Where have you gone, Pat Moynihan?

I miss the late Senator from New York. In my opinion, he was a principled liberal, and he didn’t shy away from a direct answer to a direct question. He was great on “Meet the Press” because he would respond “Oh my, yes” or “Oh, no” before fully explaining his position. The closest approximation in the current Congress is Rep. Barney Frank who is feisty and intellectual, but rarely evasive.

I bring this up to make a direct comparison to that scion of the Democratic Party, Ted Kennedy, who made an ass of himself yesterday on “Meet the Press.” Where Moynihan was confident and composed in his responses, Kennedy deployed a shrill invective of Democratic talking points. He even deployed the Max Cleland myth, for heaven’s sake! It was all red meat for the left-wing faithful, leading Martin Devon to conclude: “I'm sure that Teddy Kennedy's words brought joy to hard core Democrats but on balance the interview helped George W. Bush far more than it did John Kerry.” (Also see Tom Maguire and Mark Kilmer on Kennedy’s performance.)

By the end of the interview, I was left to wonder: what happened to the Democratic Party? Aside from Joe Lieberman (and maybe Joe Biden) is there a single Dem politician who can explain a position without resorting to prickly tones and wild gesticulating?