Ted Kennedy

During the "Psycho Talk" segment of The Ed Show on Thursday, MSNBC host Ed Schultz complained that Massachusetts Republican Senator Scott Brown "has degraded women" as he highlighted liberal criticism of Senator Brown for a joke he recently made about Democratic Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren.

[Yes, the same  Ed Schultz who was briefly suspended earlier this year by MSNBC for calling conservative radio host Laura Ingraham a "right-wing slut."]

Schultz noted that Brown is the successor to former Democratic Senator Ted Kennedy, as if to suggest that he were a disgrace to the former Democratic Senator.

If you looked out your window at roughly 8:50 Wednesday evening, you may have seen pigs flying.

At that moment, MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell was actually taking the side of a conservative newspaper in a dispute with - wait for it - President Obama (video follows with transcript and commentary):

Deval Patrick appeared on Thursday's Today show to promote his new book but NBC's Matt Lauer wasted no time in prodding the Democratic governor of Massachusetts about making a run against Republican Senator Scott Brown as he pressed: "I know there's pressure on you right now. Some people want you to take on Scott Brown for the Senate seat in Massachusetts, once held by Ted Kennedy. Are you running?"

For his part Patrick initially ducked the question, insisting he had no interest in a Senate run but this didn't dissuade Lauer from forcing the issue as he repeatedly questioned him about taking on Brown, even asking if he would reconsider if pushed by the President himself: "You know, the Democrats want that seat back. You're very friendly with Barack Obama and if he walks up to you and says, 'Deval,' I think he calls you that as opposed to Governor, 'Deval I want you to run for that seat,' do you say no?

Patrick again denied he wanted to run for Senate, but after a brief discussion about his memoir, Lauer again returned to the question as he teased: "The main message of the book, it seems, Governor, is a message of hope and optimism.  There's a guy, recently, wrote a book I think it was called The Audacity of Hope. He's president now."

Good Morning America on Friday continued to demonstrate a fascination with the Kennedy family, highlighting Ted Kennedy and his "critical" role as a "politician and a leader." Co-host George Stephanopoulos introduced the piece by recycling, "They called Ted Kennedy the lion of the Senate."

Correspondent Claire Shipman caught up with Vicki Kennedy and recapped the current status of the famous family.  Speaking of the late senator, the reporter enthused, "He was obviously so critical as a politician and a leader in our country. He was also a leader of the Kennedy family for so many decades."        

The stated purpose of the piece was to note the groundbreaking of the Edward M. Kennedy Institute in Boston. But Shipman also tossed political softballs to the Senator's widow: "And what would the Senate lion have made of today's shutdown threats?"

 On ABC’s World News Saturday, correspondent John Hendren filed a report marking this year as the first time since 1947 that no members of the Kennedy family will hold public office in Washington, D.C. The piece began:

JOHN HENDREN: The sun has set on the Kennedy era. When Congress reconvenes next week, it will be the first time in 64 years that there has not been a Kennedy in office.

KATHLEEN KENNEDY TOWNSEND, DAUGHTER OF ROBERT F. KENNEDY: I think it's sad. I think that we need a Kennedy.

Hendren went on to recount the death of former Senator Ted Kennedy, "the Lion of the Senate," and the decision of Rhode Island Representative Patrick Kennedy to retire, as well as the shuffling of office space with the arrival of newly-elected Republicans. The ABC correspondent also noted that Tea Party-backed Rep. Ron Paul and Senator-elect Rand Paul are the only family members serving who will be serving concurrently in Congress.

Hendren concluded by offering a ray of hope for those would like to see the Kennedy family in government again:

While the rest of America might not be mourning the departure of the troubled Patrick Kennedy from Congress, MSNBC on Tuesday lamented "the end of an era" that saw at least one member of the Kennedy family serving in Washington for 63 years. The network featured three segments on the topic in the span of an hour.

Jansing and Co. Guest anchor Richard Lui wondered, "...Will we see a family that will be able to take up the mantle here?" Talking to Democratic strategist Karen Finney, he repeated talking points from the Rhode Island Congressman who, in 2006, crashed his car while driving under the influence of prescription drugs at 2:45am: "...Patrick Kennedy was saying, you know, a public service versus public office. It's about public service."

Referring to his other guest, Michelle Bernard of the Independent Woman's Forum, Lui added, "So, when we take a look at that, Michelle, what more might we see going forward in terms of a family that might, again, fill in this void that we're now seeing?"

