Fish, Barrel, Gun

Ted Kennedy will be one of 16 recipients of the Presidential Medal of Freedom in August, along with Dr. Stephen Hawking, Billie Jean King, Sidney Poitier, Jack Kemp (posthumously) and Desmond Tutu, among others.

Needless to say, the Weekly Standard's Rachel Abrams could barely contain herself on the issue of Teddy getting the award:

But of Mr. Kennedy it can most assuredly be said that he has been “an agent of change” in his lifetime—and especially with respect to one Miss Mary Jo Kopechne, for whom he was “an agent of change” in the most essential way. Indeed, he “lifted up his fellow citizen”—right off Dike Bridge and into Chappaquiddick’s Poucha Pond. And yes, it really was “an imperfect world” when he left her there to drown, but he successfully “improved it” by running away and not reporting the accident until the next day. And he did, with “relentless devotion,” use every means at his disposal (and, being a Kennedy, they were legion), overcome the very “great obstacle” this event might have presented to his political career.

So bravo, Mr. President, for singling out such a deserving medalist, and bravo, Sir Dunksalot—you’ve earned it!

Yeah, class act there Rachel, hitting the guy with the brain cancer right in the crotch with something folks like you have been swinging at Kennedy for 40 years now. I doff my hat to thee.

You win a Blogger Ethics Panel award for that one. On the other hand, this is the same award that Norman Podhoretz, Irving Kristol and Paul Bremer got, so maybe Sen. Kennedy should turn down the offer.

Ironically, should Teddy's health care legislation pass, you might be able to have a doctor do something about that gaping chasm in your soul there where some basic human decency should be.

Ai-ya.