Teddy Chappaquiddick sure is a predictable old womanizing drunk, because the blogosphere has him nailed dead to rights:
ON JANUARY 30, TOM MASON BLOGGED THIS:
I want to point out something to everyone who is bashing Senator Kennedy for calling for an immediate withdrawal of 12,000 troops following the elections. That was the Bush administration plan all along, except for the “immediate” part. U.S. forces were increased by 12,000 in the last month or two in order to help with security for the elections. So we will see the troop levels decrease by 12,000 in the very near future. I wonder if when the troops start coming home, the MSM will say that Bush realized that Kennedy was right after all?
Senator [Kennedy] is not stupid. He made a prediction on an event he knew was going to happen. Now he’s hoping that everyone will be too stupid to notice.
And voila! Kennedy’s plan works.
Today, the old drunk was on Meet the Press:
MR. RUSSERT: But, Senator, there is a difference. I asked him, “Do you agree with Senator Kennedy…”
SEN. KENNEDY: That’s right.
MR. RUSSERT: “…on a fixed timetable?” He said no.
SEN. KENNEDY: I agree that he doesn’t agree with my call for the immediate troop withdrawals, although we’ve had, as we saw in the Armed Services Committee just this last week, that–General Myers effectively announcing the withdrawal of some 15,000 troops, like I had suggested.
In other words: “I was right, I was right!” What a cynical, deceitful jerk. Then there was this bit:
MR. RUSSERT: Senator, John Kerry, your colleague from Massachusetts, has called on the secretary of defense to resign. Do you agree with Senator Kerry?
SEN. KENNEDY: Well, I had asked for his resignation previously at the time of Abu Ghraib. But the issue really isn’t his resignation. It’s about changing of policy. And I think what we just heard in the last half-hour is why we need a strategy and why we need a policy that is going to permit the American to bring our troops home with honor.
Hrmm. Peace with honor. Where have I heard that before? Ted Kennedy is the modern Pied Piper, singing the same old tune as he leads these rats down the path to complete irrelevance.
Good riddance.
*** Update ***
Others comment.
reliapundit
love the post – and the blog.
i coined the nickname:
teddy jo kopechne.
i think it rolls off the bridge – i mean rolls off the tongue better than teddy chappaquidick.
please feel free to use it.
the fact that teddy jo’s use of the pre-planned withdrawal was predicted PROVES not only that he’s a cynical blowhard but that thinks very little of his followers. he doesnlt think they’ll catch him in a flagrant misuse of the facts.
when will they wake up!?
maybe we need 50 million 2×4’s to whack some sense in’em!?
Tom The Friendly Ghost
I’m supposed to be working, but this story is just too good. Thanks for the linkage.
wild bird
Need anymore reasons why we need to impeach chapaqedic ted he is your avrage left-wing politician whos forgotten about his late brothers legacy its time to put this dip-wad out to pasture
Kimmitt
It sounds like he’s expressing his political opinion that the candle in Iraq isn’t worth the flame. You may not agree with it, but it’s a perspective which has some support.
Bob
I’m trying to parse this. Ted Kennedy says let’s get the troops back home. wild bird wants to impeach him by invoking his dead brothers. Robert Kennedy wanted out of Vietnam long before his assassination, by the time of his assassination JFK made it official policy to get out of Vietnam.
wild bird wants Ted Kennedy impeached for impure thinking. reliapundit wants 50 million 2 x 4s, the sick thug son of a bitch that he is.
That’s what I keep pointing out about you little bully boys around here. Can’t tolerate an opposing view, want to imagine yourselves beating up the disbelievers. Instead of dreaming about 50 million 2 x 4s, get your fat ass over to Iraq and catch some bullets for Exxon. Or maybe take your turn caring for the wounded at your local VA hospital.
Enjoy the Super Bowl, wimps.
Observer
More Kennedy transcript parsing at LGF in post #187:
http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/?entry=14610#c0187
S.W. Anderson
The way you can’t disagree with the guy without being mean-spirited, vindictive and calling names is revealing, all right, but not about Ted Kennedy.
Numbers of troops in, troops out, troops earmakred for deployment, redeployment and involuntary/stop-loss hold are being tossed around to the point where anybody could be confused. I don’t buy it that Kennedy cunningly called for 12,000 troops to be withdrawn knowing the Pentagon planned to do that anyway. I suspect if you were to ask him, he’d say if that’s the case, then withdraw another 12,000.
Your post is the sort of discourse we get when conservatives and Republicans get to run things
Mikey
It definitely shows that Sen. Kennedy knows how to work the media, but then again, he’s been a senator for decades and should know how to work the reporters. Be surprising if he didn’t.
John Cole
MY MO is showing? After I outline precisely Teddy Chappaquiddick’s cynical posturing and positioning?
The only way that SW’s analysis of what happened can be true is if the military heard Teddy speak, and decided to withdraw down by the magic number for political pressure. The notion is absurd.
BTW- Is it the Democrat’s position that there are TOO MANY troops now in Iraq?
Your willingness to believe the party line is amazing.
CadillaqJaq
Apparentlly in the name calling department S.W. missed Bob’s reference to several other posters of a different polical bent referring to them as “you little bully boys” and “wimps.” Shame, and it appears that Bob is peeing on himself again as he attempts political discourse.
