That didn't take long. Who would have guessed that the traditional media vultures would do their best to completely distort and deface Ted Kennedy's legacy? After all, Kennedy's Republican "friends" had already begun pointing the way.
Norah O'Donnell, long-time MSNBC hack and GOP enabler, couldn't wait to get started this morning, explaining that Teddy would have known how to properly deal with those upstart progressives in House:
...both Senators John McCain and Senator Orrin Hatch said that his absence has certainly effected the health care debate. And I think that's, perhaps, so tragic probably and troubling. He called reforming health care the cause of his lifetime. This was a moral issue for Senator Kennedy and such as big deal. It was why in part President Obama, candidate Obama started talking more about health care was because of Senator Kennedy. And yet that first major piece of legislation that President Obama is trying to get through Congress is mired in this sort of awful, nasty debate. And I think you hear Republicans say that Ted Kennedy could have changed that. You know this from the House, Joe. So many of the liberals that are saying "It's a public option or nothing." Is there any other Democrat who could go over to those liberals and say look, "Let's take 80% of what you guys want. I promise if we just get this done we can come back and get more later." And the only person that probably could have done that was Ted Kennedy. That could have not just crossed party lines but could cross chambers. Go from the Senate to the House and talk to those liberal members of the House and say "Guys, let's just take what we can get now, we can get more later." And that's certainly significant, because that's perhaps lost. Now the other way to sort of, the glass half-full, if you're a Democrat, a progressive, or a liberal, is that maybe more people will feel, including Republicans, that it's worth getting something doen and compromising. That they'll try to have some sort of bipartisanship spirit, in terms of at least getting something done to reform health care.
[my transcription]
It's hours after Ted Kennedy's death and Norah O'Donnell is babbling away on the "liberal" MSNBC about how, if only Ted Kennedy were still in the Senate, he'd figure out how to get those troublesome progressives to fold, and negotiate the public option away. And that Kennedy would tell his colleagues to wait for some later time.
Well I happen to think that the Liberal Lion of the Senate would believe we've waited long enough for universal health care. But I'm no Norah O'Donnell, so what do I know? I lack the benefit of Republicans whispering in my ear and a Village of fools nodding in agreement.
Update:
A bit later in the morning, superhack David Gregory was singing from same hymnal about how Kennedy's absence will impact health care reform:
Well, you know it's interesting. On the program on Sunday, I asked Senator Hatch the sense of loss that was felt by Kennedy not being there. And he was kind of cryptic in his reply, saying "Look, Ted Kennedy would have been on the phone to me saying let's get this done." And Senator Hatch has actually walked away from negotiations on the Senate Finance Committee. Which, I think, is a small example of just how powerful and how huge that void in the debate is.
[...]
I think in terms of strategy, the ability to deliver some kind of grand bargain is something that Kennedy would have been looked to to provide.
It's shameful. The media elite are already lining up to repeat the latest Republican talking point: without Kennedy, we can't do health care reform.