Two Lives: Ted Kennedy versus Eunice Kennedy Schriver

This column by Ross Douthat, the token conservative at The New York Times, is an excellent comparison of the lives pro-life liberal, Eunice Kennedy Schriver and Ted Kennedy, who died within 13 days of each other in August. The money quote:

"What the siblings shared — in addition to the grace, rare among Kennedys, of a ripe old age and a peaceful death — was a passionate liberalism and an abiding Roman Catholic faith. These two commitments were intertwined: Ted Kennedy’s tireless efforts on issues like health care, education and immigration were explicitly rooted in Catholic social teaching, and so was his sister’s lifelong labor on behalf of the physically and mentally impaired.

What separated them was abortion.

Along with her husband, Sargent Shriver, Eunice belonged to America’s dwindling population of outspoken pro-life liberals. Like her church, she saw a continuity, rather than a contradiction, between championing the poor, the marginalized and the oppressed and protecting unborn human life." . . .

For abortion opponents, cruel ironies abounded in this sibling disagreement. Because of Eunice Shriver’s work with the developmentally disabled, a group of Americans who had once been marginalized and hidden away — or lobotomized, like her sister Rosemary — was ushered closer to full participation in ordinary human life. But because of laws that her brother unstintingly supported, that same group was ushered out again: the abortion rate for fetuses diagnosed with Down syndrome, for instance, is estimated to be as high as 90 percent."

It is well-worth reading- excellent writing and a strong point. For the rest go here.

Andrea Mrozek is not surprised the Kennedy woman was pro-life and the Kennedy man was pro-abortion.

Ted Kennedy: Successful Politican - That's All

The news coverage of Ted Kennedy's passing has been so obviously colored by the empathy of the main stream media for Kennedy's leftist views that it is rather embarassing. The left portrays itself as the party of compassion, the ones who care about the little guy - unlike the hard-hearted conservatives who only care about rigid laws and principles. Yet, it is precisely rigid laws and principles that really protect the little people and it is those who think they live above such petty rules and principles who turn compassion into a hypocritical marketing slogan and provoke cynicism about politics.

Kennedy was a long-term senator who influenced a lot of legislation and exerted a lot of political influence in his party. That is it - not a knight of Camelot, not a saviour figure, not a man of granite principle. Just an influential pol who parlayed a famous name into a long political career. We should mark his passing with respect and express condolences to his family. But the media just can't seem to help itself when it comes to a Kennedy.

It is hard to respect a man who claims to be a Roman Catholic and derives huge political capital from his association with his Church in a heavily Catholic state and then who, when the political winds shift, chooses influence within his party over what his religion teaches on the greatest civil rights issue of our generation - namely abortion. He is probably one of the very few men in America during the second half of the Twentieth century who could have led a successful movement to overturn Roe v. Wade. But he made his choice and never, so far as we know, ever repented. He could have been a hero, (and maybe a martyr), but he chose to be successful as the world measures success.

His over-the-top deployment of the politics of personal destruction with Robert Bork helped to polarize American politics and helped fan into flame the culture wars. His infamous speech attacking Bork contributed to the degradation of political speech in America. His personal life would have driven a non-Kennedy out of politics. When the chips were down, he looked out for number one on that fateful night on Chappaquiddick Island in 1969. Compassion is cheap when it comes to society in general.

I've read a lot of columns and stories on Ted Kennedy this week. For my money, Mark Steyn has the best take. It is called "Airbrushing out Mary Jo Kopechne. Only a Kennedy could get away with it." Isn't that the truth? Read it here.

UPDATE:
Since I slammed the MSM in this post and since the New York Times is as mainstream as it gets, I thought I should acknowledge this fairly balanced article in today's paper.