Rob's News

Over the next few days, a parade of politicians and pundits will pontificate proudly about their relationship with the late Senator Edward Kennedy and how much they will miss the senior senator. Some will be genuine. Others will be pretentious pricks preening in prime time.

I always had tremendous respect for Senator Kennedy's record in the legislature. Lefty Liberal that I am also has me agreeing with most of his public stances. Unfortunately his personal life stopped him from getting to the White House- or is it unfortunate? His public record with womanizing and alcohol abuse kept him from reaching the top job, but his incredibly long tenure in the Senate had him accomplishing more than almost any president one can name. If there were a Mount Rushmore for titans of the Senate, Edward Kennedy's face would surely be put on it.

Anytime a huge political figure reaches the end of life, those who regularly raked that person over the coals in life have an instant turn-around while in the presence of a television camera. It shouldn't be difficult to look through the speeches, statements and op ed pieces to pick out the hypocrites from the genuine, but nobody does this research, or if they do, they don't feel it worth mentioning.

Senator Kennedy was a public figure that seemed to be a magnet for cheap shot criticism, in the halls of congress and its back offices and meeting rooms, in the pages of newspapers and magazines, on late night television, and in comedy clubs. How many of these people who sought to earn notoriety by publicly kicking Senator Kennedy will be lining up to now publicly cry and tear at their hair and clothes and bleat on about how much he will be missed? It will probably number in the dozens, possibly in the hundreds.

It is said that the two things in life that can't be avoided are death and taxes. You can add self-serving babbling at memorials and funerals to the list.