Earlier when I read about this my first reaction was it was a case of bad Deja Vu (or maybe Deja Voodoo?) all over again. If you’re not a political junkie you might have missed the news last month that RFK Jr. met with Team Trump to discuss an endorsement in exchange for a position in the Trump administration. In an unusual move Trump wisely said no. I guess it was one of those ‘even a broken clock is right twice a day’ moments. Well, after spending weeks licking his sore balls that had been whacked by Trump RFK Jr. decided to give it the old college try with Kamala Harris, or at least her campaign. They turned him down without so much as a meeting! Good for them.
The Philadelphia Inquirer has a short article that covers RFJ Jr.’s latest gambit. Hours after reading it I’m still startled by his audacity and cluelessness. The linked article points out Kennedy has made multiple overtures to first the Biden campaign and then to the Harris one. Each time he’s been rebuffed. Despite being the son and namesake of a beloved icon in the Democratic Party every Democrat with a lick of common sense knows Junior is NO Bobby Kennedy. The real RFK would I truly believe shake his head and say what the hell went wrong with my son?
That this idiot even now tried to meet with the campaign to horse trade his (in his mind) ‘valuable’ endorsement in exchange for a Cabinet post takes me back to my days on active duty in the Marines. The whole thing smacked of what we used to (maybe jarheads and sailors still do) call a ‘Sea Story’, a tale that shall we say stretches credulity. (Once again for those who haven’t heard this from me before: What’s the difference between a Fairy Tale and a Sea Story? A Fairy Tale begins ‘Once upon a time…’ A Sea Story begins ‘You ain’t gonna believe THIS sh*t!’) Again, I can’t help but wonder how desperate RFK Jr. has become that he went hat-in-hand to the Harris campaign begging for a chance to regain some measure of credibility.
This guy is beyond ‘weird.’ He’s freaking nuts. Due to his anti-vax misinformation campaign going back decades the bulk of us have viewed him as a crackpot – someone in whom the Kennedy gene didn’t quite form properly. However, he turned out to have a lot more crazy to him than we knew. Again, going back to my jarhead days I think about how members of a unit would react if some lowly enlisted grunt who was a reservist and decided to go active duty that told everyone about a Staff NCO or even an Officer in their Reserve unit who talked about having a parasitic worm that ate up part of his brain. SEA STORY would leap to everyone’s mind. Followed by That was a nice piece of bullsh*t. This guy could be fun to have around.’
But then the newbie spins another Sea Story. This time it’s that the same guy is from a famous family and had dabbled in politics. He was driving to the city one night to meet friends to eat and knock back some drinks and a vehicle in front of him hit and killed a bear cub. So, thinking it would be nice to skin the thing, and maybe eat some of the meat he tossed the carcass in the back of his van and went on to meet his friends. Their get together ran long, and he realized he had to be at the airport before long and there wasn’t time to drive the carcass all the way back home. So they took it to freaking Central Park and stuck a bicycle next to it to make it look like the bear had been killed from being hit by a bike. Har har! Except it blew up into a big deal in the news. Given his family name the dude decided to keep quiet for years about it but it was just too good a tale and he thought people would enjoy hearing about it.
At that point his fellow grunts would be thinking something might be ‘off’ with their newbie. And THEN he says the guy was desperate to live up family’s name/reputation and didn’t like being regarded as the family f**kup so after failing to get a job with Trump went to the new leader of his family’s Party and offered to put HIS name forward to help her get elected. BUT in exchange for a big fancy job. (In other words try to bribe her) At this point the unit would be saying forget these Sea Stories about some crazy dude at this newbie’s Reserve unit. HE is crazy! The Company Gunny would have a parade of grunts accosting him saying ‘find a way to convince the Old Man (the CO) to get this dude a psych discharge. Before his dumb ass gets one or more of us injured or killed!’
Imagine their shock to be told by the Gunny they KNOW to be a straight up leader who would sacrifice himself for any one of them that those are NOT Sea Stories. That every bit is true and there’s even more. That’s what I think when I think of RFK Jr. The man needs an intervention in the form of being whisked away to some mountaintop retreat with wise priests or monks to reset his head.
Anyway again I say good for Harris’ team for not giving RFK Jr. the time of day. And to the others in the Party before now who reacted the same way to his overtures. Naturally Kennedy himself is complaining. HE thinks a huge mistake is being made:
Kennedy said he hopes Harris reconsiders his offer of a meeting. “I think it is a strategic mistake for them. That’s my perspective,” Kennedy said. “I think they ought to be looking at every opportunity. I think it is going to be a very close race.”
