Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.

[saltpoint]

Several DU posters have weighed in on Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.'s possible run for New York State Attorney General.

In 1968, his father galvanized many of my family's left-leaners into pro-labor, pro-civil rights Democrats. We've had some favorite Democrats since, but none with the brains and balls of Robert F. Kennedy.

In case people haven't seen it, some of RFK JR.'s remarks about the two main political parties are here --

http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0122-10.htm

-- but I was just wondering what others' thoughts were about RFK, Jr. and if DUers believe he can be elected to AG in New York, and if there might be a chance of another Kennedy run for the White House down the road a bit.

[KeireG]

1. RFK, all the way

I am absolutely confident that RFK Jr. can win in NY, and go on to prosper in national politics. He is brilliant, tough, and persistent.

[saltpoint]

5. I'm inclined to agree --

-- and boy, do I love your signature quotation.

[TexasSissy]

43. I love him. I love him. I love him. Did I mention...

that I love him?

I'd vote for him for anything. All he'd have to do is name it.

[SCRUBDASHRUB]

2. From http://www.ringoffireradio.com/robert_kennedy.asp

(Thought I'd throw in a picture of RFK; I'm sure he'd be proud of his son).

<snip>

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. is a renowned attorney and resolute defender of the environment who has relentlessly ­ and successfully ­ prosecuted governments and companies for polluting the nation's waterways. He serves as President of the Waterkeeper Alliance and Senior Attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council. He is also a Clinical Professor and Supervising Attorney at the Environmental Litigation Clinic at Pace University School of Law in New York. He is an outspoken critic of the Bush Administration's environmental policies and its consistent abuse of scientific research for political gain. In 1999, he was recognized as one of TIME magazine's "Heroes for the Planet".

More than eco-warrior, Kennedy is also a social-defender. During the summer of 2001 he sat in a Puerto Rican prison on trespassing charges as his most recent son, Aidan Caohman Vieques Kennedy, was born. Sentenced to 30 days for his civil disobedience, Kennedy was in Viques protesting the U.S. Naval bombing exercises that take place there every year.

Mr. Kennedy serves as chief prosecuting attorney for the Hudson Riverkeeper, senior attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council, all while serving as t he President of the Waterkeeper Alliance. He is also a clinical professor and supervising attorney at the Environmental Litigation Clinic at Pace University School of Law in New York. Earlier in his career he served as assistant district attorney in New York City. He has worked on several political campaigns including Edward M. Kennedy’s 1980 presidential campaign, and Al Gore’s in 2000. He has worked on environmental issues across the Americas and has assisted several indigenous tribes in Latin America and Canada in successfully negotiating treaties protecting traditional homelands. He is credited with leading the fight to protect New York City’s water supply. The New York City watershed agreement, which he negotiated on behalf of environmentalists and New York City watershed consumers, is regarded as an international model in stakeholder consensus negotiations and sustainable development. He helped lead the fight to turn back the anti-environmental legislation during the 104th Congress.

<snip>

[saltpoint]

6. Thank you for this, Scrubdashrub.

God, they really do look a lot alike, don't they.

Many thanks for this info and material.

[SCRUBDASHRUB]

23. Certainly, Old Crusoe. They sure do look alike.

[senaca]

21. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. would be a great A.G. in New York

Selfishly, I would like to see him as A.G. or Senator of Colorado instead. I think the expertise he has with environmental/water issues would be what Colorado and the West needs at this critical juncture. That's a pie in the sky wish, however, and I wish him the best in his decision to run in New York.

[AutumnMist]

3. It Can Happen

I think the people (mass population) need to know more about Robert before they back him, outside of the family Kennedy name. He is a lawyer that has stuck to his guns when it has come to the environment and so forth. It would be a welcomed and refreshing debate in the stale political forum that we have. He has been outside of the "spotlight" for most of his life. I can only hope that the Kennedy magic and knowledge will be brought into the mainstream again. Who knows? Anything can happen.......

[saltpoint]

7. You're probably right on the national recognition beyond --

-- the Kennedy name.

And I worry that my respect for his environmental record might not translate to voters in West Virginia, for instance.

