Ted Kennedy’s Road to Serfdom

WASHINGTON—When Senator Edward Kennedy went to Georgetown University in April to deliver a major address on the state of the Democratic Party, the auditorium was barely half full. Only two months earlier Gentlemen’s Quarterly had published a piece on the senator detailing some of the juicier aspects of his rather public private life. Yet despite the scandals and the apparent lack of interest among the Democratic faithful, the senior senator from Massachusetts is probably more influential today than ever before. The Wall Street Journal recently ran a story under the telling headline: “Kennedy’s Views Are Listened to Frequently and Seriously by Bush, Quayle, and Sununu.”

As head of the Senate Labor and Human Resources Committee, Senator Kennedy sets much of the Federal Government’s domestic agenda. His huge staff constitutes a virtual Democratic White House in exile, and it has helped him get more initiatives enacted into law than the vast majority of his colleagues. Liberalism may be passé, but its crown prince is having all too much success in pushing America down the road to serfdom.

WASHINGTON—When Senator Edward Kennedy went to Georgetown University in April to deliver a major address on the state of the Democratic Party, the auditorium was barely half full. Only two months earlier Gentlemen’s Quarterly had published a piece on the senator detailing some of the juicier aspects of his rather public private life. Yet despite the scandals and the apparent lack of interest among the Democratic faithful, the senior senator from Massachusetts is probably more influential today than ever before. The Wall Street Journal recently ran a story under the telling headline: “Kennedy’s Views Are Listened to Frequently and Seriously by Bush, Quayle, and Sununu.”

As head of the Senate Labor and Human Resources Committee, Senator Kennedy sets much of the Federal Government’s domestic agenda. His huge staff constitutes a virtual Democratic White House in exile, and it has helped him get more initiatives enacted into law than the vast majority of his colleagues. Liberalism may be passé, but its crown prince is having all too much success in pushing America down the road to serfdom.