Better still, how about an R&D department staffed entirely with lawyers, economists and political scientists?
I don’t see how it applies to Ted Kennedy, aside from one instance from the summer of 1969. But the applicability of this quote to another political figure…well, you get the idea. 
Since Ted emerged as patriarch, the backlash against the Kennedy mythos has if anything been the stronger. He was destined to rise no higher than senator, but he’s treated as though he’s perpetually the Democratic candidate for president.
So there’s 3 kinds of bad people in the world: Lawyers, hucksters and Kennedys. Kennedys represent a whole category of bad person unto themselves.
I deal with evil people every day, and so do you. Why should legislators be any different?
If you’re suggesting that Ted’s ruddy mug will still be glowing out at us from checkout magazine racks a decade from now, I fear I shall have to kill myself forthwith.
Dude, I have a PhD. I spend my working life surrounded by people with PhD’s like you describe. They are brilliant people, deserving of what they have achieved, but there is no reason to assume they would make better leaders than the people in government now.
There’s no reason to assume they would make worse leaders than the people we have now, either. But academic training hasn’t got anything more or less to do with effective leadership and moral sensibility than legal training, veterinary training, or carpentry training.
(Do I wish our current leaders listened more to people with academic training? Yes, because that would be a sign of leaders who recognize when they’re out of their zone of expertise, and sweet googly moogly would that be a good thing. But academics are also capable of being out of their zone of expertise.)
About the Ted Kennedy thing: he’s served his country in government for a long time, and his family has sacrificed…literally…a great deal in the service of their country. Some respect for that is due, if nothing else.
Yes, but the point is that there seem to be quite a number of Republicans who not only work with Kennedy, but appear to respect and like him.
Do you respect and like the evil people you work with? Because if you do, I would think that that would tend to make your coworkers not evil.
I don’t care whether Republicans respect and admire him. Plenty of evil people are respected and admired.
By their opponents? Why don’t you provide me a sampling of these widely recognized evil people and the names of several of their opponents with whom they share a friendship?
(BTW, I said respected and liked.)
Is this a joke? Who’s considered Kennedy to be a possible Presidential candidate in the last twenty-five years?
Calling Ted Kennedy evil is debasing the word. At worst, he’s an elected career politician whose policies were wrong.
Hmm- I always thought it was the Hoover Administration.
Continuing the hijack:
Ever read about how Woodrow Wilson and Henry Cabot Lodge interacted with each other? A Senate filled with academics, if my experience is representative, would result in that situation, expanded to an extreme amount. (Mind you, I’m planning on being one, so this isn’t contempt for contempt’s sake.)
In addition, maybe this is just me, but, if you limit the candidate field to people in certain occupational fields, don’t you risk having a government dominated by the leading interest groups in that field? Assuming that I’ve understood your limits correctly, we could be in a situation where the AMA, the IFPTE, and the various unions representing university professors end up with a huge amount of pull.
Then you should immigrate to China. Technocrats rule, baby. :o
I don’t think he’s deified. I think he’s a senior senator that gets re-elected from Camelot legacy name recognition and a job well done. By default, his fellow legislators are required to sing his praises during these sobering moments of crisis. I hope he gets the opportunity to spend a great many years in retirement where he can reflect on his past accomplishments and enjoy the glory of his youth.
I’d be curious to know if he’s planned on a burial at sea. Nantucket wouldn’t be the same without his presence.
I don’t think his political agenda is evil, I think the man himself is.
Kennedy only had 2 brothers assassinated in American politics. He has spent a lifetime being on the side of the poor or middle class. He has been an active legislator for many years. There is much to like about him.
When people die or it seems they will soon ,many look past their warts and see the good they have done. Even Reagan and the place filling Ford were treated as heroes.
Those of us with Mentally Retarded family members are especially fond of the Kennedys and all they have done for The Special Olympics. If you go to a meet you can’t swing a dead cat without hitting a member of the Kennedy clan quietly working behind the scenes.
I don’t think there is another family in American history that has devoted as much time to public service and paid such a high price. Wish this was the pit so I could tell you Kennedy haters what I really think.
Don’t forget women’s rights. Ted Kennedy never gets the credit he deserves for his undying support of those in need.
This is about the deathcamps isn’t it? Okay, sure, there were a million Rhode Islanders killed during the Greater Massachusetts movement. Nobody’s denying this. But it was back in seventies and nobody’s ever proven that the squads were acting on Kennedy’s orders. He was found not guilty in Brussels. Just let it go.