ngdawg

From the NY Times:
article

Do we care? It's been reported he's been given less than one year to live. He's 76. I was always of the opinion he should have quit 20 years ago...

Willravel

I haven't always agreed with him (no child left behind, for one), but I will miss his voice in the Senate. I hope he isn't in any discomfort and is surrounded by friends and family during this difficult time.

And yes, some of us care.

SecretMethod70

Wow, that's rather viciously harsh. Just about the only public figures who I can manage to foster that kind of ill will for are Supreme Court Justices, and that's only because it's the only way to get rid of them.

Clearly, there are plenty of people who care, otherwise he wouldn't have been reelected so many times all these years. Whether you agree with him or not, he's clearly doing something right in terms of representing his constituents.

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dc_dux

Compassionate conservatism?

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loquitur

He's lived a full life. I hope his last year is comfortable and that he retains his dignity.

abaya

That would suck for anyone to go through.

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ngdawg

Well, I asked, I didn't say...
I don't want him to suffer, any more than I'd want anyone else to. There will be a huge to-do about his being the "last" of the powerful Kennedy's, which is not so, since he has all those nieces and nephews in public office.


































.

snowy

I care. My heart goes out to Ted Kennedy and his family, though like will, I haven't always agreed with him. No family should have to deal with something like this, and it goes without saying that the Kennedys have suffered their fair share. I'm glad he has his family around him.

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girldetective

I care too.

In regards to his office, I think he and his family have served the public well and with good intent, and have suffered for it too, sometimes horribly and publicly. I will miss him, his passion his and obstinence.

I wish he and his family well.

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reconmike

I hope he suffers more than Mary Jo Kopechne did, he was only kept out of jail because he had the life of the privileged. Time for you to go to hell Teddy boy.

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Willravel

Jesus christ, he pleaded guilty for the car crash that killed Mary Jo Kopechne. What more do you want?

BTW, your completely innapropriate and blatant partisanship is showing. You might want to cover that up.

guy44

I can't believe someone would start a thread about Kennedy's terrible health news just to ask if we should care.

Do people really hate a politician so much that they can't feel for him when he's diagnosed with a brain tumor?

Best go see the Wizard about that heart, Tin Man...

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RetroGunslinger

As much as I despise Ted Kennedy, as much as I think he is an asshole (despite pleading guilty), I don't think anyone deserves to suffer through their last moments, so I hope for the best. Besides, he's gone, that means all the harm he can do (I'm guessing he won't be able to drive) now adds up to nil. So if he lives the life while high on pain killers, so be it.

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dc_dux

I was about to ask ngdawg the same question.

What was you purpose for posing the question.....Do we care?

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Tully Mars

I agree, I care. I hope he's not in too much pain.

Seems like his family's suffered plenty, hope they get through this as painlessly as possible too.

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Willravel

If George W. Bush came down with cancer right before plunging us into War with the East, I'd still feel badly for him. I can disagree with basically every decision he's ever made but still understand that he's human and deserves my sympathy.

Psycho Dad

"Do we care" can be taken so many ways. For those who claim that they do indeed care, do you really care about Kennedy personally or regret the fact that someone has a tumor?

I doubt dawg doesn't give two shits that the man is dying. But some people feel they have been Kennedyed to pieces. Some feel worse for a young lady left in the wreckage of a car to die while the driver escaped punishment. Our culture just seems to put it on the 6 o'clock news when a Kennedy dies be it from assassination, cancer or old age. Maybe what the OP was asking is why is Kennedy's tumor more newsworthy than any of your uncle's or grandmother's tumors?

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roachboy

i read the op and i thought of orwell.
you know, grouphate.
from 1984, except without the satire part.

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Willravel

Wait, that was satirical?!

ASU2003

I don't think he is gone just yet.

If he is still healthy enough on August 28th, he'll probably give a pretty good speech.

ngdawg

Why do people read so much into shit?
It's politics with a dying politician....that's the question as written: Do we care?

That's basically it.

guy44

Well, for starters, neither my uncle nor my grandmothers were ever President of the United States, Attorney General of the United States, a leading candidate for President of the United States, nor a United States Senator.

EDIT: Sitting United States Senator.

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Fotzlid

He could have lived overseas and never done a thing in the senate and he would have gotten re-elected. This is Massachusetts and he is a Kennedy.

Although I am not a big fan of anything Kennedy, I wish him the best with this battle.

Willravel

My obvious Kennedy love aside, he has done things that made him a good representative to his constituents. I don't feel it's fair to suggest it was JUST his name. How many people were against Iraq from the get-go? He's a Democratic representative from an overwhelmingly Democratic state.

dc_dux

Ask yourself ....would you have posed the question...Do we care?.....if it was a politician you liked?

I dont need an answer.

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reconmike

And your response to the question would be the same DC?

I dont need an answer.

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dc_dux

I'll give you an answer anyway.

