Update: Alrighty, I don't know why the edit doesn't like the link, in IE or Firefox, but here's the URL to video of the interview:
http://video.msn.com/v/us/msnbc.htm?g=626a02ec-2e14-4e1b-83b7-634591ca6c5a&f=00.
Senator Ted Kennedy was on the Today Show this morning in support of his book America Back on Track. During the course of the interview, Katie Couric asked him about accusations by Republicans that the Democratic Party has no plan and no values. In his response, Sen. Kennedy said:
"Democratic values are fairness, opportunity, and progress."
Which to me sounds like a message every Democrat should pick up and run with all the way to November and 2008.
(Realize that I'm quoting from memory, and have not yet found a transcript of the interview, but the salient point remains.)
Sen. Kennedy's response to Ms. Couric's question was essentially, judge the Democratic Party on what it has accomplished: social security, Medicare, civil rights, et al. (Not his exact list, but you get the idea.) And when he made the statement on Democratic values, I about hit the floor, since it was the first time I had seen a succint statement on Democratic values in the national traditional news media.
"Fairness, Opportunity, Progress." Three words which any and every Democrat can and should use to take back our Government.
Some other highlights from the interview (again paraphrasing):
On the "shake-up" of personnel at the White House, Sen. Kennedy said that it would not matter unless it also brought a change in policy. (Anyone want to lay odds on that happening?)
On Karl Rove: Rove may not be shaping domestic policy anymore (I don't believe it, but that's just me), but Sen. Kennedy stated that Rove was and is an architect of the Politics of Fear which helped get the Republicans in office. Sen. Kennedy also derided the Ownership Society the Republicans had fostered-- "I got mine, screw you if you don't have yours." (No, he didn't say "screw you", he put it much more eloquently.)