NQ First Responders – The KENNEDY family seat; Levi’s liar radar; healthcare conundrum and BO promise to air negotiations on C-SPAN
By LisaB on September 3, 2009 at 9:00 AM in Current Affairs
Do the Kennedys “own” Teddy’s Seat? ; Levi talks trash about his baby mamma’s family and may bare nearly all for Playgirl; another writer and friends just can’t figure out health care, but BO PROMISED negotiations on C-SPAN (video)
1) According to Irish Central, the Kennedy family would rather Teddy Jr take his father’s seat.
The Kennedys very much want to keep the Senate seat. “Remember, this was meant to be Joe Junior’s seat originally, then John F. took it, and then Teddy. This is the family business, and they are in no mind to hand it off elsewhere,” said a family friend.
Am I the only one who wishes just about anyone other than a Kennedy “take” that senate seat? What about all those “little people” Teddy Sr “worked on behalf of” for “so long?” Why can’t someone who won’t be forced to practice noblesse oblige be the junior senator? (As an aside, why do the little people HAVE to depend on someone with serious bucks to “look out for” them in the first place? Does this mean the little people are incompetent, that only rich, influential people can/should look after them or that the system only allows rich, influential people in, so you’d better get a good one?)
2) As Vanity Fair touts its beyond fail “mega story” about Sarah Palin and her family, as told by man-of-honor Levi Johnston, Gawker notes Levi plans a Playgirl spread.
After reading on Gawker that Levi was game for posing nude, the guy who puts together Playgirl’s photoshoots, Daniel Nardicio, emailed Johnston’s manager Tank Jones about having his client pose nude for their website. . .
Tank referred the matter to Levi’s lawyer Rex Butler (how many handlers does one Alaskan babydaddy need?) who emailed back: “There are people out there that want to see such a shoot of Levi and we are ready to do it if the proposal is right.” The only hitch, Levi’s not willing to do a nude shoot, only pose in his skivvies.
And since a nearly nude Levi is better than no nude Levi at all, Playgirl’s down and there’s an agreement in place to do the shoot. They’re in final negotiations to get the thing together right now.
Now, look for someone looking after Levi to derail the Playgirl spread. Wouldn’t want Levi to look trashy, do we? It would so upend his straight-talking, not-a-fame-ho rep.
Here’s the thing (well, one of them anyway). Why in the world would anyone take a 17/18 year old boy’s analysis of a marriage seriously? Levi has no special insight into anything, he’s just got something to sell. Maybe he’s trying to make money for his son’s college education?
3) Politics Daily has an interesting piece on healthcare. Basically, the writer, Donna Trussell, says she and her friends don’t have a clue about what should be done. But not for lack of attention.
We talked about the flaws of the current system, the experience of other countries, cost, tough calls — some of the same issues that have surfaced at town hall meetings across the country. And what I kept thinking was: If this smart, engaged, and relatively like-minded group — all of whom actually like each other! — was having trouble discussing and figuring out the health care reform morass, what must it be like for the nation as a whole?
————–In the end, it’s about sick people and those who accept what is (to me, anyway) a sacred calling. They’re healers. They can’t always stop death from advancing, but they try. Most people can’t even bear to talk about or look at disease, much less get their hands bloody. The men and women who go into medicine deserve better than a system that blames them for the impossibility of perfection. And so do their patients, who must take responsibility for their health and their lives. And their mortality; all the medicine in the world can’t change that.
Sunday I left our Big Questions meeting with one question answered anyway: No matter what we do to our health care system, a lot of people will be left out, one way or another.
I’m in agreement with Trussell. I think, ultimately, most of us will pay more and we’ll still have people not getting care. The only people likely to do well will be either the new bureaucrats in DC who will fill buildings with cubicles and offices devoted to US Health Administration (or something like that) or the ever swelling numbers of people filling office buildings with HMO “case managers” and others devoted to managing the revenue stream.
Wouldn’t it have been nice if BO had actually followed through on his campaign promise to put legislation (ooops, forgot – nothing is actually written yet!) online or hold discussions on C-SPAN?

















