A New Kennedy

You knew it was only a matter of time. From the New York Times, reporting out of Boston:

It was billed as a commemoration of John F. Kennedy’s farewell speech to the Massachusetts legislature 50 years ago this month, but a Beacon Hill ceremony on Tuesday was striking for another reason. Joseph P. Kennedy III, a 30-year-old grandson of Robert F. Kennedy, had lawmakers riveted with a speech of his own, condemning what he called an “atmosphere of hate” in modern politics.

Mr. Kennedy, who attended the gathering with the late Senator Edward M. Kennedy’s widow, Victoria, is the son of Joseph P. Kennedy II, a former Democratic congressman from Massachusetts. An assistant district attorney on Cape Cod, he has expressed interest in politics and is considered the most likely Kennedy of his generation to run for office.

Speaking after lawmakers listened to a recording of his great-uncle’s “City on a Hill” address to the legislature in 1961, days before his presidential inauguration, Mr. Kennedy decried “identity politics” and invoked the shooting of Representative Gabrielle Giffords of Arizona.

“Something happened last week and it’s time for a change,” he said. “For too long the rhetoric in Washington has been toxic. Anti-war protesters holding up signs saying ‘Death to Terrorist Pig Bush,’ Tea Party protesters shouting out racist and anti-gay slurs to members of Congress. Protesters shouting out, ‘Death to Cheney.’ Radio talk show hosts calling President Obama and members of Congress communists and traitors.”

Lawmakers gave him a standing ovation afterward, and Therese Murray, a Democrat and president of the State Senate, proclaimed, “We have a new Kennedy.”