Ready Teddy

SEN. Ted Kennedy (D., Mass.) rarely misses an opportunity to take a shot across the aisle. On March 18, during a charged Labor and Human Resources Committee meeting on the pending tobacco deal, chairman Jim Jeffords (R., Vt.) had a bill on the table to require a 60 per cent reduction over ten years in smoking by people under age 21. Kennedy launched into a fierce attack on Republicans, accusing them of selling out to tobacco lobbyists. He then offered an amendment that would have required an 80 per cent drop in underage smoking. If you don’t vote for my amendment, he roared, you’re allowing 1.1 million children to smoke, and one-third of them will die. Kennedy picked up two GOP votes, and his amendment passed.

Republicans hate and fear Kennedy not because he has the most liberal voting record in the Senate—it is possible, though barely, to outflank him on the left—but because he’s so good at advancing his causes through a clever mix of demagoguery and pragmatism. In front of TV cameras or on the Senate floor, he will accuse Republicans of heinous iniquities. The GOP “is basically anti-civil-rights, anti-immigrant, anti-women, [and] anti-worker,” he said in December. Yet behind closed doors, he is adept at sweet-talking the odd Republican into helping him expand government-run health care or increase the minimum wage. Over the last four years, Kennedy has become the Democrats’ most vital asset in the Senate, a guerrilla fighter whose party may not be able to control the legislative agenda, but who keeps Majority Leader Trent Lott and the GOP constantly off balance.

About the Author

John J. Miller

John J. Miller, a former national correspondent for National Review, is the director of the Dow Journalism Program at Hillsdale College. He is the author of A Gift of Freedom: How the John M. Olin Foundation Changed America.

Featured Tags

SEN. Ted Kennedy (D., Mass.) rarely misses an opportunity to take a shot across the aisle. On March 18, during a charged Labor and Human Resources Committee meeting on the pending tobacco deal, chairman Jim Jeffords (R., Vt.) had a bill on the table to require a 60 per cent reduction over ten years in smoking by people under age 21. Kennedy launched into a fierce attack on Republicans, accusing them of selling out to tobacco lobbyists. He then offered an amendment that would have required an 80 per cent drop in underage smoking. If you don’t vote for my amendment, he roared, you’re allowing 1.1 million children to smoke, and one-third of them will die. Kennedy picked up two GOP votes, and his amendment passed.

Republicans hate and fear Kennedy not because he has the most liberal voting record in the Senate—it is possible, though barely, to outflank him on the left—but because he’s so good at advancing his causes through a clever mix of demagoguery and pragmatism. In front of TV cameras or on the Senate floor, he will accuse Republicans of heinous iniquities. The GOP “is basically anti-civil-rights, anti-immigrant, anti-women, [and] anti-worker,” he said in December. Yet behind closed doors, he is adept at sweet-talking the odd Republican into helping him expand government-run health care or increase the minimum wage. Over the last four years, Kennedy has become the Democrats’ most vital asset in the Senate, a guerrilla fighter whose party may not be able to control the legislative agenda, but who keeps Majority Leader Trent Lott and the GOP constantly off balance.

About the Author

John J. Miller

John J. Miller, a former national correspondent for National Review, is the director of the Dow Journalism Program at Hillsdale College. He is the author of A Gift of Freedom: How the John M. Olin Foundation Changed America.