Howie Carr on Kennedy: no love lost

Who mentioned Chappaquiddick when?

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5 Comments

• Man Who Isn't a Howie Fan said:

  I'd really like to know the answer to this: exactly when are you too rich, too fat, too dumb, and too happy to be part of the "working class" anymore?

  I don't care what he was like as a kid: for many years now Howie Carr has about as much to do with the working class as Ted Kennedy did.  The only thing left is that they both got the masses good and riled up when it benefited their own personal agenda.

  BTW, don't take that to mean I'm anti-Kennedy...far from it.  I voted for him the one time I could, and I'd vote for every day of the week and twice on Sunday.  But I have no illusions of Kennedy's actual relationship with the working class...and nor should anyone have them about Howie.

  August 27, 2009 12:24 AM

• Peter Porcupine said:

  Adam - I know a few self-employed, conservative African American business owners, esp. in the trades, who would take issue with your implication that race trumps all when identifying as 'working class'.  (I'm a child of the factory floor, myself - proud to be working class, and not a college grad).

  August 27, 2009 10:08 AM

• Adam Reilly said:

  PP, I didn't mean to suggest that race trumps class. Instead, I think that Howie--by saying Kennedy wasn't pro-working class, and then citing his support of "racial preferences" as evidence--seems to at least be *implying* that his (Howie's) understanding of "working class" may be limited to white people.

  And Man Who Isn't... Ted Kennedy obviously wasn't a working-class dude, but a strong case can be made that his legislative priorities (e.g., raising the minimum wage) reflected a real commitment to at least some blue-collar people. (I know that small-business owners who consider themselves blue-collar wouldn't have shared this priority.) As for Howie, I suppose he's rhetorically committed to the working class--but you're right: he'd be hard pressed to identify himself that way nowadays.

  August 27, 2009 11:50 AM

• aging cynic said:

  AR,

  Can't argue with your points. That said, whenever someone refers to "working people" or "working class", it strikes me that they think that THEY are the arbiters of who qualifies as such and it galls me. Is my white collar work of less value? Is a professional under LESS stress than others?(Like PP, my parents and I worked on the factory floor. Unlike them,I went to college at night.) Howie has a point when he mentions that many of the "working people" supported by these pols have never done much in the way of private sector/worry-where-the-next-buck-is-coming-from WORK. If there were not a lot of people feeling disenfranchised, Howie would have no act. He may capitalize on it, but he didn't make them feel that way in the first place. We can thank political demagogues for that.

  August 28, 2009 12:53 PM

• jim kelly said:

  howie--Ihave read your columns & listened to your show for years--but after the last week--you have lost me--you stated that you were taking the high ground on kennedy--but you could not help youself--you didnt voice your opinion, you hammered away

  and could not stop---let's see that when you die--how many " friends & listeners show up" to pay homage to you & your family--reality check--2 bus loads maybe history will judge ted kennedy---you wont even be a footnote

  August 31, 2009 3:03 PM

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