On the eloquence of Ted Kennedy
As always, Mary Jo Kopechne was unavailable for comment
By Jeff Emanuel Posted in Congress | Featured Stories — Comments (5) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »
Eight months ago today Judge Sam Alito was confirmed to the US Supreme Court, in spite of fierce Democrat opposition. Now, while an eight month anniversary is rarely an occasion for celebration, well, I'll take any excuse I can to dig up and dust off wonderful soundbites (and transcripts) of the ever-eloquent senior Senator from Massachussetts.
So, without further ado, Senator Edward Kennedy (D-MA)'s landmark speech before the Senate's Jan. 31 vote on Judge Alito's supreme court confirmation -- in which he accused him of trying to kill American children with a greater risk of asthma.
In a speech only he could deliver, Senator Kennedy said:
Read on...
"This is the issue, this is the time, this is the nominee! And we find out how we've been treated, Mr. President, and-- this body deserves better the American people deserve better. That's what it's about, let's really find out. Let's have a chance-- to go through-- uh-- this, uh-- these cases-- this, uh-- this nominee. We have, uh, know Mr. President that the right wing is-- now, in-- has its campaign, in-- uh, full, full gear-- uh, their mission is cover up uh, the truth. So we do need a full debate! Bring out the truth on Judge Alito's record. What's wrong with debate? [unintelligible] what Americans would do if they-- if they found out-- if they heard, uh, the full record? That's what, uh, the issue is, uh, Mr. President, and that's why-- uh, people are entitled-- uh, to-- uh, the time.
"We have doubled the number of deaths from ab-- asthma this year than we had five years ago! Doubled the deaths! For children. I wonder why that is? I don't know what you tell the mother when they see the children having that-- having that intensities. We pass laws, the President sign them, they go to the court in terms for interpretation, and where will this nominee come out? Will he come on out for that mother, who has a child? That's got asthma? Or that parent who's seen the pollution that's taken place in a pond-- in a lake-- and whose child has been affected by-- by them-- those kinds of poison."
As always, we are awed by the truly dizzying intellect (and eloquence) of Senator Kennedy. However, we still wonder, as we did at the time, just what any of this has to do with Sam Alito -- as well as why, why, why a state with the good sense to elect Mitt Romney as Governor would keep sending this marvelous representative back to the US Senate time after time after time after...
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I agree, RBMN. If he had counseled Foley, that darned Page would have died in a car, at the bottom of a tidal inlet, after getting him drunk at a party. Foley could have then swum back to his motel, gotten a good night's rest and only then, contacted his PR team, who then could have called for help. Of course, Foley would have had to go through a mock inquiry to clear his name. Then he would have been able to continue serving in the House, or later the Senate, for another 37 years.
Back in the late 40's after the war had ended, the pharmaceutical industry and the scientific community were still marveling at the significance of Florey and Chain's work.
A great number of companies sought to exploit this discovery by developing different antibiotics based on interrupting bacterial cell wall mechanics and various other cellular machineries.
However, some epidemiologists began to notice a spike in the death rate from infections despite the availability of these wonderful new agents.
Further investigation led to the source of the problem, an antibiotic called chloromycetin, which in certain humans caused aberrations in the manufacture of some blood components which killed the host almost as fast as the bacterial invader.
Up until recent years, the gold standard for treatment of asthmatics had been some very tried and true medications. Some of these therapies had been in widespread use since shortly after the middle ages. All of them have seen their patents, and the possibility for lucrative marketability expire.
Newer products, with exploitable patents, have been developed in their place. However, with the rise in the death rate from asthma, as with chloromycetin use in 1947, questions should be raised as to the effectiveness of the newer modes of therapy.
There are overwhelming economic incentives for the manufacturers of these newer products to tout the therapeutic advantages of their products. The practitioners learn about the older therapies once, in school, but then are bombarded by appeals and inducements to use the newer patent protected products, sometimes forgetting the older drugs even existed.
The reasons death rates are rising in asthma has more to do with the way modern medicine is practiced than with the way a particular jurist is liable to rule.
However, leave it to an old Senatorial buffoon that has been given a continuous pass from logical process by a friendly media, to use it as an argument against a political adversary.
If YOU lived in Massachusetts, would you want him driving on your roads?
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If you're seeing shades of gray, it's because you're not looking close enough to see the black and white dots.
why it is that Bush is only quoted when he's beffudled, but Kennedy is only quoted when he doesn't sound like a mental patient?
I mean, let's face it, if the media took daily "Kennedy Quotes," do you really think anyone would believe he's half as smart as George W.?
"In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock."
--Thomas Jefferson
If only Sen. Ted Kennedy could've counseled Rep. Mark Foley (R-FL) about how important it is to have high personal ethics in public life.... Oh, well....