Unremarkable Ed Markey could make Joe K III a left-over
First, imagine being a Kennedy and losing an election.
Then imagine being a Kennedy and losing an election in Massachusetts.
Now, imagine being a Kennedy and losing … to Ed Markey.
If Joe P. Kennedy III becomes the first one to pull off this humiliating trifecta, he should be drummed out of the Kennedy clan. In the past, this would have involved the ceremonial confiscation of his martini shaker and the burning of his little black book. In the most extreme cases, Kennedys who’ve brought such shame on the family might even be forced into the dreaded private sector. Yes, it’s that bad.
If JPK3 does become the first Kennedy to lose a Massachusetts election, it couldn’t happen to a nicer guy. No, seriously. The word from people who’ve worked with the four-term congressman is that he’s a pleasant chap, unencumbered by the hubris and entitlement of Teddy and the gang.
No wonder the Boston Globe-Democrat didn’t give him their endorsement, the first Kennedy ever denied that sycophantic “honor.” The Globe-Democrat had no problem endorsing a lying, drunken coward who left a woman to drown. But not JPK3.
Instead, they’ve thrown their support to the remarkably unremarkable Ed Markey, a man whose political legacy could fill a postage stamp. And given how hard he’s worked to kill reforms of the postal service jobs program and keep American taxpayers on the hook, he may very well get that stamp.
Markey entered office the same year Jimmy Carter entered the White House, and with the same grasp of the great political questions of the day: He was wrong about everything.
He supported Carter’s failed “malaise” policies. He opposed Reagan’s successful foreign policy, particularly regarding the Soviet Union which, if Markey had prevailed, would still be throwing Jews into its gulags today.
Always a bit of an environmental nut, Markey has gone full-blown crazy with his prized Green New Deal, a plan that is simultaneously extreme and ineffective. Its own supporters acknowledge that it would send your energy bill soaring and put millions in the fields of energy and construction out of work. But, Markey promises, all those jobs will be replaced by making solar panels and windmills.
(Note: The U.S. makes just 10% or so of the world’s windmills, well behind that manufacturing powerhouse Denmark. We make just 1% of the world’s solar panels, while China makes more than 70%. So yeah, Ed — good luck with that.)
But why am I wasting data on Ed Markey, a man whose (ahem) intellectual modesty is only exceeded by his political poor judgment.
As a result, there is no idea so far-left loony that Ed Markey will not embrace it. Which is why the Boston Globe-Democrat is embracing him.
For all the obsession over Elizabeth Warren’s progressive activism, according to independent rankings, Markey is both farther to the left and more partisan than she is. The Progressive Punch website gives him a lifetime progressive ranking of 99%.
In their painfully awkward endorsement (“If the senator from Malden spends a lot of time in Washington, one reason might be that he’s been busy getting legislative proposals passed to improve people’s lives.”) the GlobeDemocrat praises Markey’s call for “a new kind of Manhattan Project” to fight COVID-19.
Which is ironic because it’s unlikely Markey would have supported the original Manhattan Project, to end WWII and save hundreds of thousands of American soldiers’ lives by using atomic bombs on Japan.
When I asked the senator’s spokeflak if Markey thinks bombing Hiroshima was a mistake, I never received an answer.
Partisan, progressive and completely on board with any and all left-wing insanity. In the Massachusetts of 2020, not even the Kennedy magic can compete with that.