I’m with Mark, but I’d take it a step further. I think Peggy is simply wrong. I would bet Ted Kennedy is proud and unapologetic about his vicious and shameful attack on Robert Bork and I don’t think it has cost Ted Kennedy one tiny bit in any circles he cares about. He’s an untarnished hero of the Democratic Party and most of the mainstream press. Other than decency and truth (never top priorities for Kennedy, in my book), why should Kennedy apologize for something he doesn’t regret and for which most liberals are grateful?

Update: From a reader:

Subject: Read Peggy carefully
Jonah:
In saying, “I think Peggy is simply wrong,” you have not parsed her words:
“Ask Ted Kennedy, if he had it to do over again, if he would repeat all his intemperate and unjust words about “Bob Bork’s America” and “back-alley abortions” and blacks turned away from lunch counters. He’d be a fool if he said yes.”
She did not assert that he would definitely not say, “yes.” Only that he would be a fool if he did. You are right about how he would answer the question, and she is right about why.
A Fan of Both Writers