For the Today show, Democratic Representative Patrick Kennedy's departure from Congress was something to mourn because it represented, as NBC's Matt Lauer lamented, "The end of an era. There's been a Kennedy in Congress since John F. Kennedy entered the House back in 1947." The nephew of the late President was invited on Monday's Today show to commemorate the occasion with he and co-host Meredith Vieira fondly looking over newly-released photos of JFK from Life.com and reminiscing about his father, the "great" Ted Kennedy.

For the record the Today show got their facts wrong, as the MRC's Rich Noyes pointed out, there was no Kennedy in Congress from January 1961 to November of 1962 as Representative Ben Smith held that seat long enough until Ted Kennedy was old enough to take over.

The following teaser and exchange were aired on the November 8 Today show:

PBS's Mark Shields on Friday said Sarah Palin's decision to resign as the governor of Alaska is "like Ted Kennedy's Chappaquiddick."

This astonishingly came moments after he called Nancy Pelosi the most effective House Speaker in his lifetime on the most recent installment of "Inside Washington" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

At the Washington Examiner's Beltway Confidential blog, J.P. Freire reminds us of a dark chapter in American history. Freire draws some strong parallels to today's debate over foreign influences in American elections.

But the story itself is incredible. According to an internal KGB memo discovered by reporters in the 1990s, the late Senator Edward Kennedy colluded with the Soviet Union to undermine President Reagan's foreign policy efforts.

rk chapter in American history. Freire draws some strong parallels to today's debate over foreign influences in American elections.

But the story itself is incredible. According to an internal KGB memo discovered by reporters in the 1990s, the late Senator Edward Kennedy colluded with the Soviet Union to undermine President Reagan's foreign policy efforts.

Saturday’s The Early Show on CBS showed a preview clip of correspondent Lesley Stahl interviewing former President Jimmy Carter for 60 Minutes in which Carter blamed former Senator Ted Kennedy for derailing his universal health care plan in the 1970s. Stahl referred to former Senator Kennedy as "Teddy" as she asked Carter if he held Kennedy responsible. Stahl: "And you blame Teddy for the failure?"

A clip of the interview can be found on the CBS News Web site.

Below is a transcript of the segment, introduced by Whit Johnson, from the Saturday, September 18, The Early Show on CBS:

Mika Brzezinski is no poker face, regularly letting her feelings show as she reacts to the stories of the day.  But when it comes to emoting, the Morning Joe co-host outdid herself today, reacting to the criticism the panel leveled at Jimmy Carter for his ungracious bashing of the late Ted Kennedy.  

In a 60 Minutes interview with Lesley Stahl, a clip from which Morning Joe aired, an embittered Carter flatly says the failure to get national health care during his administration was Ted Kennedy's "fault."  Carter accused Kennedy of "deliberately blocking" Carter's proposed legislation, in order to deny him a major legislative achievement.

Mika, daughter of Carter's National Security Adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski, has a history of defending Carter on the show.  Check the video as Mika grimaces in discomfort, and interjects various rebuttals, as her fellow panelists unload on the 39th president.

This is one story that U.S. News & World Report's Washington Whispers might want to keep to a low whisper or risk even more ridicule than what they are already receiving. Paul Bedard, writing in Washington Whispers, quotes Kennedy's biographer and former girlfriend who claim that Ted was really an innocent victim of the Chappaquiddick accident. Here is Kennedy biographer Burton Hersh making the case for Kennedy as merely a lousy driver:

Now, a year after Kennedy died, his lifelong biographer Burton Hersh, armed with fresh interviews with Kennedy's mistress at the time, tells Whispers that the whole July 1969 episode  should have been handled as a simple crash, leaving the senator's legacy untainted. "It was a car accident," he says. "Ted was a terrible driver. He never paid much attention to where he was going."

"He took a tremendous blow on the head," says Hersh. In interviews following the crash, Kennedy displayed confusion and amnesia, he says.

On Friday's edition of MSNBC's Andrea Mitchell Reports, Mitchell brought on the Boston Globe's Peter Canellos to pine for the widow of Ted Kennedy, Vicki, to challenge Republican Scott Brown for the Massachusetts Senate seat, as well as imagine how effective the liberal "lion" would be in championing health care and unemployment extension legislation if he were still around today.

