Free Republic

Whoa. The New York State chapter of the National Organization for Women attacked Ted Kennedy for his endorsement today with some real heat.. The Times Union reported it first (writing, "'Scathing' feels inadequate here."), and I confirmed its authenticity with the president of the organization, Marcia Pappas. I started to pick out the most eyebrow-raising passages but, that proved kind of hard, so here's the whole thing: “Women have just experienced the ultimate betrayal. Senator Kennedy’s endorsement of Hillary Clinton’s opponent in the Democratic presidential primary campaign has really hit women hard. Women have forgiven Kennedy, stuck up for him,...

The state of their union? Icy. Rival Democrats Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama came within a foot of one another just before President Bush's State of the Union speech Monday night and managed not to acknowledge each other. It was quite a feat, given the packed House floor, the customary bear-hugging and jostling among other members. Then a doorkeeper sat the rivals in the same row, only an aisle and four senators between them. Sen. Edward M. Kennedy was not caught in the middle. The Democrat from the iconic political family had taken sides earlier in the day when...

The National Organization for Women’s New York chapter issued a scathing reaction to Sen. Ted Kennedy’s endorsement of Barack Obama over Hillary Clinton. Actually, the word “scathing” feels inadequate here. Read for yourself: “Women have just experienced the ultimate betrayal. Senator Kennedy’s endorsement of Hillary Clinton’s opponent in the Democratic presidential primary campaign has really hit women hard. Women have forgiven Kennedy, stuck up for him, stood by him, hushed the fact that he was late in his support of Title IX, the ERA, the Family Leave and Medical Act to name a few. Women have buried their anger that...

. . . Or is there just something really wrong about Ted Kennedy a/k/a "Club Ted" and his wife reading the love letters between John and Abigail Adams at a special Fanueil Hall presentation of the new book, "My Dearest Friend: Letters of Abigail and John Adams"? I mean, really, what would John Adams think, if he knew that the man impersonating him in reading his letters was the same guy who: a) apparently drowned the girlfriend he got pregnant; b) woke up his nephews for a night of carousing, after which a rape was committed by one of them;...

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: "Protesters staged a waterboarding yesterday outside the Justice Department, calling for a Senate committee to reject attorney general nominee Michael Mukasey because of his reluctance to define the tactic as torture. The demonstration came shortly before Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.) said he would oppose Mukasey." It doesn't matter because Schumer is going to support him. So is Dianne Feinstein. So he's assured of passage here, at least getting out of committee. Schumer even wrote a piece in the New York Times today, said (summarized), "Look, we Democrats are going to handle this another way. We're going to...

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...

Congressional investigators have issued a new report that says the Pentagon has paid almost $31 million to Iraqis or Afghans who have suffered as a result of U.S. combat operations. However, according to the Government Accountaility Office, the number of payments made in 2006 dropped 66 percent compared with those in 2005. Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., requested the assessment. He said the report raises serious concerns about the fairness and uniformity of the payments. "It's surprising that the level of these payments has plunged in the past years," Kennedy said in a statement. "Innocent Iraqi civilians are bearing an immense...

On Wednesday night, Senator Edward M. Kennedy stared at an exhausted negotiating team of 20 senators and two Cabinet secretaries and said, "Let's shoot for 10 o'clock tomorrow morning." The negotiators were tantalizingly close to a historic deal to remake the nation's immigration system. But at several points, nervous senators were ready to give up. Republicans wanted to give temporary visas only to workers taking undersubscribed jobs. Democrats wanted to allow family members of immigrants to come in more quickly. But Kennedy, the Senate's consummate dealmaker -- still indefatigable at 75 -- pushed hard at his fellow Democrats, wavering Republican...

Eight words. A declaration of the obvious, by the speaker's own admission. But the frustrated soldier who uttered those words hits on the deadly dilemma facing American troops in Iraq: Who do you shoot when the enemy looks so much like the people you're trying to protect? Perhaps that's why the quote -- said by Army Spc. Terry Wilson, of Chicago's Beverly community, after a "horrific" patrol in Baghdad -- has been repeated by anti-war politicians around the country. By chance, the hometown hero's words were included in a speech given by former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright earlier this...

