END OF AN ERA – AT 8:48 A.M. ET:  The New York Times runs a poignant story about the end of the Kennedy era in Washington, as Patrick Kennedy prepares to return home:

WASHINGTON — Nightfall on the Kennedy era in Washington looks like this: Representative Patrick J. Kennedy’s office space surrendered to a Republican, his family memorabilia in boxes, and Mr. Kennedy yearning for a role away from the public eye.

When the lame-duck session of Congress wraps up, Mr. Kennedy, 43, will return to Rhode Island, settling into his recently renovated farmhouse in Portsmouth. When his eighth term ends early next month, it will be the first time since 1947 — when John F. Kennedy became a congressman from Massachusetts — that no member of his family will hold a federal office.

With Mr. Kennedy’s father, Senator Edward M. Kennedy, dead for more than a year now and no one else in the family voicing plans to run for office, Capitol Hill will be left with ghosts and memories. The only politician left among them is Bobby Shriver, whose mayoral term in Santa Monica, Calif., just ended but who still sits on the City Council there.

COMMENT:  It does, for me, bring back memories of the iconic 1960 campaign, when, on the other side, I worked for the election of John F. Kennedy.

But, sad to say, Jack wouldn't recognize today's left-wing, anti-defense Democratic Party.  Over the years, the spirit of Kennedy's New Frontier, which did inspire young people and did put a premium on national service, gave way to the cynical, arrogant liberalism that we see today. 

We recall that Kennedy actually ran to the right of Nixon on national defense in 1960.  It was national defense Democrats who built the body of policies, including the creation of NATO, that allowed us to fight the Cold War and eventually, under Ronald Reagan, win.

Would the Democrats do that today?  Is that a serious question?

One of the continuing sadnesses is that Robert Kennedy's bitterness toward Lyndon Johnson did much to destroy the fabric of the party in the mid-sixties, and helped lead to its domination by the nutbag wing. 

The Democrats had Henry Jackson of the state of Washington in the United States Senate during the Jack Kennedy years.  Today they have Patty Murray.  That's not a comedown.  That's a crash.

An era now ends, and a party fades.

December 17, 2010