One Small Step for an Elector, One Giant Leap for the Electorate
Well, what do you know?
Joe Kennedy decided today that he would not run to fill the Senate seat vacated by his uncle, Ted Kennedy.
I should note that Joe Kennedy held a House seat for six terms, from 1987 to 1999, but his tenure in the House was not a particularly stellar one. Were his last name not Kennedy, it would be difficult to say that he was better qualified than any of the current Massachusetts House delegation. And perhaps his not entering the race will make the media pay attention to the actual policies that the actual candidates—none named Kennedy— might actually propound.
Labels: Joe Kennedy, Massachusetts politics, Senate, Ted Kennedy
Great Moments in Theology
It's no surprise that Senator Ted Kennedy is not a well man; he was diagnosed with brain cancer in May of 2008. And perhaps it is news when he has the president convey a letter to Pope Benedict.
But when the contents of the letter are kept private, which is sillier: publishing almost 1000 words in a newspaper of record about a letter whose contents are unknown, or being a purportedly smart academic and, well, pontificating in public about that letter?
I'm going with the latter. Remember, the letter might have, essentially, told Pope Benedict that his acts to coddle Holocaust deniers and anti-Semites were an embarrassment to Catholics everywhere.
"I find it quite moving," said the Rev. Robert P. Imbelli, a Catholic theologian at Boston College. "Clearly, when one Catholic asks another to pray for him, this is a sign both of vulnerability and of trust. To have the opportunity to ask that of the pope is, in addition, a sign of devotion and respect for the one Catholics hold to be the successor of St. Peter with a special role in maintaining the unity and apostolic tradition of the church."
Labels: fact-free journalism, Pope Benedict, Stupid reporting tricks, Ted Kennedy
