy there, arguing his points for universal health care, it could have made a difference."
After lamenting Kennedy’s absence in pushing ObamaCare, Brinkley went on to frame the Senator’s death in an historic context: "But, as history plays it, now that he’s dead, there’ll be a mortar – martyr syndrome for him and people will start talking about his career and how much he did to help people. And in many ways, he’s still an ambassador, even though he’s gone, he’s – his energy that may help push this Obama plan through, in the end."
Brinkley then concluded his thoughts by touting the important role fawning media coverage of Kennedy would play in the coming days: "Because after a week or two of media coverage showing how much Kennedy cared about getting proper health care to the poor and the middle class, he’s going to be a – a martyr because of all that he’s done and he very well might help, in death, Obama get his health care plan."
—Kyle Drennen is a news analyst at the Media Research Center.
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Perhaps we should see if he
Wed, 08/26/2009 - 14:15 ET by Dan The Man 2Perhaps we should see if he would have had the same care under the new plan? Compare the two. Or better yet what kind of care would he have gotten under the plan in Oregon/Washington whicherver state they have state care now.
Martyr
Wed, 08/26/2009 - 14:22 ET by nyyankee55Matyr my ass! What about Mary Jo what about all the aborted kids killed because of this Holier than Thou Catholic.
This bum could never make it in the real world doing a real job- Stop with the Martyr
A martyr is supposed to be
Wed, 08/26/2009 - 14:27 ET by mattmA martyr is supposed to be someone who dies for a cause, NOT someone who kills for a cause or dies of natural causes.
But keep your barf-bag handy for the next week or so. This kind of obsequious idol-worship has only just begun.
Kennedy's dead body is now a liberal puppet...
Wed, 08/26/2009 - 15:49 ET by SlyrrKennedy's body isn't even cold yet, and liberals are
already tying strings to his fetid corpse, hoping to turn his dead body
into a puppet they can make dance around and pimp Obama's disgusting
communist medical plan.
Kennedy lived a
lifetime of successful villainy, and the world is better off without
him. Every man is responsible for his own choices - and eventually
Kennnedy will face the one thing he fears the most - a judge that he
cannot lie to, and from which the media cannot protect him.
Those
who survive Kennedy, in both politics and media, would do well to
examine their lives and re-think their mad desire to follow in his
footsteps.
Ted Kennedy a martyr for Nazified health care?
Wed, 08/26/2009 - 14:25 ET by R D HelmPlease.
This hypocrite got medical care during his illness that significantly prolonged his life, yet these pushers of Marxist medicine are going use his assuming room temperature to push something off on us that would mean that anyone similarly afflicted will be most likely denied treatment?
What kind of steaming horse-squeeze is this?
-Dave
Brinkley can't be taken seriously . . .
Wed, 08/26/2009 - 14:27 ET by GalvanicBut I think it would be a great idea to attach Teddy-boy's name to the health care reform bill(s).
Dissenters will then respond with pictures, posters, and T-shirts with Mary Jo Kopechne's image on them and this slogan:
"TEDDY-CARE. It didn't care enough to save this woman from death. It certainly won't enough care to save you."
If Obama wants to sink his rickety health care reform ship, all he needs to do is link it to Kennedy's name.
Martyr For ObamaCare
Wed, 08/26/2009 - 14:27 ET by JDWReflect on Reagan's death and ask yourself if the GOP played the same game for any piece of legislation.
JDW
DAILY WAVE
Always available when the time is right
JDW
Wed, 08/26/2009 - 14:41 ET by ObatimizedReflect on the death of Mary Joe Kopechne and ask yourself who is worthy to have legislation named after them. Kennedy or Reagan?
I rest my case.
Remember, Obama's brother still lives in a hut.
Oh Teddy
Wed, 08/26/2009 - 14:29 ET by ObatimizedWhere do you think Uncle Teddy’s diploma from the “Joseph P. Kennedy School of Philandering, Cheating, and Drunkenness” hangs?
I would love to see the long list of graduates and honorary graduates from that prestigious institution…
Remember, Obama's brother still lives in a hut.
Brinkley's got to be kidding!
Wed, 08/26/2009 - 14:33 ET by PrairieSkyTed Kennedy a martyr??? Oh for crying out loud...This is just too much.
"The problem is not that people are taxed too little...the problem is that government spends too much." ~President Ronald Reagan
How can Teddy be a maryter for obamacare
Wed, 08/26/2009 - 14:38 ET by MightyMouthAll the real martyers because of obamacare haven't even died yet!
"There are two types of people in this country; those who provide freedom and those who enjoy it." MM says...
