Farewell to a family man
Christopher Hitchens
Edward Kennedy will not now be run- ning (as I exclusively predicted to the favoured readers of the Spectator last July) for the Democratic presidential nomina- tion. He did, however, run successfully for re-election as the senior Senator from Massachusetts. During his campaign, he had a television commercial which featured a gnarled old man calling on the voters to join him in endorsing the prodigal son. 'He is', said the old timer, 'no plaster saint.' No indeed. It is for that reason, and not for spurious and sentimental 'family considera- tions', that Kennedy is giving the primaries a miss next time.
Kennedy's personal crassness and nar- cissism know few bounds. He chose to an- nounce his long-planned divorce from his wife Joan on the date — 22 November — which a surprising number of Americans still observe as the anniversary of his eldest brother's assassination. His tenderness for family feelings, much advertised by his tear- stained supporters, needs to be scrutinised in that light. Since his squiring of the Texan model Lacey Neuhaus is becoming increas- ingly common knowledge, his clear aim was to distract attention from his private affairs and to do so some days after catholic Massachusetts had cast its vote. We may assume that he was every bit as calculating in his most recent announcement too.
I trudged along to his press conference, which was as usual crowded with staff and family members who applaud whatever he says. Kennedy children were arranged eye- catchingly before the cameras, and this had the intended effect of inhibiting even hardened pressmen from asking unkind questions. In any case, the time allowed for the floor was limited, with journalists over- whelmed by the mass of sycophants.
Kennedy agreed — in answer to the only question which dared even to touch on the point — that his 'character' would have come under attack if he had run again. He knows perfectly well that a book giving even more damaging evidence about the Chappaquiddick business was ready to fall from the press. He knows that even after a media blitz in Massachusetts, where his television advertisements ran for an almost unheard-of five minutes, his own poll still found that 35 per cent of the voters thought him to be 'immoral'. He knows that even if nominated he could not be elected. He knows that Lacey Neuhaus was about to become a public figure as never before. But he still managed to make people feel for
him by striking at the national psyche 04 droning on about his love for his familY.ed According to Kennedy's well-padd, team of emollient 'spokesmen', there 0' actually a vote among his children as whether or not he should run. This storYk so horrible that it may even be true. In ticular, after the tales of the family had been made public, matronly feel'I aroused by the figure of 15-year-old Pat" ,,,icd Kennedy, brother to Kara and Ted, w. lacking one leg due to a childhood sickne,s5d One feels as tough and foul as W. C. Fielne in simply pointing out that he only had tr leg in 1980, when his father went all a-ci the country roughing up Jimmy Carter le losing the nomination while sPolling tr chances of his own party. And that Yea;: more affectingly still, Patrick was onlY The troubles of the family are not of rei cent date. But, as long ago as the Middifin°5 last month, Kennedy was twisting the s of men like former senator Harold 1-Invoi in an effort to switch their supPort frfiso rivals like Alan Cranston. He was holding planning meetings with allies gi's Congress, most of whom were told the ne of his withdrawal only an hour or so befaii: the networks, and were left, like everYha; else who has ever trusted Kennedy, the lurch and on their own. Whatever t" precise, contingent reason for his „anis: nouncement, it is not the one he saYsDno.o. It will be a more tedious campaiga that we don't have Teddy KennedY s:rig around any more. The reManabo Democratic hopefuls are a dowdy lot, r:ok would no more abandon a young e „ote assistant to her death than they wount :„0. for a cut in their own salaries. Walter Mlle dale is (rightly) saddled with what eventor ruefully terms 'Carter baggage'. Senna,ni John Glenn, who hoped to be the astra",,7,0g who beat the actor, is taking the spea's;:is. lessons that he so desperately nee to. Senator Gary Hart of Ohio is trying to do Mondale in anti-Japanese chauvin; Senator Ernest Hollings of South Cara, the is keen to oppose. the massive waste °` .e. MX missile programme without being :e. cused of wanting to spend less on defer! of Reubin Askew, former Governor till Florida, is running for reasons that are s opaque. f these The only thing that can save any rather mediocre men is an announcer°40 this time by Ronald Reagan, that he will oo. be a candidate either. That is the news ciao ference which the average ReP,11112;tra- dreads, and even the disappointen "i'bo a conservative Republicans realise would ;Elle disaster for their party. It is still poss'cio, that such an announcement will be,rnathat though not for a while. Kennedy, ee, event, might wish he had stayed in the 'pato At his press conference, he was arehiater self-adoring about the possibility of a lose attempt. He counts, according w friends, on a new generation of voters r will not remember 19 July 1969. 13f „a „till mind that, at the turn of the centurY, IP' is tsotidllayb.e younger than Ronald Reagan
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