RUSH: Senator Ted Kennedy’s widow, Vicki, is out there talking about civility. Yesterday on Washington Week with Roland Martin on TV One, Victoria Reggie Kennedy was the guest, and Ronald Martin said, ‘What would you think your husband would make of the climate today where it seems neither side really wants to even talk to one another about anything?’
VICTORIA KENNEDY: It would probably be frustrating to him. Teddy had a way. He didn’t attribute bad motives to anyone. He always believed that everyone wanted the same thing, and that’s what was good for the country. And even though people were of a different party, he said we always wanna move the country forward. And we may have a different way of getting there, but we want to move the country forward, we want to achieve the same result. And so he looked for that germ of common ground, what is it that we can agree on that can help us get there.
RUSH: I wonder if Victoria Reggie Kennedy remembers this from her husband in 1987 on the floor of the Senate.
TED KENNEDY: Robert Bork’s America is a land in which women would be forced into back alley abortions, blacks would sit at segregated lunch counters, rogue police could break down citizens’ doors in midnight raids, and schoolchildren could not be taught about evolution. Writers and artists would be censured at the whim of government. And the doors of the federal courts would be shut on the fingers of millions of citizens for whom the judiciary is and is often the only protector of the individual rights that are the heart of our democracy.
RUSH: Once again, we get these platitudes, but the reality just doesn’t square with it. (imitating Victoria) ‘Teddy didn’t attribute bad motives to anyone. He always believed everyone wanted the same thing, and that’s what was good for the country. And even though people were of a different party, Teddy said, we always want to move the country forward. We have a different way of getting there, maybe, but we want to move the country forward.’ (imitating Kennedy) ‘Robert Bork’s America is a land in which women would be forced into back alley abortions.’ That’s how it works, folks, that’s how it works.