Edward Kennedy Quotes


Bush

We have lost the respect of other nations in the world. Where do we go to get our respect back? How do we re-establish the working relationships we need with other countries to win the war on terrorism and advance the ideals we share? How can we possibly expect President Bush to do that? He's the problem, not the solution. Iraq is George Bush's Vietnam, and this country needs a new President. Senator Edward M. Kennedy Source:Brookings Institution, April 5, 2004

Bork

"Robert Bork's America is a land in which women would be forced into back alley abortions, blacks would sit at segregated lunch counters, rogue police could break down citizens' doors in midnight raids, school children could not be taught about evolution, writers and artists could be censored at the whim of government, and the doors of the federal courts would be shut on the fingers of millions of citizens of whom the judiciary is — and is often the only — protector of the individual rights that are at the heart of our democracy." Edward Kennedy Source:http://washingtontimes.com/books/20041009-103404-2341r.htm

Constitution

"The Constitution does not just protect those whose views we share; it also protects those with whose views we disagree." Senator Edward M. Kennedy (D-MA) Source:http://www.urbin.net/EWW/sigs/kennedysigs.html

Democracy

Integrity is the lifeblood of democracy. Deceit is a poison in its veins. Senator Edward M. Kennedy Source:Brookings Institution, April 5, 2004

Dream

The work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives and the dreams shall never die. Edward Kennedy Source:http://www.wisdomquotes.com/000850.html

Fear

Today, we say the only thing we have to fear is four more years of George Bush. Edward Kennedy Source:http://acornsfromanokie.typepad.com/acorns_from_an_okie/2004/07/to_quote_ ted_ke.html

First Amendment

"If we set the precedent of limiting the First Amendment, in order to protect the sensibilities of those who are offended by flag burning, what will we say the next time someone is offended by some other minority view, or by some other person's exercise of the freedom the Constitution is supposed to protect?" Senator Edward M. Kennedy, constituent letter 1997 Source:http://www.urbin.net/EWW/sigs/kennedysigs.html

Intelligence Failure

Any failure in intelligence is dwarfed by the administration's manipulation ...in making the case for war" Senator Kennedy Source:http://www.senate.gov/~kennedy/index_high.html

Iraq

The president's handling of the war has been a toxic mix of ignorance, arrogance, and stubborn ideology. No amount of Presidential rhetoric or preposterous campaign spin can conceal the facts about the steady downward spiral in our national security since President Bush made the decision to go to war in Iraq. If this election is decided on the question of whether America is safer because of President George Bush, John Kerry will win in a landslide. The war in Iraq has made the mushroom cloud more likely, not less likely. Edward Kennedy Source:Salon.com Sept. 27, 2004 ''There was no imminent threat. This was made up in Texas, announced in January to the Republican leadership that war was going to take place and was going to be good politically. This whole thing was a fraud. Edward Kennedy Source:http://clanforum.cyaccess.com/YaBB.pl?board=cl_war; action=display;num=1063969074 ''No one questioned whether we were going to have a successful military policy. What everyone questioned was whether we had a peace policy, and we have none. It's being made up every single day and American service men are paying for it and this is directly the responsibility of this administration and no one is being held accountable.'' Edward Kennedy Source:http://clanforum.cyaccess.com/YaBB.pl?board=cl_war; action=display;num=1063969074

IRAQI PRISONER ABUSE ALLEGATIONS

The torture and other sadistic abuses of prisoners in Iraq have done immense damage already to America's reputation in the world, and the worst may be yet to come. Shamefully, we now learn that Saddam's torture chambers reopened under new management U.S. management. These incidents have stained our military and stained our country. America is being vilified throughout the Middle East and in other parts of the world. We cannot get answers quickly enough. Edward Kennedy Source:http://kennedy.senate.gov/~kennedy/statements/04/05/2004511B42.html

