MOVE OVER AND LET TED DRIVE:

Kennedy's Support for Kerry Thrills G.O.P., Too: The bond between the senators makes some Democrats nervous and some Republicans happy. (CARL HULSE, 4/11/04, NY Times)

With careers and lives that have intersected across 33 years, including 19 together in the Senate representing Massachusetts, Mr. Kennedy and Mr. Kerry have indeed forged a special relationship. And it reached a new level this year with Mr. Kennedy's pivotal role in turning around Mr. Kerry's once-struggling primary campaign with behind-the-scenes advice and spirited public appearances.

Now that bond has some Democrats nervous that Mr. Kerry is making it easier for Republicans to paint him as a member in good standing of his party's most liberal wing by accentuating his connection with Mr. Kennedy, whose image is firmly fixed in the minds of those who admire him and those who do not.

Republicans, on the other hand, are happy with Mr. Kennedy's involvement.

"The more Teddy Kennedy on the campaign trail, the better," said Representative Tom DeLay of Texas, the House majority leader. [...]

Mr. Kennedy was already an important element in Mr. Kerry's primary success, providing his colleague with senior aides and traveling the country to rouse Democratic voters who respect not only him, but also his family's storied place in Democratic politics. He reveled in the campaign as if it were his own.

But many insiders thought Mr. Kennedy might drift into the background after the nomination was in hand and Mr. Kerry began courting more moderate swing voters. Mr. Kennedy, after all, has long been a liberal lightning rod, a staple of Republican appeals to stir up their own base by invoking the specter of "Kennedy Democrats." [...]

Mr. Kennedy is also filling the role of leading legislative critic of the Bush administration. Sometimes his attacks suggest he is more devoted to forcing Mr. Bush out than getting Mr. Kerry in. He says Mr. Kerry's election is his goal.

The problem isn't that Mr. Kerry is friendly with Ted Kennedy but that he's running as if he were Ted Kennedy, who represents the failed policies of the New Deal/Great Society.

Posted by Orrin Judd at April 11, 2004 9:15 AM