I like many was saddened by the passing of Edward M Kennedy last night. He was appointed to the Senate during my sophomore year in high school when his older brother was elected President. At the time I, like most Americans, was focused on his brother who was assasinated during my high school career on a day when the world seemed to stand still, at least from the perspective of my school. Not too many of us were into politics, but virtually everyone stood around in shock with many many tears being shed. I started college during 1965 which was when the Viet Nam fiasco was accelerated due to the phony Gulf of Tonkin incident – the first President (Lyndon Johnson) who lied us into war in my lifetime – OK, we were already tangled in the Viet Nam conflict, but Johnson found a way to escalate the situation and ultimately over 50,000 Americans and untold Vietnamese paid the supreme sacrifice because of Johnson’s decision.

Being somewhat brainwashed out of high school I, during my junior year of college, enlisted in the Marine PLC (Platoon Leader Corps). A leg injury prevented me from fulfilling the obligation I signed up for and it wasn’t long after I was discharged from the Marines that I realized I could no longer support the war my government was fighting. This led me to my first political campaign in 1968 for Robert Kennedy. Kennedy was trying to get the nomination over long odds against Huber Humphrey who had been Johnson’s Vice President (Johnson pulled out because he understood the blowback about the war would prevent him from being re-nominated). Kennedy pulled off a victory in the California primary and everything started looking up for the anti-war movement (at least from my perspective) – hopes that were dashed shortly after Kennedy won the primary by an assassin’s gun. Robert Kennedy’s death on the heels of the assassinations of Martin Luther King and JFK essentially “took the wind from my sails.” I watched politics more distantly after that, occasionally getting my interest peaked, but continually feeling a sense of frustration to the point where I just stopped talking about it (until, of course, GW Bush and the Iraq occupation which led to this site).

Teddy (Edward’s nickname to most people) Kennedy kind of became a national leader by default, pretty much because of his brother’s stature. He proved over the years, however, to be an incredibly dedicated and brilliant politician and he got an enourmous amount of legislation passed during his 47 years in the Senate. One only has to look at the gridlock that has been the norm over the past 10 – 15 years – something that seems to be peaking as I write this piece – to understand what a brilliant Senator Kennedy was. He accomplished enough to be one of the greatest legislators in the history of this great nation despite having a large “block” of people who virtually despised him. Today as I was driving around in my car I heard one of Kennedy’s “haters” call into Thom Hartman’s talk show and blast Kennedy as essentially a murderer. If you’re not old enough to remember, Kennedy was driving a lady named Mary Jo Kopechne home after a party and drove off of a bridge into the water around Chappaquiddick Island, freeing himself but unable to save her. Many people have held this against Kennedy, like the caller to Hartman’s show, and they can’t get past it. Hartman acknowledged that it was a “fall” on Kennedy’s part, but interestingly quoted scripture to the guy who was portraying himself as a Christian as he reminded him about the importance of forgiveness. I too had always questioned Kennedy’s role in Kopechne’s death, but as Hartman pointed out, Kennedy did so much more significant “good” since then and “who hasn’t screwed up?”

Kennedy was instrumental in so much legislation that benefitted working class people, minorities, women, poor people, children, and I could go on, that he was regarded as the “lion of the senate.” Kennedy’s main goal was health care reform. He was determined to see the day when universal health care in the United States was a right and not a privilege. In fact, there was a lot of speculation that Kennedy’s main reason for “throwing his weight” behind Barack Obama in the 2008 Presidential primaries was because he felt Obama had a better chance to get REAL health care reform than Hillary Clinton. One of the many health care reform bills being considered in Congress at present came out of the Senate Health committee which Kennedy chaired up until his death. Christopher Dodd of Connecticuit took the “reins” of that committee when Kennedy became too ill from brain cancer to show up for work in the Senate and pushed out a bill that fulfilled Kennedy’s wishes. The bill, as you might imagine, has a “strong public option” as one of its key ingredients. Of course, if you’ve been following the health care debate in Congress, the Senate has been “bogged down” by another competing bill being drafted in the Senate Finance Committe which is chaired by Max Baucus of Montana – a so-called blue dog Democrat who has accepted huge amounts of campaign donations from the health care industry – something exceeding 3 million dollars (I believe it might even exceed 4 million).

