Liberals turning on Sen. Windbag
Left-leaning columnist Froma Harrop reports on progressive unhappiness with one of the Senate’s biggest blowhards, Teddy Kennedy. His eco-hypocrisy, it seems, is too much for them to take:
Once upon a time, Ted Kennedy could count on his daily dose of veneration. The right wing hated the Massachusetts Democrat, but progressives honored him as a defender of old-school liberalism.
In a remarkable turnaround, liberals are now heaping scorn on the 73-year-old senator. Young audiences boo at his name, and the leftish “Daily Show” on Comedy Central makes fun of him.
The source of unhappiness is Kennedy’s efforts to kill an offshore wind farm on Nantucket Sound. Cape Wind was to be the first such project in the United States and a source of pride to environmentally minded New Englanders. Polls show 84 percent of Massachusetts residents in favor. But now it appears that America’s first offshore wind farm will be near Galveston, Texas.
Proposed the month before Sept. 11, 2001, Cape Wind remains in limbo. It’s been frustrated at every turn by a handful of yachtsmen, Kennedy included, who don’t want to see windmills from their verandas. Many millions have been spent spreading disinformation and smearing the wind farm’s supporters.
Kennedy has received bipartisan help from other wealthy Senate elitists:
The sordid affair is documented in a funny and depressing book titled “Cape Wind: Money, Celebrity, Class, Politics and the Battle for Our Energy Future on Nantucket Sound.” In it, authors Wendy Williams and Robert Whitcomb (full disclosure: Whitcomb is my editor at The Providence Journal) describe the bipartisan endeavor to betray America’s environmental and energy interests — and ignore the welfare of the year-round locals.
Kennedy did much of the dirty work in Washington, but he had considerable help. In 2004, Sen. John Warner, the Virginia Republican, added a last-minute rider to an urgent Iraq War funding bill that forbade the Army Corps of Engineers to spend money permitting offshore wind projects.
“Warner was dragging American troops into the Cape Wind war,” Williams and Whitcomb noted. The outcry forced him to back down.
Why did Warner care so deeply about a wind-energy project in Massachusetts? Some of his fabulously wealthy relatives own choice waterfront property on Cape Cod. That’s why.
Anchorage is 4,600 miles from Boston. And so what was this project to Rep. Don Young, the Alaska Republican? It was apparently an opportunity to exercise an old grudge against Theodore Roosevelt IV, the 26th president’s great-grandson and a wind-farm supporter.
Crapweasels all.
Telling, isn’t it, that it took a skirmish over a damned wind farm for libs to finally turn on the long-transgressing Teddy Kennedy.
As they say: Mary Jo Kopechne could not be reached for comment.
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Categories: Ted Kennedy
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It has taken the far left far too long to turn on “the Prince of Massachusetts”. But, better late than never!
Gee. Kennedy has been fighting this thing for two summers and the left is just now taking him to task for it?
I think this also shows that Kennedy’s old “new left” liberalism has been superceded by what can only be termed an even farther left, almost pure socialism complete with complusive government diktats (John Edwards “Gun to your head” preventive medicine plan) and various schemes to marry large corporate interests and the federal government.
Kennedy is seen as a quaint relic from a time where liberalism at least gave lip service to freedom at home and abroad. Today’s left doesn’t even pretend to want to promote freedom. For them, control is more important.
And the hell of it is, the right is in such disarray that the left may take over by default.
Does this mean (shudder) that Ted Kennedy has only been in it for himself, all along?
Clearly the Right Wing Conspiracy is at it again. Or maybe these windmills are backed by Rupert Murcoch’s money? I know, John Edwards was channeling some of the people lost on the Andrea Doria and they clearly said “we don’t need no stinking windmills,” right? IT HAS TO BE SOMETHING LIKE THIS.
Saint Ted would never, ever put his own lusts ahead of the people’s needs…
Ted Kennedy a windbag? I’ve always thought of him as another type of bag. One usually filled with water and vinegar.
First I’ve heard of this story and I live in the land of the windmill near Palm Springs. I’m guessin Sen. no-windmillbag has somehow been left out of the money loop and all the power generated is going into a grid and wouldnt even effect his bill.
I can’t even begin to say I’m surprised.
