Gone With the Wind

by: Hopeful

Wed Feb 03, 2010 at 06:50:23 PM EST

You'll notice that at the heart of it is Kean's love of his lost childhood, being raised as the son of a Congressman in a long line of elected officials. How wonderful it was when his father could be endorsed by other powerful officials out of "friendship." I bet that lovely tradition never hurt Tom Kean Sr. or Tom Kean Jr. Kean's outrage comes when he considers that voters might (gasp!) vote against someone who's already made it in to the club. Why, how could Republican voters even think of not re-electing Senator McCain, the son of Admiral McCain, the son of Admiral McCain? It's enough to make me cry. I certainly broke into tears when I learned Governor Hughes's stepson lost a primary to get his father's post.

The reality is that no one under the age of 40 can remember the days of self-identified Liberal Republicans, so the era of bipartisan voting is long gone. Whether the new era in which the parties are aligned by political beliefs, instead of being jumbled by different regional traditions related to the Civil War, works well or not remains to be seen. But Kean shouldn't worry too much. The Keans, Bushes, Kennedys, and Frelinghuysens will keep their power, and that's what "civility" was really about.