Senator Edward Kennedy laid it out very clear in his book “True Compass” the challenges he had with President Jimmy Carter. It was a long tense relationship over politics and policy. Therefore I am not surprised that President Carter felt a need to reply to what the late Senator penned. And do so in a very blunt way. History required this response, but I sure would love to have heard what Teddy would have quipped in response.
While I very much respect Carter, I love Teddy. So this is one of those stories that I wish was not needed to be commented on.
I think President Carter is a bit petulant in this interview. It also seems obvious that what happened decades ago has not been eased with time. That concerns me. There seems a harshness in Carter’s words that makes it appear the wound is still raw.
I have always thought in relation to Carter that the notion of one door opening when another closed was most appropriate. What the former President has done with his global initiatives and world dialogue is the result of not winning in 1980. I can only imagine however what it is to lose a national election, and carry that along for the rest of life. But there is also the truth of what Carter created out of defeat, and that is a most stunning and impressive record.
Though Carter thinks Kennedy to be responsible for his loss, there must be recognition that a sizable segment of the Democratic Party wanted a more liberal response to the issues of the day. Kennedy was the outlet for that need. I applauded Kennedy then, and I still do.
As one who has many of Jimmy Carter’s books on my shelves, and thinks he is grounded as a man on his principles, I hope that this blurb from the upcoming interview is truly a moment of distress finding a voice as opposed to where he lives day-to-day. His writings suggest that he has moved beyond the past, and I truly hope he has.
“The fact is that we would have had comprehensive health care now, had it not been for Ted Kennedy’s deliberately blocking the legislation that I proposed,” he tells Stahl. “It was his fault. Ted Kennedy killed the bill,” says Carter. And Kennedy, who then ran against the president for the democratic presidential nomination, did it out of spite says Carter. “He did not want to see me have a major success in that realm of life,” he tells Stahl.
In a diary he kept during his presidency, Carter vents about Kennedy’s attacks and criticizes Kennedy’s own health care bill. The following entry is reprinted in Carter’s new book, “White House Diary.” “Kennedy continuing his irresponsible and abusive attitude, immediately condemning our health plan. He couldn’t get five votes for his plan,” Carter wrote.
CAFFEINATED POLITICS 