Sen Windbag is not the only one. Here they have shut down the nuclear plant (not safe), removed a half a dozen hydro-electric dams (in the way of the fish and boats), are trying to close the fossil fuel plants (for a billion reasons including the fact that it’s fossil fuel and we (the state) are suing the Bush administration to reinstate the Clean Air Act)…
And yet these same people have slammed down the gate on wind power. Too ugly. Doesn’t blend with the environment. NIMBY.
My monthly electric bill has doubled in the last 20 years. $300 And I don’t even have an electric hot water heater or electric heat of any kind. It’s no wonder we have no industry left of any kind. Between the heating bills, electric bills, workers comp and taxes… this place is horrible for any business.
Their only response… Go Solar.
New Zealand really does sound like a good idea sometimes…
Don’t worry, all will be forgiven once it is pointed out that Senator Kennedy runs on Ethanol.
I’ll bring the bait.
The beginning of the end for Scuba Ted? This story is rich with irony. The left on TK’s butt? Who’d a thunk it!
My guess is that Senator Swimmer will try to buy off the enviros with a little more (a lot) of our money and will scramble even farther left (if that’s possible) to ingratiate himself to the increasingly militant left.
Fantasy scenarios:
Let’s say you like horseback riding. You don’t ride around in the boring old corral, do you? No, you ride out on the beautiful meadow.
Suddenly, you hear that they’re going to put a bunch of McDonalds on the meadow.
“But that’s where I ride!”, you tell everybody. They laugh and snicker and mock you.
But it’s not funny to you, is it?
Let’s say you like going out for a Sunday drive in the car. You’re not going to drive around the parking lot, are you? No, you like to drive on a beautiful country road.
Suddenly, you hear that they’re going to put a bunch of McDonalds on the country road.
“But that’s where I drive!”, you tell everybody. They laugh and snicker and mock you.
But it’s not funny to you, is it?
Let’s say you own a beautiful 31′ sailboat. You don’t sail around in small circles in the marina, do you? No, you go ‘outside’, about five miles offshore, where the winds are stiff and run true.
Suddenly, you hear that they’re going to put a bunch of McDonalds five miles offshore.
“But that’s where I sail!”, you tell everybody. They laugh and snicker and mock you.
But it’s not funny to you, is it?
_______________________________________
The interesting thing about Ms. Harrop’s hit piece is that it was just that: a hit piece, and nothing more. And, like any liberal piece, it was filled with disingenuous half-truths, if not flat-out lies. This was probably my favorite:
“The project would mean jobs for the Boston local, which runs a training center for wind technology.”
Dig the usual liberal platitude: If we stop the windfarm project, innocent Americans will lose their jobs! Horrors!
By that logic, I’d like to put a nuclear reactor in downtown Boston. If we don’t, the innocent Americans at the local nuclear power plant training center will lose their jobs! Horrors!
Here’s another choice piece of disinformation:
“His working-class city is downwind from one of the nation’s dirtiest power plants. Cape Wind could help replace it.”
Yeah, I’m sure the 2% of electricity the windmill farm will add to the New England power grid will make a big, BIG difference to the local power plant. Is Ms. Harrop implying that the power plant will cut back to 98% production, or is she implying that it’ll only run 98% of the time?
Or is Ms. Harrop simply implying for implying’s sake?
And finally, tying in with how I started this diatribe, is this:
“The towers would be at least five miles out and barely visible from shore on the clearest day”
Yeah, except that’s not the point, you liberal moron. Like riding a horse on a meadow or driving a car on a country road, 5 miles offshore is where sailboats sail. That is, when they aren’t busy trying to avoid smashing into the local McDonalds.
But what was typical about the hit piece is that it never once dared to look at wind power all by itself, and what a proven loser it is. Didn’t you guys read that article a few weeks ago that noted that something like a THIRD of Britain’s windfarms are producing vastly less than expected? Why? Because, according to industry insiders, the projected power ratings are heavily inflated or nobody would ever build the stupid things in the first place.
And, of course, the final question is, with 88,633 miles of coastline, why does it have to be placed smack-dab in front of a bunch of homes? If wind is so scarce that this is the only site on the entire northeastern seaboard they can place it, then isn’t that, all by itself, an indictment against the entire industry?
I like seeing Sen. Kennedy bashed as much as anybody, but this isn’t the correct venue. Despite the title of Michelle’s article, this isn’t a liberal/conservative issue. Citing some second-hand information that a few unnamed youths booed Sen. Kennedy isn’t saying much, the Daily Show mocks everybody, and Greenpeace certainly isn’t viewing this as an ideological issue; they’re simply opposed to anybody fighting their agenda, regardless of party affiliation. The proper title should have been “Eco-Nuts turning on Sen. Windbag”.
