Asking Why
Celebrating RFK as AG.

By NR Editors
From “The Week,” December 17, 2001, issue, of National Review

resident Bush named the Department of Justice building after Robert F. Kennedy. What aspect of Kennedy's stint as attorney general did Bush wish to celebrate? Defending the civil rights of blacks in the South less zealously than the Eisenhower administration? Crusading against the mobsters who were the friends and patrons of his father and brother? Robert Kennedy made his mark, not as attorney general, but as a politician, and his record — as Michael Knox Beran has pointed out — is mixed, which is not unusual with people who are passionate and confused. The Kennedy family will certainly not thank Bush for his favor — they will view it as only one of the many little perks, along with drug habits and elective office, they are entitled to. A bad move.