So Many Chickens Coming Home to Roost, and So Quickly, Too

[Demeter]

The first little chicken was the inbred arrogance of Edward Kennedy. the man was dying, he knew he was dying, but instead of preparing the way for a successor, he insisted on dying in office, because no one could replace him! Well, as they say in management classes, NOBODY is irreplaceable. But had Kennedy retired, he could have been an outside voice for real reform, given Howard Dean some back up and kept Obama's feet to the fire, provided stepping stones for Cloakly or someone else more to his liking. If there had been another young Kennedy in the wings, perhaps he would have been more accommodating. But there wasn't, he didn't, and an important seat went empty at the worst possible time.

The second chicken was Rahm Emmanuel's arrogance. Rahm thinks he's hot shit. Well, he's half right. This entire fiasco in health care deformation is his baby, and I hope he never makes another dime off the public purse after he gets bounced out on his patented rubber ass. After this, not even Big Pharma will want to employ him.

The third chicken is Obama's inherent lack of leadership. The man has everything except balls, and in a crisis, that is the most essential part--the willingness to gut it out, to do what needs to be done, to acknowledge the costs and know that it's worth it and get the job done properly. Obama just played with healthcare like a cat with a ball of yarn. It's no wonder the damn thing is a tangled mess.

Hillary will bless her lucky stars that she was not involved, this time. If she's really smart, she won't get involved next time, either.

There's a Hungarian folk song that runs something like this:

"If you knew the hen was dying, why then did you feed it (wasting food)?
--when I saw the hen was poorly, I thought she'd surely need it"

[ShortnFiery]

1. Teddy's first error, way back was not supporting Carter for our president back in 1980.

That as much as "The Iranian Hostage Crisis" gave us Reagan.

Albeit Ted Kennedy has done WELL in the Senate, his arrogance, like many dynastic politicians hurt the party in the long run. :(

[Demeter]

2. I Agree, Shorty!

I didn't want to dig up a laundry list of all the stupid things Teddy did, but I haven't forgotten any of them.

[cascadiance]

4. +1 - We would have been solar energy technology leaders now!

And our economy would reflect it now! Perhaps not have even had a lot of these wars over oil that we've had since then too (and maybe not 9/11). And without the Reagan tax cuts, our economy would be in a helluva lot better shape now!

[AnArmyVeteran]

6. Cowardice is rampant in democratic leadership

I am amazed at the level of cowardice in democratic
leadership. Had any of them had balls they could have easily
shut down all of the nonsense spewing from the right wing tea
baggers. But they did virtually nothing to counter the
insanity from the right. 

[yurbud]

10. I remember that too.

[Name removed]

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[katty]

5. K&R

[Vidar]

7. K&R.

[bemildred]

8. Yah.

Up to now it's all been old crony-ism and machine politics, or the sort of empty-headed drivel that passes for that today. This is where we start to see what Obama is made of, whether he is willing to fire his "friends" and start looking for something that works.

K&R

[MicaelS]

9. Kennedy did a lot over the years, but his attempts to squash

The Cape Cod wind energy project smacked of the hypocrisy. Talk about NIMBY at the highest level.

[yurbud]

12. Walter Cronkite opposed that wind farm too. Both had an opportunity to lead by example and failed

[yurbud]

11. ''Rahm thinks he's hot shit. Well, he's half right.'' great line