George Saras
I see that Bob, he-who-can-type-without-a-functioning-brain, is at it again. What is this hangup that you have, Bob, with “bully boys?” Are you looking for a little roughing up in order to try to get your rocks off?
Mikey
George, I think it’s just the nature of website comment pages – all those guys who wished they could have told someone off a long time ago can now, through the wonders of anonymity, do so in perfect safety. That’s why you have people coming in to comment pages and immediately picking a fight with the host or the other posters.
I’m not a psychologist, but I’d say a little compensation is going on. Of course, I may be wrong; it may be a principled stand for deeply held beliefs. But then again, I may be wrong.
JPS
Has anyone ever seen Bob and Robert McClelland in the same room together?
Minus a few mannerisms (i.e. if Bobby Mac were to take medication to overcome his compulsive use of phrases like “reich-whingers”), the style is exactly the same. Unclever insults, deliberately rude and patently disingenuous pleas for civility on the part of the very people he’s insulting.
Dammit, don’t we all miss Bobby Mac?
Paul
JPS:
Bob, Robert Mc, and legions of other brainwashed moonbats are virtually indistinguishable from each other simply because their Marxoid puppet masters have programmed them to regurgitate their talking points reflexively, without moderating input from any sort of individual thought, which by now, they are simply incapable of.
That’s why after the first shopworn cliche one can rightfully assume the content of the rest of the ensuing idiocy and just scroll on by.
S.W. Anderson
John, you call Ted Kennedy names and say he’s cynically positioning and posturing. My “analysis,” as you characterize it, simply allowed how being confused by all the numbers bandied about could also be an explanation.
I can’t speak for other Democrats about troop strength. My position since about the first post-invasion week was that the force in country should have been 50 percent to 100 percent larger.
Those additional troops could’ve played a crucial role in suppressing what has come to be called the insurgency, in the cities, especially the Sunni Triangle. They also could’ve gone a long way toward securing Iraq’s borders, which foolishly have been left porous as a seive.
S.W. Anderson
Cadillacjaq, I can’t speak for Bob or anyone else.
There’s too much name calling and sliming being done by people on both sides of the political divide. It’s all cheap-shot worthless.
I don’t expect to win every argument or see a band of converts trailing behind me. But even in arguments it’s possible to learn things or appreciate other perspectives, even without agreeing
Bob
George Saras asks: What is my hang-up with “bully boys”? Well, that’s the way fascism works in the streets. You beat up people you disagree with. End of discussion. You guys here aren’t quite up to swinging fists in the streets quite yet. You’re just poseur bully boys. Bully boys lite. It’s anti-democratic to argue against something by saying how you want to beat someone to death instead, perhaps, of actually discussing issues. You are incapable of rational argument, only anger and imaginary fisticuffs.
By the way, George, you raised your old country (Greece) in an earlier post, but seemed quite reticent to share with us where you and your family stood when the fascists took over Greece in the 1960s. Embarrassed?
Bob
CadillacJaq, context is all. Bully boy is an apt description for you and your like. Shout down, beat down someone with whom you don’t agree. This is because you can’t argue your point.
Bob
Paul, thank you for your clarification. Marxoid puppet master, indeed.
Bob
I see all this claptrap around here about how unpatriotic it is that Democrats are meekly suggesting an exist date.
I know memory cells are in short supply around here, but when the war was orginally sold to the public in 2003 (remember, with WMDs?) there began a series of dates when the US forces were going to be out of Iraq provided by the Bush Administration. First it was Christmas of 2003, then Christmas of 2004. Now it’s at least 120,000 troops there for at least two more years, which presumes that the Iraqis have no say in how long we stay (isn’t democracy wonderful!). My guess is that unless there are wholesale changes in Congress there will plenty of cannon fodder over there at the end of George’s reign.
Enjoy it, bully boys.
Excuse me, I’m getting another message from my Marxoid puppet master on the shortwave.
Mikey
Bob, I’m sorry, I don’t recall any exit dates, certainly not a ‘boys home by Christmas’ date. Are you talking all units out by that date, certain units out never to return, or to cycle some units through by that date?
BTW: Yeah! Let’s abandon them to the Baathists and Zarqawi’s Boys! That’d be honorable!
Terry
Bob:
I don’t know what your problem is beyond an enormous level of total and absolute ignorance on just about every issue that you raise/discuss. From your periodic bouts of trying to tie the Bush family to Hitler to your rather bizarre charges about “bully boys,” one is left with the clear and distinct impression that you are merely a fucking moron, who is also suffering from some kind of mental problem. SEEK HELP!!!
CadillaqJaq
Strange, I never pictured myself as a “bully boy.’ thanks, Bob, very enlightening.
Maybe you or someone else proposing exit dates can explain what our exit strategy for Germany, Japan, and Korea might be. We still have troops in those countries.
And let’s tell Zarqawi etal when we plan to vacate so he can wait for the day and then commence the slaughter unhindered. Or are you naive enough to believe that when we “exit” he will go away satisfied that he did his job? IMO, your “Exit date” pratter is just another Dem/liberal Bush-bashing talking point: never any solutions, just constant carping or preaching to the choir. Where’s a Jack Kennedy when you need him?
There, that’s my view: anyone care to “debate” or shall we continue the name calling?
SPQR
When Bob says we can’t debate, evidently he means by his rules. Which includes fraudulent claims, made up facts and other prevarications.
By that standard, nope, I can’t.