I dont have a festering hatred of any politician (or any person) to the point that I wish them death or rejoice in their impending death..as you apparently do for Kennedy.

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reconmike

I dont hate Ted, I believe in karma, he left a woman to die in a car in the drink to save his own ass and career, to report it the next day so he could sober up, then plead to leaving the scene. He should have went to jail for manslaughter and DUI. But he didnt go to jail, why? Because he is a Kennedy.

So now he should suffer, same as any other douchebag who leaves someone to die to save their own ass.

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Willravel

Here's a crazy idea: why not show an iota of class and hold off on your disrespectful and tasteless attack on someone who's never done anything to you and who happens to be dying?

reconmike

Here is a better idea, the OP asked if I care if poor ole Teddy is dying, and it is quite obvious I dont.

Disrespectful attack? He killed a woman and got away with manslaughter, he is no better than OJ or the like. He is better why? Because he had his pickled fingers in my pockets for years?

You want tasteless, here ya go, whats it gonna take to reunite the Kennedy boys? A brain tumor.

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ngdawg

You get one anyway.
Yep, I would have.

We are a country of curious, fodder seeking gossip mongers. We read voraciously if Brittany shaves her head, Paris has a boyfriend and Brad fathers another one.
We slam McCain, piss on Hillary and put words in Obama's mouth.
We then defend our actions with lame "it's our right to know" phrasing of a sort or another.
As I see it, this news will be the next fodder for our pyschotic curiousness. Oh, if he stumbles on some words during a speech, will he be dead by Sunday? If he lives past the year "they" give him, he will be followed, scrutinized and pre-eulogized every day until the week after his funeral.

Quite frankly, there's not a politician alive that I "like". I live in NJ-I'm jaded.
For that Kopechne stuff-that was 40 years ago-get over it. Which brings me to another point: we "expect" our politicians to be held to some impossible moral standard that no one outside of politics could live up to. Power corrupts and politicians are human-put them together and you have a recipe for disasters, like a governor seeking out high priced hookers or a congressman with a secret family.
And now that Kennedy has reached his own sunset, the digging will begin anew. Unfortunately, that is how this country is going to show it "cares".
If anything, my stance would be, leave the guy alone. He's old, he's dying, he's done his job.
Just by starting this thread, the finger pointing has started, the old stuff has been dredged up and everyone tries to second guess my "motive".
Anyone studying psychology would have a blast with this....

SecretMethod70

ngdawg: I appreciate the clarification. The reason for wondering about your motive is because of what you described. When you know there are plenty of people out there who will and do react as reconmike has here, it's easy to mistake the intention behind asking something like "do we care."

I almost entirely agree about what you wrote in post #31. Only, I don't think the news of Ted Kennedy's health is similar to the latest Britney Spears gossip. The Senate is one of the highest elected offices in the United States, and so I think something like this is newsworthy. That is only magnified by it being Ted Kennedy - not simply because he is a Kennedy, but because he himself has been a highly influential figure in American politics for many years.

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Willravel

Why? He plead guilty.

Ustwo

I can live up to not killing a girl while almost certainly driving drunk by driving into a river and then not alerting the authorities who didn't know about it until next morning when fishman noticed the car and alerted the police, and then using my fathers money and power to cover it up.

THIS is not a standard I find impossible to live up to.

I could forgive the drunk driving accident and death as unfortunate and irresponsible, but not the rest.

I agree we hold our politicians on too high a standard these days but not this one. He was allowed to slide.

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reconmike

He plead guilty to manslaughter? DUI? NO he plead to leaving the scene of an accident, that was all, if I was driving that car I would be doing 5-10 years there is the difference. Like I said he is a douchebag who got away with letting someone die so he could save his ass, no pity for the coward.

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Willravel

If they could demonstrate you were intoxicated, maybe. No such evidence existed, outside of that which is circumstantial and as such is not legally relevant.
Have you ever flipped your car due to exhaustion?

Ustwo

If someone wants to admire him for what he did as a Senator thats fine, I would not agree, but thats to be expected.

If you want to forgive him for what he did to that girl, thats fine too, we all make mistakes of some kind and he made a whopper. I've never let a body sit in my car for several hours at the bottom of a river while franticly seeing how we could cover it up, but thats just me.

But to defend it, is rather, telling.

He did a very bad and irresponsible thing that day, and it cost him any chance of the presidency. It cost someone else their future.

Forgiveness is divine, but don't bury your head in the sand.

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Willravel

Defending it, is rather, telling? It's a simple, matter, of realizing that he did, something stupid, and owned up to it. He plead guilty. He went to jail. Jail. Not exactly a slap on the wrist.

filtherton

I'm sure he'll get the Reagan Treatment when he dies. Gaudy funeral, talk about putting him on money (nobody likes Andrew "Indian Killer" Jackson anyway), the whole nine yards.

mixedmedia

I hope I will never say 'I don't care' when I find out someone has a brain tumor.

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