[goclark]

4. Yes, yes, yes RFK is awesome

[kwolf68]

8. RFK. Jr.

:thumbsup:

[hollowdweller]

9. Did you see him talking about water pollution on NOW this week?

He was such a good inspiring speaker. He had that ability to distill a fairly complex issue of the politics of it and put it into something that could get the message across.

[saltpoint]

11. Hi, hollowdweller. No, I didn't see it.

You're making me jealous when you tell me I've missed something like that. But I'm not always near a cable service, so it's hit or miss.

You nailed it on his ability to make something complex clear and concise.

I'm hoping he runs and wins the AG race in New York.

[fob]

32. I saw it and he was dead nuts perfecto with his description and the

way he REFRAMED the issue. Brancaccio asked him about the prevailing CW that "it's either the environment or economy(jobs)". RFKJr said, "That's a false choice," and then proceded to spell out why. Basically regulation is the method of providing a fair playing field for capitalism. Those who pollute are "shifting costs" to the masses and future generations for a profit for THEMSELVES, TODAY.

Find the transcript if there is one, it was 1000 times better than my description.

My impression from the story? RFJr has "IT", he just needs more exposure. That and the so-called librul media WILL make fun of his voice when/if he gains more nationwide exposure.

[WarNoMore]

10. I've been wanting him to run for years.

I have as much respect for him of almost anyone I can think of. I suppose the smear machine will kick into high gear.
His father's death crushed me even more than JFK's. I can think of noone better and more fitting to fill their shoes.

[saltpoint]

12. Good words for a good man.

Yes. His father's death is still weighing on me, too.

[Jonathan_Hoag]

13. Like what he did about the Hudson but ...

from the article:

"After Chernobyl, 1,000 miles around the plant were uninhabitable. One hundred miles around the plant are permanently uninhabitable,"

That is just plain false. What he should have said was 1000 square miles and 100 square miles, which corresponds to radii of 18 miles and 5.6 miles respectively. Much less than he implies.

Also a Soviet style reactor such as Chernobyl is not at all comparable to a Western water moderated reactor types. Just compare the accident at Three Mile Island with Chernobyl ...

So RFK Jr. should inform himself a bit better about nuclear energy before going off the deep end like this.

[newyawker99]

14. Hi Jonathan_Hoag!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[Jonathan_Hoag]

19. Thanks

Thank you newyaker!

[Quixote1818]

16. Welcome to DU Jonathan.

[saltpoint]

17. Fair criticism.

And welcome, by the way.

[Jonathan_Hoag]

20. Thanks

[Quixote1818]

15. I watched him Dismantle Bill O'Reilly on Fox.

It was a beautiful thing! RFK was just incredible at articulating his points and not giving an inch to O'Reilly even with his voice problems. I think he is probably about the most articulate Democrats we have and would be a great Presidential Candidate. I always thought Robert was smarter than John anyway.

[saltpoint]

18. I'm lifted by your hearty review and kind of envious that --

-- I didn't see him on O'Reilly. Anyone who can slap Bill O'Reilly around is ok in my book.

[IndyPriest]

31. Love him, too. - But what is it with the raspy voice??

Did he tear his vocal cords somewhere along the line? Just wonder if it's one of those things people would get used to or something in the way?

[Cell Whitman]

37. His voice? - he has Spasmodic dysphonia.

Last September Diane Rheme and RFK jr. discussed the vocal condition they both share, Spasmodic dysphonia. He jokes about getting mail from women who are glad to hear a male show his feelings. haha

In the second hour(11:00) of this show, the 16:00 mark, they talk about Spasmodic dysphonia, for which he takes injections of botox directly into the vocal chords. ouch!

http://www.wamu.org/programs/dr/04/09/03.php

[Cell Whitman]

22. my fave picture -- Kennedy and Cesar

[saltpoint]

24. And a great one it is.

Thank you for posting this!

[Cell Whitman]

39. I should have posted this link with the photo.

I had saved the photo some time ago and had forgotten where. I found it.

