Ed Markey destroys Kennedy dynasty

Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2020/09/01/ed-markey-destroys-kennedy-dyn.html

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Well poop, not all good news:

Update: Surviving the toughest electoral challenge of his long career, U.S. Rep. Richard E. Neal won the Democratic primary Tuesday over challenger Alex B. Morse.

There are ideological, practical, and financial disagreements over how to determine a “fair” price when a person is treated out of network, which is why this terrible practice has been allowed to fester. After years of work by policy experts and activists, last December Democrats and Republicans finally worked out a deal. The problem was almost solved, until Neal used his power as chairman to step in at the last minute to single-handedly kill it, after receiving massive donations from the private equity firms responsible for much of the surprise billing.

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I was hoping this would be the outcome. The Kennedy family really needs to take a break from feeling entitled to make public policy (same goes for the Bush family, the Clinton family, and – pre-emptively speaking – Il Douche’s family).

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Do Markey and Joe_III differ on any major policy positions? If not (and I can’t think of any), I agree with Rollins that Kennedy running was selfish and served no constructive purpose.

That said, while I like Markey he’s been in office since 4 years before Kennedy was born. I think portraying the latter as more entrenched than the former is not entirely fair.

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Well my vote helped. Ed Markey is one of the best Senators in the institution and I saw absolutely no reason to replace him. Markey has a calming, reasonable demeanor that I’ve always liked. We need a lot more Senators like him. Granted my first impression of Kennedy was as an anti-cannabis-legalization holdout - which he’s since turned around on - I saw no reason why he was running other than to feed his own ego. It was no contest - Nancy should have stayed out of it too.

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I mostly agree - how can you argue that either is not “entrenched”? But when Nancy Pelosi chimed in with a Kennedy endorsement you had to wonder how many strings were being pulled.

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Really disappointed Morse did not displace this lousy congressman. Well maybe next time.

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https://twitter.com/ttagaris/status/1300985922419335168?s=21

Hey, y’all remember when the establishment Dems declared that they were going to blacklist anyone involved in the unforgivable sin of challenging a Dem incumbent?

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Pelosi’s endorsement of a Kennedy is not a huge surprise:

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I’m on the other coast, but I heard about this race. Glad that it turned out this way. I’m not into dynasties. This was probably in the top five reasons why I wouldn’t have voted for Hillary. Back in 04, I was talking (mostly to myself) that George Jr needed to be a one-term prez like daddy.

Have to say, those images that @d_r posted are interesting; Nancy was all up close and personal with that clan from way back.

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That picture of AOC (Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez) crushing so hard on Ed Markey is what got him my vote.
Kennedy got treated like a red-headed step child. He was gracious in defeat though,

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Maybe the Mass. side of the dynasty is destroyed, but the Schwarzenegger-Pratt branch of the family is clearly just getting started.

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I am so sick of Nancy Pelosi. This latest bit of blatant hypocrisy certainly did nothing to change my mind.

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No, but given Markey’s appeal to the left as part of his campaign, it sure speaks volumes about her priorities that she was willing to go to bat for someone to unseat an incumbent, doesn’t it?

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The title is a bit over the top. He beat a Kennedy in a primary, that’s all.

Sensory disorientation caused by an over-triggered vestibular system has done more damage to the Kennedy dynasty than this.

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This seems unnecessarily hyperbolic. He beat Kennedy, and I am glad he did. That is all.

I also don’t particularly care for this from Rachael Rollins:

Nobody – nobody – should get a free pass to public office and be exempt from challenges even if they are progressive heroes. This is exactly the same language that supporters of “establishment” figures with names like Kennedy use to disparage those who would challenge them. I can even sort of see the argument in a more competitive state where you might be concerned that an ugly primary could hurt the winning candidate in the general. But in Massachusetts? No: if you want to hold office you have to be willing to run for it and ultimately let the voters decide, democracy is not a waste of time.

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Is this the anti-vaxxer Kennedy? Or is that a different one?

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Different one. The anti-vaxxer is RFK Jr. This is his nephew.

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Yep. All that money on advertisements, lawn signs, campaigning, etc. should have been shipped down to KY.

Markey has been doing a fine job for many decades and his positions aren’t radically different from Kennedy’s so I’m still not sure why Joe tried to snag that seat aside from a sense of entitlement.

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