Appalled to see Nancy Pelosi throw her political weight towards the centrist and lackluster Representative Joe Kennedy III (D) who is running for Senate. Her clout could win this close democratic primary for Kennedy who doesn't deserve it.
Kennedy wouldn't even have made it to the House of Representatives without his family name and money. Now he is willing to siphon progressive energy from the Congressional and Presidential races just so his family can have a Senate seat that they don't deserve.
Democrats are desperately trying to win back the Congress and the presidency. We don't need his Senate seat bid right now, just so the Kennedys can continue their undeserved legacy. We are sick of the Kennedys in Massachusetts. Their time of liberal misogynists, centrist politics, is over. He is the grandson of RFK, but he is nothing like his grandfather.
Kennedy (39) is a millennial who thinks and acts like an old timer. He is challenging Senator Ed Markey (74) an old timer who thinks like a millennial. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez has endorsed Markey. College educated women endorse Markey. They are neck and neck with Markey battling the Kennedy family money and legacy.
Kennedy has done little in Congress other than vote the way Nancy Pelosi wants him to vote. For the last three years, I called his office repeatedly, asking for him to no avail to stand up for Trump’s impeachment, and to take stronger stand on the environment. He was waiting to get his orders from Pelosi. Okay I can understand that. But when he finally did speak out for the impeachment, his voice was weak and childlike. We can do better than him.
When I think on his family history, I see why he is running. His parents ran in the same circles as I did back in the 1970's in Cambridge when they were dating. The relationship was tumultuous and I will leave it at that. His parents finally married, followed by a messy divorce when his father was in Congress. His father's political career blew up when he sought an annulment from the Catholic Church which infuriated his mother who turned around and wrote a best-selling book about the injustice of misogynistic men seeking annulments so they can marry again with the Church's blessing. The book killed his father's career and hurt the Kennedy political dynasty that Joe Kennedy III is now trying to revive.
In the book, his mother aired some of the family dirty laundry. But her book also stood up for women. While the Kennedys were liberals who fought for desegregation and health care, their history of misogyny and ill treatment of women is well known. There was the infamous womanizing by JFK, RFK, and Ted Kennedy, a lobotomy of their sister, Eunice, and then Ted Kennedy abandoning a drowning 21-year-old aide in an over turned car he drove off a bridge. It was the focus of the movie Chappaquiddick. Also, one Kennedy, Michael Kennedy Smith, raped and murdered a 15-year-old girl, when he was 16. His father shielded him for years until a clever detective proved he did it and Kennedy-Smith went to prison.
Joe Kennedy III is not a creep like his elders, just lackluster. He is in fact a gentle man. But his bid for Ed Markey's Senate seat is creepy and comes at a bad time for democrats trying to retake the Congress. His bid is selfish and, if he wins, will ruin the career of a progressive Senator who has done far more good than Kennedy himself.
If you are in Mass, please vote for Markey on September 1.
Then let's focus on retaking the Congress and the presidency. If you haven't seen last night's DNC, it is worth everything to see. It will raise your hope.
@jeanne-mayell I suspect it has more to do with the fact that Kennedy is much more malleable and independent than Markey. Markey will think for himself and his constituents, whereas Kennedy will be trading on his name only, and Pelosi, knowing that, will use that name and it's legacy against him to get him to vote the way she wants him to. "Don't you want to honor your family name and policies? Don't you want to go down in history as having carried on the family traditions and political power/clout?"
Yeah, she's manipulative as all hell.
Hi Community. Markey trounced Kennedy by 10 points. It is the first time since 1946 that a Kennedy lost a race in Massachusetts. I think it came down to Markey's progressive record and Kennedy's lack of a record. In June they had a debate, which I am only seeing now, but in that debate Markey set the record straight on Joe Kennedy. Pretty dramatic. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ky0EOonDSFc. It is too bad that Kennedy couldn't just stay where he was in the House. He got that seat because of his name and he should have been grateful for it and spent his career doing good for people rather than trying to knock out someone who is doing good for us all.
Did Kennedy retire his House seat for his Senate campaign? If so, this is a major Icarus moment.
@coyote Yes, he did have to give up his house seat. So now he is out of politics. As annoyed with him for running against Markey as I was, I couldn't stop feeling for him last night. A woman won the crowded primary for his house seat last night.
They're now saying Jake Auchincloss won the primary - with 22.4 percent of the vote! This is why first-past-the-post elections (and especially primaries) don't make any sense. Ranked choice voting all the way.
And yes, I know what you mean by feeling for Kennedy. I suspect this loss and his inability to continue the family legacy is part of his life contract.
@coyote And now they are challenging the ballot count because many ballots may have arrived right before the polls closed and were not publicly supervised. https://news.yahoo.com/auchincloss-mermell-nearly-tied-close-120223729.html
"And yes, I know what you mean by feeling for Kennedy. I suspect this loss and his inability to continue the family legacy is part of his life contract."
Right on the nose! So very true. A terrible ongoing family burden with many calamitous endings, failings, sufferings and big prices to pay throughout time and history.  May that relentless chain be broken as we would wish our own often unbearable ones to be especially if they do not end up serving a far greater good in the long run.