Find that photo here in the "Photo Gallery":

http://www.sfsu.edu/~cecipp/cesar_chavez/chavezhome.htm

Cesar, now there is a DESERVING Medal of Freedom recipient.

http://www.ufw.org/cecstory.htm
On August 8, 1994, at a White House ceremony, Helen Chavez, Cesar's widow, accepted the Medal of Freedom for her late husband from President Clinton. In the citation accompanying America's highest civilian honor which was awarded posthumously, the President lauded Chavez for having "faced formidable, often violent opposition with dignity and nonviolence.

And he was victorious. Cesar Chavez left our world better than he found it, and his legacy inspires us still. He was for his own people a Moses figure," the President declared. "The farm workers who labored in the fields and yearned for respect and self­sufficiency pinned their hopes on this remarkable man who, with faith and discipline, soft spoken humility and amazing inner strength, led a very courageous life"

[Cell Whitman]

40. I like this one also

scroll down almost half way here for the photo captioned:

Farm workers gather at the Santa Maria United Farm Workers Union Hall in the early 1970s.


http://chavez.cde.ca.gov/ModelCurriculum/Teachers/Lessons/Resources/Biographies/Middle_Level_Biography.aspx

[deutsey]

30. Something I wrote on RFK a couple years ago for DU

http://www.democraticunderground.com/articles/02/07/p/27_rfk.html

The RFK movie I mention in it was ok (it did focus a lot on RFK's friendship with Cesar), but it should have been much better given its subject.

[Cell Whitman]

34. Excellent article you wrote, deutsey - thanks for posting it. Well said.

I didn't see the movie. Someone should do a real movie of his life. Hard to see a made for TV effort doing the subject justice.

From your July 27, 2002 article, as you mused what the movie could be:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/articles/02/07/p/27_rfk.html

Perhaps it will remind us that our leaders should defend the principles of liberty that are the very foundation of our society. As Bobby said in 1968 at the height of the Vietnam War, our leaders should acknowledge that “debate and dissent are the very heart of the American process,” and that those who attempt to repress these American values do not understand what this country is all about. ...

Maybe it will remind us that there are values underlying authentic patriotism that run much deeper than flag-waving nationalism and economic self-interest, as when Bobby said:

“The gross national product ... measures neither our wit nor our courage; neither our wisdom nor our learning; neither our compassion nor our devotion to our country; it measures everything, in short, except that which makes life worthwhile. And it can tell us everything about America except why we are proud that we are Americans.”

http://www.democraticunderground.com/articles/02/07/p/27_rfk.html

_____

some audio:

Robert F. Kennedy: Remarks on the Assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr.

"Ladies and Gentlemen...Martin Luther King was shot and was killed tonight in Memphis, Tennessee"

http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/robertkennedyonmartinlutherking.html

____


deutsey, thanks again for posting that...

[deutsey]

36. Thank you.

That clip of Bobby telling the crowd about King's assassination is one of the best examples of American oratory, I believe.

It was impromtu,from what I understand. His advisors, in fact, tried to prevent him from even addressing the crowd after they heard the news about King, but Kennedy insisted that he go before the people.

What an amazing and powerful speech he gave...right up there with the Gettysburg Address, in my opinion.

What a loss...what damn loss.

[Democrat 4 Ever]

42. RFK was dead two months to the day after that speech.

This song says it all.

Abraham, Martin, and John
( Dion )

Anybody here seen my old friend Abraham?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
He freed a lot of people but it seems the good they die young
You know I just looked around and he's gone

Anybody here seen my old friend John?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
He freed a lot of people but it seems the good they die young
I just looked around and he's gone

Anybody here seen my old friend Martin?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
He freed a lot of people but it seems the good they die young
I just looked around and he's gone

Didn't you love the things that they stood for?
Didn't they try to find some good for you and me?
And we'll be free
Some day soon, it's gonna be one day

Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up over the hill
With Abraham, Martin, and John

[deutsey]

46. Bobby's funeral is one of my first memories

I was three years old and I remember watching it on TV with my mom and grandmother, both of whom were terribly sad. It was hot and the floor fan droned in the quiet.

Damn it, his inauguration should have been one of my first memories.

[B0S0X87]

25. He'd make a good candidate

but, good God, can you imagine what kind of mud the GOP will fling at him. From what I've heard, his actions during his twenties weren't always within the boundaries of the law.

Not that it matters to me, I don't care what someone did thirty years ago... but I'm sure Rove & Co. do.

