I was a big admirer of Senator Kennedy’s commitment to the underprivileged, the voiceless, the downtrodden and his ability to articulate their plight with his masterful oration. After his infamous failed 1980 challenge to President Carter’s leadership was behind him, his legislative achievements were impressive and true to form, selfless. He never sought to advance the interests of the wealthy and connected at the expense of the less fortunate. He was legendary for his ability to reach across the aisle to build and reach consensus. He was famous for being one of very few senators who actually fully read the bills he was signing and was respected and famously revered by all his colleagues.
Yet one still couldn’t look at him and not think of Mary Jo, and wonder how on earth he got away with that crime back in 1969.

Just thought I’d share a timely personal story with you.

In the spring of 2001, I was killing time in the green room at The 2000 RFK Journalism Prize ceremony in Washington. The only other person there at the time was a man in a suit helping himself enthusiastically to the vegetable platter at the hors d’oeuvres table. Hungry, I joined him and when he asked if me if I had tried the “mahvelous” cheese platter, I realized it was Ted Kennedy. Me and him. Standing there, with plates in our hands. He squinted while looking at my name tag and said “oh Matt, you’re the cartoonist!!” He was not a particularly tall man, quite heavy, I suppose, but not as much as I expected. He had on a pair of ugly, squishy black leather Vibram soled shoes which filled in unexpectedly for the expensive brogues I had imagined upon the feet of a man of his historical prominence (and like the ones I had purchased especially for the event.) He then told me how much he enjoyed my cartoons, and informed me that the RFK Prize was an award one received for “doing your job.” Which I found curious. He asked me if I had been to the compound in Hyannis to which I replied “um, no.” He recalled to me a young man who had visited him on the cape with a group of cartoonists, who he said looked like me. Then he suggested that next time I was on the Cape, I should come by for a visit. Difficult to know if that was just a rhetorical nicety, but I would have hesitated to do that had I ever found myself in Hyannis Port. Nonetheless, we had a really pleasant chat and the whole time my internal dialogue was running: “I can’t believe I’m standing here talking to Ted Kennedy.” It was all predictably there in my head, the good and the tragic – Camelot, RFK, JFK, Chappaquiddick. I’m amazed I was able to think of anything coherent to say at all.

The late Senator Kennedy is being lionized in the press as I write this for his impressive legislative body of work helping the poor, the voiceless, the downtrodden and the disenfranchised. In retrospect I understand now what he meant when he and I spoke that day. As far as the senator was concerned, he was just “doing his job.”

Afghanistan is becoming bloodier and the mission murkier. Some people say health care reform is going to be Obama’s big test. I disagree.

After all the diversionary shouting, name-calling and misinformation – This is what the health care fight is really about.

Alright, this was a tough one. How do I ellicit sympathy for the most hated government agency after the DMV? It’s really about us schlubs who don’t have the ability to hide anything beyond the cost of a Bic pen, and therefore subsidize the fortunate few who have enough to warrant an offshore account. In a deal with the US, UBS has agreed to release the names of 4,400 Americans voluntarily hiding vast sums from the IRS in Swiss bank accounts. That’s just one Swiss bank – There are others that will certainly follow suit.

How much is hiding in those accounts? It doesn’t really matter. In a time when our fellow country men are arguing vociferously over how we pay for such necessities as health reform and deficit reduction – It’s the principle.