For Joe Kennedy, Senate race a well-oiled machine
By Howie Carr | Sunday, September 6, 2009 | http://www.bostonherald.com | Columnists
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Youre Joe Kennedy, and there are only three ways this whole Senate thing can work out for you.
No. 1, you run and win a life sentence to the Senate, and a decade from now, youll look in the mirror and see ... Chris Dodd.
No. 2, you run and you lose, as unlikely as that now seems, and thats the end of the Kennedy dynasty, once and for all, and its your fault.
No. 3, you give the race a good leaving-alone. You keep collecting that $544,792 salary from your energy companies and never have to worry about getting a call from some newspaper wiseguy about what have you done lately for Pam Kelley, the girl who wound up in a wheelchair for life thanks to your crappy driving on Nantucket in 1973.
Youre Joe Kennedy, and its a pretty easy decision, isnt it, except that ... youre a Kennedy.
What would Hugo Chavez do?
If you stay out, you can work behind the scenes for Mike Capuano, the congressman from Somerville. You want Capuano because if hes elected, that sets off another special election next spring for his House seat, the one you and your uncle JFK both held, which means it really belongs to the Kennedys, just like Teds Senate seat.
An open Boston-Cambridge House seat would be made to order for Little Joe Kennedy, your 28-year-old son who graduated from Harvard Law School, which is a lot more impressive than your own Mumbles Menino-esque life-experience degree from UMass-Boston.
Youre Joe Kennedy, and boy are you and everybody else in the family put out about this Martha Coakley broad, disrespecting Uncle Ted by making it clear for months that shes running, and then being the first one to pull papers last week.
Hey, Martha Coakley, dont you know who I am? Dont you know who we are?
And the worst thing she did was put out the word that she didnt care if the widow Vicki ran, shed stay in the fight. Youre Joe Kennedy, and youd use the phrase lese majeste, if only you had a clue what it meant.
Tomorrow is Labor Day, and you know that Coakley will have the Park Plaza surrounded with her sign-holders for the big Labor Day breakfast, and boy, does that kind of corny political stunt make your eyes glaze over these days.
Youre Joe Kennedy, and another thing you could do without this fall is Steve Lynch coming at you like he lunged for those Iranians on City Hall Plaza back in 1980. How dare Lynch run - hes publicly expressed qualms about Obamacare, and he was the only congressman who refused to sign the letter demanding a bailout for all the obsequious Kennedy rumpswabs at the Globe.
Why, hes practically a Republican.
And Lynchll have all those other hotheads in his district with him, hoping to get him out of the way so they can run for his seat - Multiple Choice Joyce, Jackie Hart (D-Bunker Hill Day). And they called you a lightweight?
Same thing with all the state reps. Unless theyre in Capuano or Lynchs districts, theyll all be pushing for Coakley, because if shes gone, the Legislature gets to fill that vacancy, which could mean, oh, how does Attorney General Robert DeLeo sound? Another Speakers fight, for the right to get indicted by your predecessor.
All this jockeying, and for what? Youre Joe Kennedy, youve been there, done that, and really, what would it all amount to in the end?
Having to spend the rest of your life listening to the droning platitudes of senior Sen. John Forbes Kerry and the rest of the other geriatrics in the Depends, , er, Democratic caucus?
Youre Joe Kennedy, and you know what your dear pal Hugo Chavez would tell you if you asked him if you should run for Uncle Teddys seat?
Are you loco, gringo?
Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/news/columnists/view.bg?articleid=1195699
and when I went to check on his column I saw the splash headline on the Herald site about The Van Man leaving.
Sweet!