Moral Majority

Thus, the controversy about the Moral Majority arises not only from its views, but from its name -- which, in the minds of many, seems to imply that only one set of public policies is moral and only one majority can possibly be right. Similarly, people are and should be perplexed when the religious lobbying group Christian Voice publishes a morality index of congressional voting records, which judges the morality of senators by their attitude toward Zimbabwe and Taiwan. Edward Kennedy Source:http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/edwardkennedytruth&tolerance.htm

Morality

There is no morality in the mushroom cloud. The black rain of nuclear ashes will fall alike on the just and the unjust. And then it will be too late to wish that we had done the real work of this atomic age -- which is to seek a world that is neither red nor dead. Edward Kennedy Source:http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/edwardkennedytruth&tolerance.htm

President

Frankly, I don't mind not being president. I just mind that someone else is. Edward Kennedy Source:http://www.great-quotes.com/cgi-bin/db.cgi?db=db&uid=default& Author_First_Name=Edward&Author_Last_Name=Kennedy&mh= 10&sb=---&so=ASC&ww=on&view_records=View+Records

Preventive Military Action

By contrast, "preventive" military action refers to strikes that target a country before it has developed a capability that could someday become threatening. Preventive attacks have generally been condemned. For example, the 1941 sneak attack on Pearl Harbor was regarded as a preventive strike by Japan, because the Japanese were seeking to block a planned military buildup by the United States in the Pacific. The document openly contemplates preventive attacks against groups or states, even absent the threat of imminent attack. It legitimizes this kind of first strike option, and it elevates it to the status of a core security doctrine. Disregarding norms of international behavior, the Bush Strategy asserts that the United States should be exempt from the rules we expect other nations to obey. It is impossible to justify any such double standard under international law. Might does not make right. America cannot write its own rules for the modern world. To attempt to do so would be unilateralism run amok. It would antagonize our closest allies, whose support we need to fight terrorism, prevent global warming, and deal with many other dangers that affect all nations and require international cooperation. It would deprive America of the moral legitimacy necessary to promote our values abroad. And it would give other nations—from Russia to India to Pakistan—an excuse to violate fundamental principles of civilized international behavior. Edward Kennedy, 10-7-02 Source:http://themoderntribune.com/speech_senator_edward_kennedy_ -_bush__doctine_of_peremptive_war_preventative_war_bush.htm

Separation of Church & State

Separation of church and state cannot mean an absolute separation between moral principles and political power. Edward Kennedy Source:http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/edwardkennedytruth&tolerance.htm The separation of church and state can sometimes be frustrating for women and men of religious faith. They may be tempted to misuse government in order to impose a value which they cannot persuade others to accept. But once we succumb to that temptation, we step onto a slippery slope where everyone’s freedom is at risk. Edward Kennedy Source:http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/edwardkennedytruth&tolerance.htm The real transgression occurs when religion wants government to tell citizens how to live uniquely personal parts of their lives. The failure of Prohibition proves the futility of such an attempt when a majority or even a substantial minority happens to disagree. Some questions may be inherently individual ones, or people may be sharply divided about whether they are. In such cases, like Prohibition and abortion, the proper role of religion is to appeal to the conscience of the individual, not the coercive power of the state. Edward Kennedy Source:http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/edwardkennedytruth&tolerance.htm

Supreme Court

I don't understand, looking at your record, how one can conclude that you don't have an agenda. Massachusetts Senator Edward Kennedy Source:http://www.motherjones.com/news/feature/2003/11/ma_564_01.html

Tribute to Senator Robert F. Kennedy

My brother need not be idealized, or enlarged in death beyond what he was in life, to be remembered simply as a good and decent man, who saw wrong and tried to right it, saw suffering and tried to heal it, saw war and tried to stop it. Those of us who loved him and who take him to his rest today, pray that what he was to us and what he wished for others will some day come to pass for all the world. As he said many times, in many parts of this nation, to those he touched and who sought to touch him: "Some men see things as they are and say why. I dream things that never were and say why not." Edward Kennedy Source:http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/ekennedytributetorfk.html
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