A wistful Mitchell remarked of the the late Senator: "It seems as though his legacy only grows in contrast to how low, what low regard the Senate is now held because of the gridlock and the, the sort of petty differences." Mitchell then set up the Globe's editorial page editor as she questioned if Kennedy "were trying to pull things together politically today, if we were blessed by his presence...do you think it would still be the passion for health care, or would he be looking to the larger economic issues?" To which Canellos remembered fondly: "When it comes to unemployment, I mean you can easily hear him...thundering against those who would deny unemployment to people who have been suffering." [audio available here]

The following is the full exchange as it was aired on the August 20 edition of MSNBC's Andrea Mitchell Reports:

Less than an hour before CBS’s Craig Ferguson-hosted 10 PM EDT “Boston Pops Fourth of July Fireworks Spectacular” national broadcast on Sunday night, local anchors Jack Williams and Lisa Hughes from Boston’s CBS-owned television station, along with a couple of local actors, took to the stage to narrate the music-accompanied “The Dream Lives On: A Portrait of the Kennedy Brothers.” (Video: downloadable from NB twenty second wmv clip of Williams and Hughes in action.)

Introducing the 20-minute production carried by WBZ-TV channel 4 in Boston in its 8-10 PM EDT coverage, Pops conductor Keith Lockhart ludicrously insisted it was “not political” -- even though it takes its name from Ted Kennedy’s very political 2008 Democratic convention speech aimed at motivating Democrats to push for left-wing policies, starting with nationalized health care, and culminates by quoting the call to arms in that address: “If we set our compass true, we will reach our destination. The work begins anew, the hope rises again and the dream lives on!”

That line was read by actor Morgan Freeman Jr. in the original May 18 production at Boston’s Symphony Hall (mov video excerpt) and coinciding with the concert at Boston’s Hatch Shell along the Charles River, the Pops trumpeted:

USA Today released the results of its Freedom of Information Act requests for FBI documents related to Ted Kennedy. John Fritze's story leans heavily on the sympathetic "barrage of threats" angle to begin his story, and downplayed the lack of documents on the death at Chappaquiddick. Fritze began: 

Sen. Edward Kennedy, who buried two brothers killed by assassins, endured a barrage of threats on his life that continued for much of his political career, thousands of FBI documents released Monday show.

More than 2,200 pages of previously secret documents reveal Kennedy, the brother of President John F. Kennedy, received a constant stream of anonymous threats and warnings from members of the Ku Klux Klan and the militant anti-communist "Minutemen."

Fritze arrived at Chappaquiddick late in the article, and hinted without outrage that the Kennedy family may have removed a pile of documents that might have tainted the Ted Kennedy image:

Looking ahead to the upcoming week, on Tuesday actors Morgan Freeman, the voice of the CBS Evening News, and Robert DeNiro, Ed Harris and Cherry Jones (“President Allison Taylor” on Fox’s 24), will narrate “the world premiere performance of The Dream Lives On: A Portrait of the Kennedy Brothers – the centerpiece of the Boston Pops’ 125th anniversary season celebration,” a production which “combines quotes from speeches by the Kennedy brothers with original text and video, accompanied by a dramatic orchestral and choral score” so it “pays tribute to the towering achievements and singular spirit epitomized by the Kennedy brothers – the call to public service, drive for social change, and the legacy of optimism for America's future.”

Actor Alec Baldwin will take the lead for a July 18 performance at Tanglewood and actor Chris Cooper will narrate a Hyannis Village Green event August 1. Plus, “The Dream Lives On will receive additional performances” on July 4 “at the Charles River Esplanade as part of the annual Pops Fourth of July Fireworks Spectacular concert,” an event usually broadcast by CBS and hosted by the Late Late Show’s Craig Ferguson.

A promotional video features “Tony Award-winning lyricist Lynn Ahrens” relating the lyrics she created for the concert:

Now on the rain-slicked streets of Boston and across the wind-swept Cape Code sea, over the din of Washington's halls and down the halls of history, their passionate words can still be heard, their highest ideals a clarion call; these three American brothers inspiring the best in us all.

It's no secret that the late Sen. Ted Kennedy was a major obstacle to a proposed wind farm in Nantucket Sound, but Washington Post's Juliet Eilperin at least buried that fact in today's 18-paragraph page A6 story on the Obama administration approving the first offshore wind farm in the United States.

In the lead paragraph, Eilperin hailed the announcement by Interior Secretary Ken Salazar as "a move that could pave the way for significant offshore wind development elsewhere in the nation."

Yet Eilperin waited until the 14th paragraph to note that the project, "split the Democratic Party" when it was proposed in 2001 because Kennedy, "whose family compound overlooks the sound, fought it, with criticism of its aesthetics and its effects on fishing and boating."