Or, in this particular case, Sen. Windlessbag.
Dr. Mercury , interesting points.
Can’t say what I enjoy more, another example of TK hypocracy, or another example of the left throwing whomever opposes their agenda in front of the bus.
If Kennedy starts singing “Dulcinea” it’s time to put him out to pasture….
http://s35.photobucket.com/albums/d156/ac2/?action=view¤t=quest_litho.jpg
I don’t know folks, the old gas bag has proved “bulletproof” for decades. It would be truly ironic if this issue pushed him out of favor after all the other crap he’s pulled (Chappaquidick, sheltering millions in personal wealth offshore, creating the HMO’s he’s bitching about now, the womanizing & boozing for 40 + years). This guy has literally screwed everyone on both sides of the aisle forever and still gets a pass.
My fear is, this too shall pass!
I admit that I am the last person to miss pointing out Ted Kennedy’s hypocitical politics. I remember his ‘busing’ mantra during the 70’s where ‘everyone’ should have their kids bused across town from K thru 9 for the sake of ‘integration’. Of course, per usual for liberals, his kids went to private schools like Choate and it wasn’t really a problem for him. If you were concerned about your 5 year old being put on a bus and shipped to some seedy part of town, you were branded a racist…. sounds familiar doesn’t it?
I have however, read that wind farms are not terribly productive; that they certainly would not replace the energy producing plants we have now or will need in the future. It is at least worth investigating to see if this is just another pie in the sky effort by environmentalists with very little impact; but much touting and government money being poured down a rat hole. There are some who say the same about ethanol. One would have to wonder whether these ethanol plants being built around the country are the result of market response to a need or government money being made available.
Be that as it may, it certainly does appear that once again Ted’s philosophy is do as I say not as I do!!!!
It as they say, depends on whose ox is being goured.
Dr. Mercury,
Kennedy can’t have it both ways. It is he who has chosen to side with the anti-coal, anti-nuclear, anti-hydro types. Nobody made him take their money, and nobody made him take their votes.
It is these groups who have been pushing for massive wind farms, solar/steam farms, photovoltaic solutions, etc. By siding with them, Ted has endorsed their ideas lock, stock, and barrel.
The hypocrisy is his NIMBY, not “hey, this stuff doesn’t work.”
It worked PERFECTLY before they were going to put it in his back yard. Now it doesn’t… Classic.
Hey, has anyone seen how Al Gore and John Edward’s houses are covered in those attractive photovoltaic cells? No? Why not? Oh, of course: more NIMBY.
To see the left eat one of their own, particular a man as morally bankrupt as Edward Kennedy, is simply too poetic to ignore.
And, as an aside: IF you are a big believer in wind power, then there are really good reasons to place it in the sound where it’s proposed, btw. The water is shallow enough to make installation/maintenance relatively simple, and the wind currents are favorable. I, personally, think it’s a great idea - and not because I’m spiteful. Even with a 30% reduction from the estimates, the power return on this investment makes sense.
And that “2%” you’re talking about isn’t just for the island - it’s for all of the state, including the industrial demand that the Cape and Islands simply don’t need. Cape Wind, even if it’s off by 1/3, will provide at least half of the power for the whole cape. It’s a sizeable amount of power.
Sorry, but if you are “Green” it’s hard to be against Cape Wind.
And Ted has claimed that he is as green as green can be.
Enjoy the Crow, Senator…
I really hate that I’m so extraordinarily pleased to see Teddy being called on this.
Oh puck…Dingy Harry is on the senate floor pouring glory juice on Fat Teddy for his 15,000th roll call vote. Oh, spare me the pain.
Ted Kennedy is a hypocrite??? Stop the presses. We have breaking news.
Excellent example of what is not usually so obvious: the tinfoil hatted leftist loons do eat their own. We’ve known that, but the left didn’t until now, or never believed it could happen to them. Now they are beginning to find it out!! Couldn’t have happened to a “nicer” guy.
I thought that Teddy was the source of the wind that would drive the wind turbines. If he was thrown out of office, maybe he’d spend more time on Nantucket. So, get the turbines built before the power source disappears.
Put canaries on those turbines, I think it’s methane or worse…
When asked for a comment Ted’s office replied “we’ll cross that bridge when we get to it.”