Liberal Democrats in the Senate and House plan to resume "the fight for women's equality" on Tuesday, when they reintroduce the Women's Equality Amendment. Sens. Ted Kennedy (Mass.) and Barbara Boxer (Calif.) and Reps. Carolyn Maloney and Jerrold Nadler, both of New York, plan to join Eleanor Smeal, president of the Feminist Majority, in making the Tuesday afternoon announcement. This time around, supporters say they hope "women will finally achieve official equality in America." But a conservative group said women's rights activists are "fighting old battles." First proposed in 1923, the ERA states: "Equality of rights under the law shall...

Former First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy advised her sister-in-law, Joan, to stop being a doormat for her philandering hubby, Ted Kennedy - and if he didn’t shape up, to move out, according to letters up for auction tomorrow in Connecticut. “This is the 20th century - not the 19th - where the little woman stayed home on a pedestal with the kids and her rosary,” Jackie wrote in an undated four-page note to the senator’s wife and miserable mother of three. “Your life matters - as much as him - you love him - but you can’t destroy yourself.” The hand-written...

It was a quiet 75th birthday for Ted Kennedy yesterday. No one drowned or overdosed on drugs. There were no arrests for OUI or rape. No girls were crippled in overturned Jeeps, there were no Coast Guard rescues of beached boats. Not so long ago, when Teddy reached this kind of birthday milestone, he’d be treated to a big smooch-fest in the mainstream media. There’d be front-page stories about how he was “turning his life around” - the sort of nonsense you generally read about wannabe rappers gunned down in drive-by shootings. But yesterday, there was next to nothing in...

More than 500 of Sen. Ted Kennedy’s former and present staff - including U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer - paid tribute to the looooooongtime Massachusetts pol with music and many toasts at a reunion on Capitol Hill the other night. Each “class” of staffers sang tributes to the senator, who turns 75 on Thursday, complete with costumes and props. Justice Breyer’s group from the ’70s, for example, performed a song set to the tune of “My Eyes Adored You” by Frankie Valli. Can you stand it??? After the musical props from 45 years worth of workers, the senator, we’re...

While Soviet troops occupied Afghanistan in 1980, Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) worked in close concert with high level Kremlin officials to alter the direction of U.S. policy, according to documents made available through a KGB defector.

In his book, which came out this week, Kengor focuses on a KGB letter written at the height of the Cold War that shows that Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) offered to assist Soviet leaders in formulating a public relations strategy to counter President Reagan's foreign policy and to complicate his re-election efforts.

Democrats assail Bush's N. Korea policy By LIZ SIDOTI, Associated Press Writer 13 minutes ago Democrats seized on North Korea's brazen act to criticize President Bush's record in confronting the communist regime, contending the administration's focus on Iraq ignored legitimate threats. Democratic Sen. John Kerry, the president's rival in 2004 and a potential 2008 candidate, assailed Bush's policy as a "shocking failure," and said, "While we've been bogged down in Iraq where there were no weapons of mass destruction, a madman has apparently tested the ultimate weapon of mass destruction." One month before midterm elections, North Korea's reported nuclear test...

Talk to Sen. Ted Kennedy Thu Sep 28, 1:51 PM ET This was a last-minute addition to the Talk to Power schedule, so the time for questions and comments is shorter than usual. Sen. Kennedy will be fielding your comments over the next 24 hours and responding, via an interview with host Judy Woodruff, on Friday morning. Thanks in advance to Yahoo! users for your thoughts, and to Sen. Kennedy for agreeing to participate. The question of immigration and immigration reform is likely to loom large in this forum, as it has with previous Talk to Power guests. Sen. Kennedy,...

Americans still remember vividly the scenes from a year ago when Hurricane Katrina swept away entire communities, sent thousands of families for shelter in the Super Dome, and left hundreds of thousands more homeless and jobless. Americans throughout the land were moved to help in any way they could - sending donations and aid and volunteering to meet the needs of our fellow citizens. We responded because that's what Americans do. We care for our country, help our neighbors, and lend a hand to those in need. However, as we all painfully know, the Administration did not live up to...

SONGYUAN, China -- Qiao Yubo, who is pregnant with at least five babies, walks with her husband, right, in Songyuan, in China's northeast Jilin province. Qiao, who is 1.67-meters tall, has a waistline measurement of 1.75 meters, five months into her pregnancy. Qiao's excessive bulk is causing difficulties in getting around, with taxi drivers too afraid to take her in their cars. Her clothing is all custom-made and she eats up to seven meals a day. (06/16/06 AP photo)

U.S. Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-MA) gestures during a news conference on Capitol Hill to discuss same-sex marriages June 6, 2006. The Senate is debating a constitutional amendment that would ban same-sex marriage and are expected to vote on it this week.