Kennedy is a great martyr
Wed, 08/26/2009 - 14:41 ET by BruzillaKennedy is a great martyr for Obamacare. Given how well preserved his body is, being most of his internal organs are already pickled in alcohol, he can be left laying out in the Senate chambers for an indefinite period. Even if the debate on Obamacare goes on until Obama gets ousted in 2012, Ted can still be there giving his support.
" FIERY OLD TED"
Wed, 08/26/2009 - 14:46 ET by jacktheripperPoor choice of words? seein' how"Old Ted" is probably frying right about now!
"The American Republic will endure, until politicians realize they can
bribe the people with their own money." – Alexis de Tocqueville
Good catch Jack
Wed, 08/26/2009 - 15:25 ET by acumenGod does not impute any fault to the idiot or fool, because unfortunately they are deprived of reason.
Considering the above, the question to me is; was this recent recipient of The Presidential Medal of Freedom awarded by Obama, the late Senator Ted Kennedy a fool.....or not?
If so then God have mercy on his soul.
If not, then God have mercy on his supporters/enablers.
I must admit that being a
Wed, 08/26/2009 - 15:39 ET by BruzillaI must admit that being a devout Agnostic, I don't know a whole lot about how God imparts fault, but I do know enough to realize that God can get down-right nasty to souls that cross him. Being as Kennedy's list of transgressions is longer than the 1,000+ pages of the Obamacare bill, I'm thinking there isn't going to be much mercy bestowed on the fool.
~What?!
Wed, 08/26/2009 - 15:42 ET by choselife3xdo know enough to realize that God can get down-right nasty to souls that cross him
Wow, that's messed up on so many levels. If you substitute 'Satan' for 'God' in your sentence it'll actually make sense.
Dissent: It's not just for liberals anymore.-kudzupolitics, USA Today
I must admit that being a
Wed, 08/26/2009 - 15:49 ET by dvdaughtryI must admit that being a devout Agnostic, I don't know a whole lot about how God imparts fault,
Should have stopped there.
You trying to say Jesus Christ can't hit a curveball?
OMG
Wed, 08/26/2009 - 14:46 ET by ObatimizedOMG that was funny...
Isn't that what they did to preserve Stalin? Pickle his internal organs in Vodka?
Remember, Obama's brother still lives in a hut.
Funny you should mention
Wed, 08/26/2009 - 15:34 ET by BruzillaFunny you should mention that. Who would have thought that a man who spent his life striving to be like Stalin and Lenin would be the most like them in death!
Best place for this post
Wed, 08/26/2009 - 14:47 ET by olddog3006I’d love to know what PRIVATE INSURANCE carrier Kennedy had through the federal employees plan options. There is NO government run option in that menu of plans. They are ALL the same insurance companies that most Americans purchase their coverage through. The only difference is the feds pay a substantial amount of their premiums.
I wonder if at any time his insurance carrier denied any prodedures, or didn’t pay any of his claims. I wonder how much that insurance carrier paid out in claims during the last 2 years of his life.
Why are there no federal employees complaining about their plans? Do you think the insurance companies have a different set of guidelines for the private sector?
I’ve had experience with both, and I can tell you there is very little difference. So I ask again, if there’s such a CRISIS with health insurance in the private sector, why isn’t there the same crisis with the federal employee plans? Oh, BTW, I don’t see any anything in the bills that would allow federal employees to opt for the “public option”! I wonder why?
You know, at first I thought
Wed, 08/26/2009 - 15:42 ET by BruzillaYou know, at first I thought that someone who sits on the millions that Kennedy had wouldn't have insurance and would just pay for his healthcare in cash, but looking at how much he loved to spend other peoples' money, I think it's a good bet he did have insurance. In fact, I would bet he was also enrolled in Medicare.
I would like to know if Kennedy was enrolled in Medicare as he could then be the poster child for means testing.
I've wondered about Ted's
Wed, 08/26/2009 - 15:44 ET by ghotifunI've wondered about Ted's health insurance, too.
In a sad twist of coincidence, my across-the-street neighbor also died of brain cancer. He was sent to Erie, Pennsylvania to receive care for his suddenly diagnosed "intracranial mass". Because he had New York state-funded health insurance, he couldn't get follow-up radiation and chemotherapy at the hospital that performed is craniotomy! He had to wait until his discharge from the Erie hospital for him to get back into New York before he could get follow-up oncology care! This delayed his radiation and chemotherapy for over a week. During that week, he suffered with unrelenting headaches. During that time, his case was shuffled from one agency to another until he made his way to Buffalo to be evaluated and then told nothing could be done to help him.