Of course Eilperin devoted a significant part of her article to relaying the objections of other opponents of the Cape Wind project, liberal activists who tossed out the predictable boilerplate liberal invective against Big Business...:

Mike Barnicle just wrapped up the Obama Parrot of the Week.  That's the award I hand out on my local TV show to the MSMer doing his sycophantic best to parrot the Obama party line.  Barnicle gave his award-winning performance on today's Morning Joe, in the course of tossing two super-softballs to David Axelrod.

Barnicle's first lob bemoaned the difficulties of governing in this hyper-partisan, cable-TV age.  His second softball chastised Republicans for their announced intention to oppose Pres. Obama's Supreme Court nominee.  Which raises the question: do the names Robert Bork—or Clarence Thomas—mean anything to Mike Barnicle?

Getting carried away with her enthusiasm, Diane Sawyer opened ABC's World News on Tuesday night by proclaiming: “As of today, it is the law of the land that every man, woman and child in America will have health care coverage.” CBS's Harry Smith, however, filling in for Katie Couric, led by reporting the bill President Obama signed “will ensure that 94 percent of Americans have health insurance, the closest the nation has ever come to universal coverage.”

Later, Smith displayed Obama's signature as he trumpeted: “This is what history looks like, as it came from the hand of President Obama today with 22 different pen strokes comprising his signature.” (See screen shot after the jump)

Sawyer couldn't resist reminding viewers of the “Kennedy Legacy” (the on-screen tag) as she highlighted a photo of his son's grave side note: “You heard the President pay tribute to Senator Ted Kennedy, who devoted his career to health care reform. But there was another quiet tribute at the Senator's grave. A note left by his son, Congressman Patrick Kennedy. It said simply: 'Dad -- the unfinished business is done.'”

Good Morning America continued its post-health care victory lap for the late Ted Kennedy on Tuesday. An ABC graphic enthused, "The Lion's Legacy: Kennedy's Widow on Health Care." Reporter Jon Karl talked to Vicki Kennedy and prompted her to lament Republican obstruction: "How disappointed would [Kennedy] have been to see that this was a vote without a single Republican in either chamber voting yes?"

As video of tea party protesters appeared onscreen, Karl wondered, "Did he anticipate in any way, the level of vitriol?" (It seemed lost on Karl that Ted Kennedy often attacked people with his own invective, such as in 1987 when he slimed Supreme Court nominee Robert Bork's America as one of back alley abortions and segregation.)

Scott Brown replacing Ted Kennedy in the Senate really irritates the Washington press corps, as evidenced by Washington Post business section columnist Steven Pearlstein, who in Wednesday's paper cited Brown's victory as an example of the “wretched” state of the nation while he scolded Massachusetts voters for selfishness in picking Brown to replace Kennedy who had fought “for social justice.”

In “The State of the Union speech Obama would give in a more honest world,” Pearlstein, a former reporter who won the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for commentary, recommended President Obama begin: “My fellow Americans, the state of our union is...well, quite wretched at the moment.” Amongst the “wretched” indicators:

Massachusetts, which for nearly half a century proudly sent a senator to Washington to fight for social justice and universal health care, has chosen as his replacement someone who campaigned in effect on the slogan “We've got ours, so the hell with everyone else.”

There are times when speaking in a stream of consciousness is a good and wholesome thing.  None occur in front of a camera, as evidenced by the public escapades of MSNBC’s Donny Deutsch.

The former ad-man took to today’s “Morning Joe” set yesterday morning to offer the following wisdom in reference to the impending Massachusetts electorate:

He is a traditional-looking middle-aged white male.  We’re going back to basics, we’ve obviously had our first African American president we’ve had the female candidates and what-not – you look at him, he looks like the candidate, the traditional view of the candidate, and is there a visceral comfort in that for people? I’m just curious from real kind of sociological point of view.

Obvious questions abound, of course.

Speaking to political analyst John Dickerson on Wednesday’s CBS Early Show about Republican Scott Brown winning the Massachusetts Senate race, co-host Maggie Rodriguez lamented: “When it comes to health care, I think it’s so ironic that the late Ted Kennedy’s passion was health care. He dedicated his career to it. And the man who will replace him could be the one to derail it.”

Rodriguez wondered: “Do you think that’ll happen? Do you think that Senator Brown will be seated in time to vote no?” Dickerson replied: “I think so. It looks like there’s not any appetite to try and rush something through quickly. Health care is already unpopular in Massachusetts and across the country. It’s a very tricky thing indeed to take an unpopular bill and then sort of sneak it in through this back door way. So that’s politically too painful.”

