Polticizing Death

I remember when Paul Wellstone died and his funeral turned into a rally for Senatorial candidate Walter Mondale. It was surreal and completely inappropriate. Norm Coleman went on to beat Mondale and no doubt the funeral turned rally didn't help Mondale's candidacy.

Now, health care reform is in big trouble. Universal health care was always a major legislative goal of Ted Kennedy. I believe death is a time for reflection and rememberance. Nancy Pelosi apparently believes death is a time for pushing legislation.

The death of Sen. Edward Kennedy quickly became a rallying cry for Congress
to pass health care overhaul legislation.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office sent an email to reporters at around 2:30 a.m. today, just hours after his death, calling for the passage of health care overhaul. “Ted Kennedy’s dream of quality health care for all Americans will be made real this year because of his leadership and his inspiration,” the statement read.

Try and put this into perspective. Ted Kennedy died when most people were asleep. Obviously, I don't know if the Speaker was asleep. It's not likely since she was likely three hours behind. Still, just as everyone was asleep or going to sleep, the Speaker used the death of Ted Kennedy as an opportunity to push health care. Someone in the dead of night put together a mass email and sent it into cyber scape.

The Journal article went on to point out that SEIU chief Andy Stern and Cogressman Clybourn linked Kennedy's death to passing health care reform.

Just try and understand how cynical this is. What all three of these folks are essentially saying is that not passing health care reform would be an insult to his legacy. It's almost as though they are trying to get people to feel guilty into passing health care reform. The country is supposed to leave their concerns aside in order to pass this legislation because not doing so would diminish his legacy. What if Karl Rove had sent out an email right after Reagan died proclaiming that Reagan fought for lower taxes and so it was time to urge the Congress to make the Bush tax cuts permanent? What if John Boehner had done something like that in the aftermath of Jack Kemp's death? The outrage would have drowned out any and all other news. Yet, now, most of the media is muted by something similarly outrageous. Talk about cynical and a totally inappropriate response to death.