Mary Jo couldn’t be reached.
Gee… a liberal senator putting self interest above the will/good of the people. What a shocker that is.
I just love a good Teddy bashing. I still have not forgiven him for the 1% military pay raise during the Carter years of double digit inflation.
I understand that Teddy is all for wind power ‘when’ he is sober
Ted Kennedy never makes sence.A big commie/puke-al Qeada loving slug.(hic)
Shumer is worse.Did he spend the labor day weekend with his dumpster diving divas,Katie Barge,ans Laura Weiner?
errrrah i’m the only windbag allowed in the Nantucket Sound!
Truly despicable for a Dem (the ‘party of the people’) and ‘environmentalist’ to prefer people inhale and ingest coal plant exhaust and waste products, which include mercury and uranium, to diminishing his coastal view. Too many environmentalists only talk the talk.
But but but… voters should realize that the tantrums against their hero Teddy is only temporary.. untill they get the votes by hoodwinking the gullible…..
No votes for these traitors or their party, no matter what. Period.
Dr. Mercury Whatever,
Logic and science and reason are for Republicans; don’t you dare apply it to the Red Faced Liberal Clown, Teddy “Splash” Kennedy.
There will be plenty of honest brokers to argue against an oceanside enviro-boondoggle; they don’t need Fat Teddy, and he should twist in the wind, so to say.
You do not acknowledge that this is the exact kind of crap Kennedy has made an entire career out of supporting.
I believe this is known as “hoisted by his own petard”.
Sadly, the joke is on American voters to let a wierdo make a career out of crap. Sorry, but that is how I feel.
Dr. Mercury #10:
Take a bow, Sir. Nicely done. You captured the essence of the Moon Loon argument for *EVERYTHING*- insinuate and imply that something “COULD” or “MIGHT” be so/true/likely etc.
You made my day.
Dr. Mercury
Great post, ya think Teddy would mind if they put that wind farm in your pasture? Also if they are a complete waste, where better to put them then next to all of his other icons of failure?
Amazing that people discount clean renewable energy like wind farms. I guess you prefer pollution and planet heating.
While I do despise Kennedy, I’ll have to say that we do not need wind farms. What we need are Nuclear power plants and more gasoline refineries.
greenLibertarian,
I don’t think anyone loves pollution but “clean renewable” energy just doesn’t cut it. You reckon how many windmills it would take to light up Boston? Can you get an airplane to fly on electric fuel cells? Do you want to take your next trip to granny’s in an electric golf cart? As for planet heating being caused by man, Prove it.
If anyone is interested, Greenpeace has a campaign add targeting Sen Windbag: http://youtube.com/watch?v=DSKEix5ssng
To be fair, they make fun of pretty much everyone… the 2004 election was great for shots at Kerry (”So You’ve Decided to Become a Republican”).
And for the record:
Best line ever.
About 3 years ago I took a boat tour along the Kennedy side of Cape Cod. When we neared the Kennedy compound the announcer told us there would be silence until we passed because the tour boats going by several times a day could be heard by them and it was annoying! The rest of the time we were just as near the beach, but it didn’t matter if those people were disturbed.
If anyone wishes to examine Ted Kennedy’s regard for the truth, just read the first statement that Ted Kennedy gave to the police in Edgartown, Ma. after he drove off the bridge. With the help of his lawyers, who Kennedy phoned hours before he called police to tell the cops (actually to lie to the cops) about his accident , Kennedy composed the statement and it was a tissue of lies. First, Kennedy stated that he was “unfamiliar with the road”. Actually he was quite familiar with it. He had driven over the same road hours earlier on his way to swimming. Then he said he had accidentally gotten on the road with the bridge and he really meant to be going in the opposite direction to the ferry boat. First of all, Kennedy knew that there would be no ferry boat so late at night. Then he could not have accidentally turned onto the road with the bridge. The main road, which is paved, banks to the left and that is how you would drive. To turn to his right, as Kennedy said he accidentally did, requires him to make a sharp right and leave a paved road to get on an unpaved unlit road. It is impossible to do by accident. And when you consider that Teddy had already made the same route earlier that day to go swimming, his tissue of lies becomes laughable. But Teddy was never charged with filing a false statement or impeding an investigation. Then and now, Kennedy has enablers in the media like David Brooks who will shun law enforcement into silence.