Ted Kennedy Loses to an Empty Chair, Again

Ted Kennedy Loses to an Empty Chair, Again

If memory serves, it’s been 27 years since Ted Kennedy confronted a debating opponent with whom he could match wits. In 1976, Teddy was trying to drag the eventual Democratic nominee Jimmy Carter down to his level by challenging him to debates. Polls had Carter comfortably ahead, so he saw no reason to confer any legitimacy upon the hero of Chappaquiddick. So, Kennedy unilaterally scheduled a debate, and when Carter didn’t show, Kennedy debated an empty chair. He argued both sides, putting words into the mouth his absent opponent and rebutting them with his own arguments. As I recall, Kennedy lost the debate, but by a respectably narrow margin.
Senator Kennedy (D – Massachusetts, although these days he probably spills over into Connecticut and Rhode Island) was giving his empty chair routine another go last week. In the process, he established himself as Robert Byrd’s (D -Stone Age) rival for the role of his party’s crazy aunt in the attic.
Teddy’s still unhappy about the 14 month long “rush to war” with Iraq. He’s unhappy that we don’t let the French dictate our foreign policy. He claims to be dissatisfied that we haven’t attacked North Korea yet.
In criticizing President Bush’s justification for war with Iraq, Senator Kennedy fulminated that, "There was no imminent threat. This was made up in Texas."
Interestingly, at least two prominent politicians agree with Kennedy that there was no imminent threat from Iraq. And one of them is George W. Bush himself. During the State of the Union Address earlier this year he said: "Some have said we must not act until the threat is imminent. Since when have terrorists and tyrants announced their intentions, politely putting us on notice before they strike? If this threat is permitted to fully and suddenly emerge, all actions, all words, and all recriminations would come too late. Trusting in the sanity and restraint of Saddam Hussein is not a strategy, and it is not an option."
So there. George Bush himself said that Iraq was not an imminent threat. What deceit has Kennedy uncovered?
The current frontrunner for the Democratic presidential nomination was apparently listening the speech more closely than Ted was. "The president has never said that Saddam has the capability of striking the United States with atomic or biological weapons any time in the immediate future," said Howard Dean.
Ah well. Who can blame poor Ted. By the time the president delivered his speech, the bars had been open for hours.
And sadly, with the sound of black helicopters wop-wopping outside his window, Ted dug his hole a little deeper. “This was made up in Texas, announced in January to the Republican leadership that war was going to take place and was going to be good politically. This whole thing was a fraud.”.
And as for the money President Bush has requested to rebuild Iraq into a peaceful democratic nation, “My belief is this money is being shuffled all around to these political leaders in all parts of the world, bribing them to send in troops.”
Of course, Kennedy offered no evidence to support any of these charges. If there were any evidence, then he would be morally obligated to make it public so Articles of Impeachment can be introduced in Congress. This would be a fraud equivalent to Lynden Johnson’s imaginary Gulf of Tonkin incident that he used to entangle the United States in the real Vietnam quagmire. But then, Ted has never experienced a moral obligation.
Sadly, it appears that the increasingly irrelevant Mr. Kennedy has simply fallen back upon his old empty chair tactics. By putting the words, “imminent threat,” into the president’s mouth, he can rebut that claim with evidence that no nuclear, chemical or biological weapons have yet been found.
And why shouldn’t he? Of late, Democrats have called Bush a liar because there is no proven link between Saddam Hussein and the September 11 attacks. Again, if they wanted a reference, they could use George W. Bush’s own words. In fact, immediately after the attacks, his administration went far out of its way to deny press reports that there was a link between the hijackers and Saddam Hussein.
Either Ted has failed to remember losing to that chair 27 years ago, or he’s moving himself upstairs, into the attic.