RFK, Jr. – Another Joke from the Kennedy Family

He is the perennial punchline. We have all heard a multitude of good jokes about Robert Kennedy Jr., most especially the more serious one about how every day he metaphorically spits on the grave of his uncle, JFK, by continuing to tarnish the Kennedy name that once stood for greatness, but which now stands for decadence. Arrested for heroin possession in 1983, the illustrious Bobby Kennedy is now a senior attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council, chief prosecuting attorney for the Hudson Riverkeeper, and president of Waterkeeper Alliance. In other words, he is a no good tree-hugger, with a knack for making outrageous comparisons and for frequently telling downright lies. With his track record, Robert Kennedy Jr. could piss off the Pope. As a consequence, Brown University thought him the best man to be the keynote speaker for this year’s Parent’s Weekend.

When I first set out to do a little research on this guy, I did not plan to discredit him—and by extension, Brown University for bringing him to speak—so vigorously. All that I knew about him was that he involved himself heavily in environmental causes and that he had a penchant for behaving like a deranged mental patient, much like his uncle Ted Kennedy in the U.S. Senate. After doing only a little research, I found that he is a much more sinister individual. After doing much research, I am compelled to nominate him for dunce of the century.

Robert Kennedy Jr’s list of intellectual faux pas are far too numerous and humiliating for me to include in this piece, but there are several on which I would like to offer comment. First, there is his relatively recent book, Crimes Against Nature: How George W. Bush and his Corporate Pals Are Plundering the Country and Hijacking Our Democracy (2004). One should note that Brown University conveniently neglected to include this book in its official flyer promoting Kennedy as the keynote speaker. It did, and quite courageously I might add, include St. Francis of Assisi: A Life of Joy (2005). I guess that, somewhere between the heroin conviction and his divorce, Kennedy realized that he is a Catholic.

One excerpt from Kennedy’s book states: “My American Heritage Dictionary defines fascism as ‘a system of government that exercises a dictatorship of the extreme right, typically through the merging of state and business leadership together with belligerent nationalism.’ Sound familiar?” Further, upon quoting the advice of Herman Goerring, Adolf Hitler’s second-incommand, and describing the rise of Hitler in the 1930s, Kennedy writes, “The White House has clearly grasped the lesson.”

Robert Kennedy is a joke, whose mere existence is the real crime against nature. The fact that this supposedly “fascist” administration has not executed Kennedy is evidence enough that President Bush is no 21st century Hitler. I should not even have to prove this, though. There is no moral equivalency between Adolf Hitler and President Bush, or between fascism and the policies of the current administration. It is a shame that I am reconsidering my favorable opinion of the original RFK because of the idiocy of the son that he reproduced.

Oh, but there is so much more. While speaking at a rally concerning hog farm issues on 5 April 2002 in Clear Lake, Iowa, Kennedy offered some intriguing remarks,”…large scale hog producers are a greater threat to the United States and U.S. democracy than Osama bin Laden and his terrorist network.” I really do not know how to respond to such a ludicrous statement. His words are on the same intellectual level as the second-grader who asks, “I know you are but what am I?” Needless to say, hog producers are not as big a threat to our democracy as is Osama bin Laden, if they are a threat at all. Hard-working Americans are what keep this country great, and when spoiled elitists like Kennedy run their mouths like ravenous hyenas, their job is that much harder. Luke Kollasch of Algona, Iowa, put it best when he said, “You have to be a complete wandering idiot to make that statement.”

Now, let us get back to Kennedy’s proclivity to spew outrageous lies. In the 11 December 2003 issue of Rolling Stone, Kennedy wrote an article entitled “Crimes Against Nature,” where he argued, “…this president is allowing his corporate cronies to steal America from our children.” On 3 December 2003, Johnathan H. Adler of National Review wrote, “Kennedy claims the administration ‘redefine[d] carbon dioxide’ to no longer be considered a pollutant subject to regulation under the Clean Air Act. Yet carbon dioxide has never been regulated as an air pollutant under federal law….Congress has voted against such regulations time and again, including when the Senate voted 95-0 against the Kyoto Protocol.” Nice try, Junior. President Bush is not “waging war on the environment.” Rather, you, Mr. Kennedy, are waging war on the facts.

Kennedy also argues in his painfully ideological article that the administration had some sort of sinister connection with the late Kenneth Lay, former CEO of Enron. He cited that Enron Corp. had contributed $2.5 million to the GOP from 1999 to 2002. Kennedy even made the claim that, with the help of Vice President Cheney, Enron was successfully able to engineer California’s energy policy, to the detriment of the state. However, Kennedy left out an important fact about the relationship between Enron and the Bush Administration.

That is, he conveniently forgot to mention that Enron would have benefited from the federal regulation of carbon dioxide emissions. You see, most plans to federally regulate carbon dioxide involve the purchasing of permits in order to release the chemical. In running the market for said permits, Enron would have received enormous profits. In others words, the Bush administration could have killed two birds with one stone if it had allowed carbon dioxide to be federally regulated—it could have satiated the fanatical environmentalists and it could have given a profit to the company with which so many ignorant people (like RFK, Jr.) claim it had inappropriate ties. Instead, the administration took the politically unpopular route, because it was the right thing to do for the country. President Bush’s independence from Big Business and “greens” alike is exemplified by his refusal to federally regulate carbon dioxide emissions.

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. is a man who has been consumed by his fervor to protect the environment. Such a pursuit is valid, but Kennedy has neglected the age-old truth that the ends do not justify the means. Forgoing all ethics, morals, and adherence to the facts is dangerously reckless. Riverkeeper founder Robert Boyle, one of Kennedy’s closest colleagues, once said, “I thought he was thinking of himself and not the cause of the river. It all became his own greater glory.” Kennedy will likely only alienate those on his team by such a deviance from facts and such an obvious pursuit of personal gratification. However, his ineptitude at maintaining honesty and civility has not put off Brown University. To celebrate his dishonesty, Brown has afforded him an opportunity to speak at Parent’s Weekend, in which his rant will be “A Contract with Our Future.” Certainly I will be in attendance for this rant, but I might be frequently forced to use earplugs so that I do not become dumber by diffusion.