The American Spectator

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Great and Not So Great

7.18.07 @ 12:01AM

GREAT STUFF
Re: Lars Walker's Alfred, Bruce, and Percy -- No Sissies:

Thank you for the absolutely splendid article by Lars Walker on Alfred, Bruce and Percy. Well said!
-- Hal G. P. Colebatch

JUNIOR BOBBY
Re: Jeffrey Lord's The Vitterization of RFK, Jr.:

You're right, Vitter's problem really is easily recognizable. While what he's done is hypocritical -- and, yes, he can do better -- he's an imperfect man who unfortunately lives in a mostly adolescent-minded country where most people can't even spell forgiveness, grace and mercy, much less extend any or all of those to someone else, especially public figures. They're umpires in a one-strike-you're-out-game as long as none of them are batting. Even your words essentially prophesy his being branded with a scarlet letter.

And to coin a word "Vitterization"? Come on. If anything, using your convention, Vitter's experienced Clintonization or double Clintonization. He's been Kerry-ized, Edwards-ized, Algore-uses-tons-of-electricity-ized. Perhaps even Ted-Kennedy-ized.

As for RFK Jr., indeed he seems to behave hypocritically regarding corporations. But I suggest that his hypocrisy extends well beyond just his silence on the Bank of America and its contributed funds to the Kennedy Library. He desperately needs those corporations he so despises. Were it not for them, he wouldn't have much of a law practice or wouldn't have much to do at the Natural Resources Defense Council, would he? Nor would he receive his far-too-broad share of the spotlight in the news media, funded by corporate advertisements. Nor would he have all those jets to fly around in. Etc.

But why should RFK Jr. do better? He's on a roll, given a pass by the print and broadcast mainstream-media for his hypocrisy because of his liberal lineage, his current politics, his so-called "environmental" stances, his anti-capitalist rhetoric.
-- C. Kenna Amos
Princeton, West Virginia

I don't want to poke holes in your youthful illusions about the Kennedys but I am afraid I must. There is another side of the Kennedy family legacy that the baby boomers choose to forget and suppress from public discussion. For most of the family's political life the Kennedys have been enamored with the worst kind of leaders and governments. Old Joe was a Nazi sympathizer. When not cheating in school or on his wife, Teddy was cozying up to the Kremlin leadership. Now, the junior Bobby is great friends with Hugo Chavez, the next Latin American strongman posturing as a Communist man of the people. If you want to show junior's hypocrisy, why not point out that as he calls the Exxon Management a bunch of traitors, he has acted as a spokesman for Chavez's oil business. Even the "good" Kennedys weren't so good. We all know that JFK was connected to the Mob and RFK's idealism seemed to be newly acquired after his stint as the Democratic counsel to the McCarthy committee.

And by the way, the push for Civil Rights didn't come from JFK. It came from Vice President Lyndon Johnson. Kennedy himself was more concerned with economic growth at home and fighting Communism abroad. Probably the only two things the Kennedy family did that benefited the country.
-- Jerrold Goldblatt
Arlington, Virginia

While I am no fan of RFK Jr., the logic Mr. Lord uses to accuse him of hypocrisy is so convoluted to almost defy review.

The Bank of America contributes to the support of JFK's library, so any criticism by RFK Jr. of corporations in general or banks in particular is hypocritical?

I think Mr. Lord reached too high and too far for this one.
-- John F. Conroy
Memphis, Tennessee

Jeffrey Lord replies:
The point, with respect to Mr. Conroy, is simple. Mr. Kennedy runs around America loudly portraying politicians who accept money from corporations as corrupt. Indeed, he specifically accuses the Bush administration of both 1) accepting support from said corporations and 2) being corrupt ("plundering") simply as a result of accepting said funds. He is particularly harsh about the role of bankers, and repeatedly implies that it is immoral if not criminal to be accepting this kind of money. At no time does Mr. Kennedy confess that, yes indeed, his own father's legacy is being financially fueled by the a corporation heavily funding President Bush. Surely if he feels as strongly as he claims he could easily seek out others -- i.e., non-Bush supporting corporations -- to promote the politics of his father's legacy. If one argues that lying down with dogs means one rises with fleas, does this mean the fleas can be said to vanish if the dogs inhabit your kennel -- for a price "above $25,000"?

Sorry Mr. Lord, but your naive adolescent idolatry of the Kennedy clan is still evident. How else to explain your absurd calculus of moral equivalence between the relatively minor indiscretions of an unknown Republican senator and those of Robert Kennedy Jr.? To compare the two, is laughable at best and highly offensive at worst. Spare me the hand wringing over a public man who has succumbed to his carnal lusts. Perhaps you have forgotten the horrific treatment of Marilyn Monroe and others, by JFK and RFK, and the pass given to them by the MSM, especially Ben Bradlee and the Washington Post? Dare I also mention Chappaquiddick? No such luck for Mr. Vitter. Oh no, he gets the full media treatment. No wonder why Bill Clinton was in awe of the Kennedy's. In addition, you focus on RFK Jr.'s obsession with the Bank of America, yet make scant mention of his other world-class hypocrisies. Whatever Vitter's sins may be, he at least, is not trying to systematically dismantle American capitalism with the thinly veiled Marxist scam of global warming; while RFK Jr. lavishes in the corporate largess that fund the Kennedy family trusts, some of which are off shore to avoid American taxes. But hey, you got the last line right, so perhaps you might try this;" Some people see conservative hypocrisy and say why? Others see liberal hypocrisy and say why not."
-- A. DiPentima

When I think of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. I think of a saying my father used to tell me, you can spit on a prostitute and she would say it is raining.
-- Maxwell Bricks
Princeton, New Jersey

Letter to the Editor

topics:
Taxes, Education, Bill Clinton, Business, Islam, Environment, Global Warming, Law, Iraq, Israel, NATO, Communism, Oil