My neighbor, Ed B. was a simple, hard-working man who, generally, paid his own way through life. He died within a month of diagnosis.
Did his inability to access the care he needed change the outcome? No, it did not. But the quality of the remainder of his life was awful!
Ted received the best care our tax dollars could give, thanks to the incredible health-care benefits members of Congress enjoy. Yet Ted's health-care blustering for the poor did NOTHING for my friend, Ed. This is Ted's legacy to healthcare. Ted got all that he could for his condition. Afterall, Kennedys are entitled.
My friend Ed got bureaucratted to an early death.
Here is a martyr for ya
Wed, 08/26/2009 - 14:50 ET by Airforce_5_OMary Jo Kopechne. That is all I am going to say about Ted Kennedy on any of the blogs.
Liberalism: The haunting feeling that someone, somewhere, can help themselves.
If you thought Michael Jackson coverage was overkill
Wed, 08/26/2009 - 15:00 ET by sic721Just wait. The msm will be running specials and interviewing everyone who knew him, thought they knew him, wanted to know him, or saw him one time at a Denny's. Martyr? It's begun. Not even cold yet, and 'Rictus' Pelosi is already saying, "Let's do this for Teddy". LINK
Heck, use him to push the stimulus while you're at it, after all, Teddy-boy is now a "shovel-ready project". And this just in, Teddy-boy's last pair of Depends are being preserved after someone noticed the stains in them form a perfect likeness of Karl Marx.
A generation which ignores history has no past -- and no future.-Robert A. Heinlein
Did he say martyr or Marxist?
Wed, 08/26/2009 - 15:02 ET by acumen"It is not the suffering, but the reason why [he suffers] that constitutes a martyr." St. Augustine
"For the bureaucrat, the world is a mere object to be manipulated by him." Karl Marx
Wed, 08/26/2009 - 17:58 ET by jessieHKennedy wasn't a martyr. He was a murderer.
Mortar-- er, martyr
Wed, 08/26/2009 - 20:29 ET by nkviking75Brinkley: "But, as history plays it, now that he’s dead, there’ll be a mortar – martyr syndrome for him and people will start talking about his career and how much he did to help people. And in many ways, he’s still an ambassador, even though he’s gone, he’s – his energy that may help push this Obama plan through, in the end."
Maybe that's how things would have worked out of Teddy had died at the very beginning of the Obamacare campaign, but not now. The opposition is too entrenched, and the name of Ted Kennedy isn't going to change anyone's mind. If we get Obamacare, it'll happen the old fashioned way. It'll be shoved down our throats by the Democrats.
“Always love your country — but never trust your government!" -- Bob Novak (1931-2009)
RIP MJK
Wed, 08/26/2009 - 21:14 ET by retrocona little bubble of air, very little care.
Teddy,
Wed, 08/26/2009 - 21:31 ET by stage9...the gift that keeps on giving...
"If God is dead, somebody is going to have to take his place. It will
be megalomania or erotomania, the drive for power or the drive for
pleasure, the clenched fist or the phallus, Hitler or Hugh Hefner."
— Malcolm Muggeridge
A martyr gives his life for
Wed, 08/26/2009 - 21:44 ET by Radical1979A martyr gives his life for a cause, something higher than himself. Kennedy gave NOTHING away. He was a rich hedonistic imoral alcoholic who didn't have the deceny to resign his Senate seat when he was to ill to fulfil his duties.
If he was so interested in the working man, why didn't he give away the Kennedy fortune and live like a working man?
Douglas Brinkley
Wed, 08/26/2009 - 23:08 ET by BondPlainBondI'm rather surprised Mr Brinkley failed to mention Kennedy was a known stigmatic, too.
Bluddy cheese and rice. This has spun into the incomprhensible. And pathetic.
Bond....
Wed, 08/26/2009 - 23:13 ET by BlondeWhat can I say? You always get my attention. And my admiration.
:)
I hope he fails, too.
BPB... I just heard him
Wed, 08/26/2009 - 23:14 ET by bigtimerBPB...
I just heard him on CNN a bit ago...it was barf-bag time...as it always is when Brinkley speaks as far as I am concerned.
Historian my a$$...typical leftist makes up things as he goes along and designs them to be...not the real facts...yet people like him are supported by all in the elite leftist communities, of all venues, after-all, people like Brinkley know where there bread is buttered, Kerns-Goodwin, Beschloss (sp) are a couple others I detest.
Obama's a Community Agitator, a walking, talking destroyer. ~ Rush Limbaugh
Re Brinkley
Wed, 08/26/2009 - 23:42 ET by slickwillie2001Now that there is funny.