Victoria Reggie Kennedy vs. Scott Brown

One has to ask yourself if the widow of the Liberal Lion in the U.S. Senate should even have to consider a run for his seat. As the wife of a man that was very passionate about his politics I’m sure there were many discussions at the dinner table regarding the events of the day. I’m sure that Victoria Reggie Kennedy learned by osmosis the skills needed to be an effective politician from her husband. She above all knows the bobbing and weaving that it takes to get half of what you want done in the U.S. Senate. That being said, nobody can force her to run against Scott Brown for the Liberal Lions seat when it comes to what would have been re-election of Teddy Kennedy. Some of the folks in the Democratic Party are thinking that she must run according to this piece in the Washington Post…

Prominent Democrats want Kennedy's widow to run for his Senate seat

By Mary Ann Akers and Philip Rucker
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, August 15, 2010

Nearly one year after Edward M. Kennedy's death, prominent Democrats in Washington and Massachusetts are promoting his widow as the party's best shot at winning back the Senate seat he held for nearly five decades.

Though she has seemed to bat down the idea of challenging Sen. Scott Brown (R) in 2012, Victoria Reggie Kennedy has been in some ways acting the part of a candidate. She has raised her public profile by campaigning for other politicians and appearing at events across the country.

The prospect of her candidacy is fast becoming a source of family tension, according to several Kennedy intimates. Some relatives fear that a campaign against Brown -- a popular figure even in liberal Massachusetts -- would distract Kennedy from promoting her late husband's legacy, they said. - Washington Post

Should she consider it? Of course she should! There is no greater insult to her husbands memory than the fact that a Republican out maneuvered a well known Democrat and won the race because he fought harder for it. Teddy Kennedy never saw a fight that wasn’t worth winning, and true to Kennedy family history, he won when others gave up simply because he refused to quit. But there is no dishonor to her husbands memory in her choosing not to run.

Thus, the question becomes, why are his children not choosing to run for their fathers seat? Why has the entire Kennedy clan not put up a liberal wannabe lion in his place for the Senate? Why isn’t Governor Deval Patrick not throwing his hat in the ring?

The answer to that question is the target on your back if you win from the Republican political party machine. Teddy had tough skin and never left the core of his belief to any other interpretation other than the fact that he was THE LIBERAL LION.

I think it would be fair to say that Vickie served her country already as the wife of one of the greatest political leaders in many generations of Democrats. It’s time for others to pick up the torch and run with the ferocity of a lion that needs to get the job done for the people they are representing. And it is her own choice if she sees fit to do so on her own terms.

Papamoka