Feb 15/07 | More on a Kennedy scion with a 1-800 number and zero shame

1-800-Shame-U

PMBComment: The controversy surrounding Joe Kennedy's pathetic efforts to justify Hugo Chavez's blatant effort to hoodwink America's poor and misinformed continues to grow. It has just come to my attention that a Letter to the Editor that I shot-off right after reading Joe's January 22nd shameless OpEd in the Boston Herald (read at the bottom part of this email) was indeed published by that paper on January 31st. You will find my letter below and in the days to come you will see Joe, or actually those who do all his writing, continue to use sophomoric and indefensible argumentation to revert a tide that has definitely turned. "His" most recent exchange of letters with Rep. Connie Mack left no doubt that shame and history are not standing in the way of former Rep. Kennedy and his disingenuous ploy to enrich himself and resurrect his long-ago squandered political inheritance. Way before this controversy hit the mass media, I posted about it here. This link will take you to the original Nov. 2005 post. BTW, the post was extensively linked by many other bloggers in the US including the folks at Real Clear Politics. PMB

Boston Herald

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Joe K running on empty By Pedro M. Burelli/ Letter Wednesday, January 31, 2007 It might be futile to try to explain to Joe Kennedy the true meaning of democracy if he fails to understand the difference between selfless charity and strident manipulation ("Tapping Venezuela's oil without guilt," Jan. 22). Kennedy at least acknowledges that his public role as poster boy and apologist for the authoritarian regime in Caracas has generated criticism. But a man who pays himself hundreds of thousands of dollars from his nonprofit activities should not be filling his mouth with tired anti-wealth slogans. Furthermore, his proclamation of Hugo Chavez as a democrat proves that he knows or cares little for the manner in which Venezuela's institutions have been co-opted and dismantled by a man that I assume he would not dare compare to the late Robert F. Kennedy. While poor Americans deserve energy assistance commensurate to both their needs and the means of the federal and state governments, it is not "the good folks from Venezuela" who have opted to fill the void, but an autocrat who has found an unremorseful ally for his all-too-blatant attempt to pull the wool over the eyes of the needy of a country he has repeatedly promised to bury. - Pedro M. Burelli, Caracas, Venezuela