His Last Wishes

The Republican name that gets thrown around the most when looking back on Ted Kennedy's career is Utah Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch. How nice to know then that Sen. Hatch knew Kennedy so well that he doesn't believe that the late Senator would have supported the health care reform legislation that he wrote.

On ABC's World News, senior congressional correspondent Jonathan Karl stated that "Republicans, even those close to Senator [Ted] Kennedy, are not buying" the argument that health care reform should be passed to honor Kennedy's memory, then aired a clip of Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) claiming Kennedy "wouldn't want it passed if it wasn't good." But ABC did not note that Kennedy voted by proxy to pass the Senate HELP committee's health care legislation -- a bill Hatch criticized -- and advocated for progressive policies included in the bill, such as universal health care coverage and a public plan.

Which is very odd, considering Kennedy statements about his own legislation:

"I could not be prouder of our Committee. We have done the hard work that the American people sent us here to do. We have considered hundreds of proposals. Where we have been able to reach principled compromise, we have done so. Where we have not been able to resolve our differences, we have treated those with whom we disagree with respect and patience," Chairman Kennedy said. "As we move from our committee room to the Senate floor, we must continue the search for solutions that unite us, so that the great promise of quality affordable health care for all can be fulfilled."

As I called earlier this week, prepare for Republicans to tell America exactly what Ted Kennedy's life-long dream was: not to pass his own health care legislation that he tirelessly worked for over the last 40 plus years.

Ted Kennedy's bill had everything Ted Kennedy wanted in it. Ergo, Republicans say, the best thing Congress could do is to scrap the bill. After all, somebody might use Kennedy's death to politicize health care.