The Democratic Party hasn’t completely ignored Kennedy. It does after all take at least some informal contact to politely receive his entreaties so he can’t accuse them of totally blowing him off. To be fair, or at least accurate there have even been some serious communications regarding Kennedy’s bid to become President. He tried to convince the Party President Biden should step aside and HE was the one to lead us to victory. (Makes me wonder if he too sees Dr. Ronny Jackson on a regular basis) And there are the legal goings on with ballot access. To get elected a candidate first has to get on the ballot but it’s not an easy process. Being a member of a famous family isn’t enough and in most (if not all) states the Party is making sure he follows every rule/law. And takes him to court if there are questions. So yes, he’s ‘in communication’ with some important Democrats.
However, it’s apparently clear to him he’s not just toast but burned to a crisp toast. That’s why he’s gone begging first to Trump and now to Harris saying ‘Please! Make me an actual important person!’ From where I sit, even though his endorsement wouldn’t matter in the slightest HE is convinced it does. To him it’s what campaign finance law considers ‘or something else of value.’ If he directly said he’d give his endorsement in exchange for a Cabinet post (or a position equally lofty) that’s a literal offer of a quid pro quo. That happens to be illegal.
Not that the Harris campaign would now, or in the future (after she’s President) file charges. Still, I can at least hope that someone not part of the campaign will quietly point out to RFK Jr. he’s in legal doo-doo. And perhaps it’s time for him to gracefully as he can exit the race. Naw, it’s pretty clear the part of his brain that got eaten by the worm included the part where common sense and reason are located.
Many many years ago RFK Jr was a respected attorney and environmental activist. I attended a lecture where he was the main speaker re: issues around polluted rivers. Now his famous family has nothing to do with him. What a reversal!!
I too remember there was a time when he seemed to have a genuine interest in parlaying his name and privilege into doing actual good. Then we chose to dive into the anti-vax rabbit hole and even when the one dubious (even when it came out) study he based his activism on was completely and thoroughly debunked rather than admit he’d been sloppy in researching the issue he doubled-down. And kept doing so. His name meant too many people took him seriously and lent credibility to other ant-vaxers. How many have needlessly suffered, and even died because is f**king ego was to big to admit he’d made a mistake at the very beginning of his deadly crusade?
He’s wiped out any good he long ago did many times over. He has blood on his hands, plain and simple. When one looks at him in comparison to his father and uncle were struck down by assassin’s bullets it’s easy to accept the adage ‘Only the good die young.’
RFK Jr. was 14 when his dad was murdered. Once again, besides all the black kids murdered or in jail, he proves it’s an absolutely TERRIBLE thing to try and grow up without a father. Any man or woman who believes otherwise is FULL OF SHIT. He is just another lost and damaged man.
Sorry, but YOU’RE full of shit. There are PLENTY of decent people who grow up without a father (I recall the case of a teenage boy in Iowa who, during that state’s debate on same-sex marriage, came out in defense of his lesbian mothers and there didn’t seem to be any mention of a “father” in the picture). You might also want to recall that his brother, Joseph, was just a year older when their father was killed, and yet, I don’t recall that Joseph Kennedy’s life could be taken as a “TERRIBLE thing” to grow up without a father. Joseph had some issues–not entirely uncommon for ANY young man in his teens to mid-20s–but he seems to have had a fairly good life, rather than being a “lost and damaged man.”
There are also PLENTY of *horrible* people who did grow up with a father–Donald Trump, for instance.
The presence or absence of a “father” makes no real difference. In fact, that’s a pretty sexist suggestion that a woman is somehow incapable of raising sons without there being a “father” (almost as sexist as saying a man is incapable of raising a daughter–or children in general–without a “mother”).
“The presence or absence of a father makes no real difference”. You honestly believe that? You’re right. Between the two of us someone is full of shit and it ain’t me pal. By the way the kid with issues was cited for driving recklessly turning over a jeep on Nantucket, breaking his brother’s vertebrae and PARALYZING a young woman for LIFE. Sure there are millions of what you call decent people,(how generous of you), who turn out ok without either parent but dont try to sell me on a lesbian knowing what’s it like to grow up male in America anymore than a man knows what girls go through. The testimony of ONE kid doesn’t negate the hundreds of testimonies I’ve heard of people lamenting the loss of a father. You use Trump as an example? You must be joking. He had a sperm donor not a loving father, and I can argue IT’S BECAUSE of his father that he has taken the roads he has. Not important? Sell it somewhere else. My own children and the eight year old I’ve served as a father for all her life tell me different. Her dad, not very involved, was killed when she was three. She still has grief over him. It’s not sexist at all to acknowledge THERE are substantial differences between growing up male or female and that having a loving parent of the same sex as you makes a huge difference. Of course love is required no matter who raises a child and individuals adapt to any circumstance. I hope if you are a father, you believe you make a difference in your children’s lives. If not, that’s a tragedy of your own choosing. Too many absent fathers made the same mistake and their children pay the price.