Interestingly, Rodriguez’s concern over Kennedy’s health care legacy was almost identical to a question NBC’s Meredith Vieira asked Senator-elect Brown on Wednesday’s Today: “...you plan to do whatever you can to derail what Ted Kennedy called, called ‘the cause of his lifetime,’ which is health care reform?”

NBC's Meredith Vieira, on Wednesday's Today show, rained on Scott Brown's parade as she wondered if the Senator-Elect's post-victory call to Ted Kennedy's widow Vicki was an awkward moment since, as the Today co-anchor pressed, "You plan to do whatever you can to derail...the cause of his lifetime?" [Audio available here]

MEREDITH VIEIRA: You know on a personal note, you said last night the first call you made after your victory was to Ted Kennedy's widow, Vicki.

SCOTT BROWN: That's right.

VIEIRA: How comfortable was that for both of you, knowing that you plan to do whatever you can to derail what Ted Kennedy called, called "the cause of his lifetime," which is health care reform?

As a probable Coakley loss became apparent over the past few days, the liberal excuse machine has been gearing up to spin away as much as it can to dismiss a Scott Brown victory as inconsequential to the national political climate, despite the crucial nature of the seat to a Democratic super-majority.

Not one to disappoint, liberal apologist-cum-journalist Eleanor Clift offers a fresh excuse at Newsweek's Gaggle blog. 

Coakley, you see, was never in the good graces of that royal American family, the Kennedy clan:

With Massachusetts State Senator Scott Brown surging in the polls, NBC's Today show, on Friday, assigned Kelly O'Donnell to highlight the race for the open Senate seat in Massachusetts pitting Brown against Martha Coakley and the NBC reporter – even after airing Brown's zinger that "it's not the Kennedy seat...it's the people's seat," – ordained it "the Kennedy seat."

Today co-host Matt Lauer, in introducing the O'Donnell piece (that incidentally was accompanied by the on screen headline: Will Democrats Lose Ted Kennedy's Seat?") also read from the same song book: "Now to politics and the race to fill Ted Kennedy's Senate seat."

Over on ABC's Good Morning America Jake Tapper avoided describing the seat as the Kennedy family's personal property in his report that noted "there's a big question...as to whether President Obama will campaign in that special election for the Massachusetts Senate seat...because if the Democrat loses, all bets are off," and warned "It looks like health care might sink." CBS's The Early show aired nothing about the Senate race.

The following is a complete transcript of O'Donnell's profile of the race as it was aired on the January 15 Today show:

On Monday’s Anderson Cooper 360, CNN’s Anderson Cooper extensively questioned authors Mark Halperin and John Heilemann about their new book “Game Change” on subjects other than Sarah Palin, unlike his earlier interview of the writers on 60 Minutes. Most of the two segments from the interview dealt with Bill and Hillary Clinton’s role in the 2008 presidential election and in the Obama transition.

During the first segment, which began 20 minutes into the 10 pm Eastern hour, Cooper only briefly touched on Senator Harry Reid’s “Negro dialect” comment about President Obama, asking one question on the topic. For the remaining five minutes of the segment, and for the additional five minutes of the second segment, the CNN anchor questioned Halperin and Heilemann about several episodes involving the Clintons during the Democratic presidential primary race, and about Obama choosing Hillary Clinton to be secretary of state. These ten minutes on his CNN program is practically the same amount of time Cooper devoted to the subject of Sarah Palin during his 60 Minutes interview of the authors.

Cooper revisited the race issue when he raised the subject of Bill Clinton’s “coffee remark” to Ted Kennedy about then Senator Obama during the second segment minutes later:

Update - 9:25 AM | Lachlan Markay: David Gergen commented on Brown's response. His comments below. 

The death of Ted Kennedy hit the liberal media particularly hard. NBC's Andrea Mitchell caught the mood of the nation's pundits when she said the "heavens were weeping" during Kennedy's funeral. Now that Kennedy is dead, some pundits feel as if Democrats are entitled to the seat he left vacant.

CNN senior political analyst David Gergen had to be reminded of this fact Monday as he moderated a debate between the two candidates for Massachusetts's open Senate seat. He asked Republican candidate Scott Brown whether he'd be willing to "sit in Teddy Kennedy's seat and [say] I'm going to be the person who's going to block it [liberal health care policy] for another 15 years."

But Brown, refusing to take for granted Gergen's blatantly left-wing premises, responded instead: "Well, with all due respect it's not the Kennedys' seat, and it's not the Democrats' seat, it's the people's seat." (video and transcript below the fold - h/t Kerry Picket)