[SharonAnn]

26. No problem, he can just uses *'s lines. Something like this "I was young

and irresponsible when I was young and irresponsible."

It worked for *!

[cali]

33. No he can't

there's just way too much scandal in his past, much of it true. Any race he's in will turn into a stupid media circus, with day after day of dirt being exposed by the disgusting media. It's going to be nigh on impossible for him to pull off the 'young and irresponsible' line.

[bobbyboucher]

44. Can you expound?

So many Kennedy troubles, so little time. Can you tell me more about Robert Jr. troubled past, I am not familiar with his particular problems.

[saltpoint]

50. Is your only objection to RFK, Jr. entering the AG race --

-- that he has some unsavory events in his past?

Honestly, that seems a bit hard-headed. Robert Byrd was in the Ku Klux Klan for Christ's sake, and he's a U.S. Senator.

Teddy Roosevelt once said that it wasn't not that one had dwelt "in the dark house that mattered, but whether one is now free" of it.

When someone is willing to enter public life and give personal energy to public service, might it not inspire a more charitable response by others?

[Auntie Bush]

27. I want RFK for AG

and Elliot Spritzer for Governor.

[saltpoint]

28. Hi, Aunti Bush.

Your combo sounds like a winner to me.

I'm a little jealous of New York Staters who may get to live in a state where this could happen.

[MoonRiver]

29. AWESOME! Go, RFK, go!!!

:dem: :kick: :dem:

[garybeck]

35. I wish he would join the Election Fraud fight (n/t)

[saltpoint]

47. So do I, garybeck.

He would bring a lot of good energy to a good cause if he did.

[ElsewheresDaughter]

38. you're singing to the choir here....and i love the song!.......

oh and BTW he'll get my vote and support

[saltpoint]

48. Loved how you put that subject line, ElsewheresDaughter.

I hope good things for RFK, Jr. and I think he will be the kind of public servant the Kennedys can be at their very best.

[indigolady]

41. I just saw him speak in Long Beach, CA

He said he can't afford to run for AG because he's got six kids and some of them are college aged.

He's fabulous. He really tells it like it is.

He's doing good work.

[saltpoint]

49. I'm doing a little pouting, indigolady, because you've --

-- heard him and I haven't.

Your assessment that he does good work sounds mighty sound to me.

Good wishes.

[hollowdweller]

45. Here's some of his killer interview with NOW

ROBERT F. KENNEDY, JR: --have a free market, you need regulation. And what all the federal environmental laws were meant to do was to restore free market capitalism in this country. We're not protecting nature for the sake of the fishes or the birds. Or for nature's sake. We're protecting it because nature enriches us. When we destroy nature, we diminish ourselves. We impoverish our children.

And you know-- we're not protecting those ancient forests in the Pacific Northwest, as Rush Limbaugh loves to say, for the sake of a spotted owl. We're preserving them because we believe that trees have more value to humanity standing than they would have if we cut them down. You know, this administration and sometimes industry says that we have to choose between environmental protection on the one hand and economic prosperity on the other.

BRANCACCIO: That's often the way the debate is framed. In other words, environment versus jobs. And people tend to pick jobs if you present it that way.

ROBERT F. KENNEDY, JR: It's a false choice. In 100 % of the situations, good environmental policy is identical to good economic policy. Environmental injury is deficit spending. It's a way of loading the cost of our generation's prosperity onto the backs of our children. If we treat the planet as if it were a business in liquidation, convert our natural resources to cash as quickly as possible, have a few years of pollution-based prosperity, we can generate an instantaneous cash flow and the illusion of a prosperous economy. But our children are going to pay for our joy ride.

BRANCACCIO: Do you go fishing with your kids ever?

ROBERT F. KENNEDY, JR: I go fishing with my kids-- you know, in the summertime I would say almost everyday. And customarily we used to eat a lot of fish. But I don't let my kids eat freshwater fish anymore. And that's a really sad thing.

My children and the children of millions of most Americans are now living in a science fiction nightmare where they can no longer engage in the seminal primal activity of American youth which is go fishing with their father and mother and to come home and eat the fish

Read the rest: http://www.pbs.org/now/transcript/transcriptNOW103_full.html