to post this, I will for him:

Quote:

"At a time when the American taxpayer is on the hook for trillions in current and future federal spending -- when the Congressional Budget Office warns that the current rate of federal spending is 'unsustainable' -- liberal Democrats in Congress have earmarked over $68 million of taxpayer dollars for a Boston shrine to the late Senator Edward Kennedy. In a detailed report, the Boston Herald describes the planned Edward M. Kennedy Institute as a 'temple for Ted Kennedy built with pork.' According to their account, congressional Democrats -- especially ... John Kerry and Edward Markey -- have been cramming earmarks for the project into various government funding bills. The Herald found that Kerry and Markey even intend to siphon $28.9 million of the institute's funding from the Defense Department budget, with almost $19 million of that amount already signed into law. ... I believe that establishing Teddy's Temple with millions of taxpayer dollars is meant to serve twin purposes. First, it is intended to enshrine the pretense that one's politics is more important than any other aspect of one's personal character. ... Second, Teddy's Temple is a means to an even broader end. That end is to elevate his liberal ideology to the status of an official, government-approved 'ideal.' You can be sure that the 'good citizenship' propagated at his shrine will translate into speeches, writings, video clips, totems, classes, and materials extolling his liberalism generally, and his advocacy of socialized medicine specifically -- all paid for with your hard-earned dollars." --columnist Robert Bidinotto

Sounds like an effort to strike while the iron is hot, when public sentiment could be greatest. 

Questions like, will it be visited much in the years to come, will there be revenue from it, how much will the next hundred years cost us in maintenance... 



Not to take away any credit from the man, but an old lesson is Grant's tomb.  Although funded by most all NY donations, the expensive and neoclassical mammoth actually never got finished and it fell into the loss column onto taxpayers without visitors anymore already in the 30's, funds from the Works Progress Administration kept it barely afloat. 


Wisconsin red granite sarcophagi are nine tons each, interior of the finest marble from Italy and MA, and exterior of light granite from ME.  By the time the 60's and 70's rolled around it was a graffiti haven for drug hangouts and the answer to who's buried in Grant's tomb was who cares. 

A very expensive renovation in '97 due to the PBS Civil War series, also thinking ahead to the Civil War Sesquicentennial 2011-15.  Alternatively, he could have been buried at Arlington.


Back then, the states of the nation weren't eager to chime in bucks for it, they said ok, NY can pay for it, we'll build our own if we want one.  Could be same now for Teddy with MA, being it's a Boston shrine. 

This all aside from political opinion.  A lesson has been learned already when nationwide appeal isn't all that consenting.

Agree with Kevin, politics aside, it is unconscionable for any local government to spend money on a "shrine" to anyone with the economy the way it is.

I have to agree too. Ain't gonna fly.

It makes me wonder why such a silly thing isn't all over FOX..... and even those terrible "lamestream liberal media" outlets as the story is too good to let alone.

If this continues, I can't wait for Maureen Dowd's Op Ed. She'd never pass it up.

Charlie

And yet Obama bitches at us because the better percentage of people think the government is filled with a bunch of morons.

Mike

Edit to add: I would throw some money in to dig up his body and hang it from one of the wind generators in Cape Cod that he was so against. We could hang a sign from it that said "MaryJo says hi".

Architecturally speaking, I can see a water feature at the main entry.

It could be an abstract in form resembling a tidal basin and a wooden bridge would have to be crossed to gain access.

The shallow water feature could be just deep enough to say...barely conceal say...an Oldsmobile Delmont 88.

Furthermore it could be interactive. For a small donation you could jump into the water feature and see if you could retrieve something of value from within the sunken vehicle.

Over time this could literally pay for the structure.

I'm going now to sketch this idea and submit it to Teddy's Monument Committee for consideration. I think I'll add a sign at the beginning of the bridge inscribed with the words, "Wrong Way".

Steve G

A buddy of mine has a bumper sticker:

My guns have killed fewer people than Teddy Kennedy's car.