It is the enabling of this committe by President Obama which has spawned the erosion of Obama’s support among his own supporters. Baucus, Kent Conrad, and Chuck Grassley (Republican from Iowa) were supposedly creating a bipartisan bill which could gain, according to Grassley, 70 votes in the Senate – although, since then I’ve heard Grassley say he’s not going to vote for his own bill! It is Obama’s insistance on finding a bipartisan solution to the health care legislation which has his own followers anywhere from “jumping ship” to deep frustration. Both Grassley and Conrad have stated publicly that there will be “no public option” in the final bill. Unfortunately, Kennedy’s health prevented him from participating (in person) in the debate over the legislation and it looks a lot like the Senate Finance committee is writing a bill that will be a “boon” for the private insurance companies – which, if it happens, I believe really will be Obama’s “Waterloo,” which is what Limbaugh and the other right wingers are hoping for.

The House “progressive” caucus is on record as saying that any bill without a “robust” public option won’t pass the house with their support. Considering it is unlikely that a single Republican will vote for anything Obama is in favor of – remember their stated objective is OBAMA’S FAILURE – I take my hat off to these House Democrats. No bill is better than a bad bill – and a bill without a true “medicare for all” public option is unacceptable to enough Democrats and independents like me who tend to vote Democratic under the present alignment of the two parties to undo the President if he’s not careful. Considering the high esteem which most in the Senate held Kennedy and considering one of the bills coming out of the Senate was the one supported by Kennedy (the Health Committee’s bill), I’m really hoping that President Obama gets behind that version of the bill and sets down a marker where he won’t accept less – PERIOD!

Who knows, maybe there’s a Republican or two who want to go down in history as the one(s) who finally broke with the obstructionist wing of the party and got behind the Kennedy bill so that it would pass with bipartisan support. OK, I’m probably dreaming, but this is a golden opportunity for a Republican to go down in history as a hero. None of them seem to have the courage to “buck” Rush Limbaugh and the other bloviators on the right who are inciting one fringe group after another in an attempt to cause as much chaos as possible. Do you remember Limbaugh’s “operation chaos” during the last Presidential campaign? Most of these guys on the right have no interest in what’s best for this nation, their only interest is in power and siphoning as much wealth out of the system as they can before they are finally unearthed as subversives.

Here’s the question all these Republicans are facing right now. The whole world is going to be watching and listening to the Kennedy story and his wish for health care to be a “right not a privilege.” WHAT KIND OF PERSON CAN REALLY ARGUE WITH THAT? I’ll tell you, even the people who have been used by these right wing groups as “paid protestors” would benefit from a health care system that provided more for less. I MEAN IT SHOULD BE A NO BRAINER – but the Republican water carriers have an unlimited amount of money behind their obstructionist campaign because the health insurers, the pharmaceutical compainies, many of the hospital chains, and other health providers are reaping huge profits they (understandably – from a greed standpoint) don’t want to give up. A few million dollars to buy off Senators is a small investment for them compared to the BILLIONS of profit they’re reaping each and every year! For them, IT’S NOT ABOUT WHAT’S BEST FOR THE AMERICAN PEOPLE, it’s about what’s best for their shareholders and their CEO’s and other upper level executives. When the CEO’s of private health care insurance companies are making hundreds of millions of dollars each year, WE KNOW THE SYSTEM IS MESSED UP!

This is what Kennedy was fighting for all these years and he felt that with the election of President Obama his dream of universal health care would become a reality. So, I’m suggesting right here that anyone who reads this page call their congress person and demand they vote for the Kennedy version of the health care legislation. Call President Obama and tell him that anything without the ROBUST public option (a medicare for all option – with competitive reimbursement to doctors and hospitals) championed by Teddy Kennedy will get vetoed. And lets all start contacting Republicans in the hope that there might be a Republican in the Senate who wants to go down in history as putting his/her country ahead of loyalty to Rush Limbaugh and the corporatocracy that is essentially bribing them. Edward M Kennedy was famous for working “across the isle” to get significant legislation through the Senate. Wouldn’t it change the whole atmosphere in Washington if one or two, or maybe even three Republicans found the courage to stand with Teddy Kennedy on health care post mortem?!