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Cape Wind: Kennedy, “But don’t you realize — that’s where I sail!”

Senator Kennedy is using his position of power for personal issues. Surprise? Not really. But what is a surprise is the shellacking he is getting at the hands of organizations that are normally his allies.

International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers and Greenpeace have both ….grasp!….criticized the elder statesman for his stance against jobs and clean energy.

And it’s all about putting electricity producing Windmills five miles offshore, but just so barely visible from the Kennedy Compound on Cape Code. “But don’t you realize - that’s where I sail” is a Kennedy quote, that other yachting denizen of liberalism Cronkite said something just as stupid about “his back yard”.

Senator Kennedy has been calling in the favors to block this project anyway he can. Republican Sen. Lamar Alexander from the landlocked state of Tennessee introduced a bill banning such wind farms, turns out he owns land on the Islands.

Senator Ted Stevens of Alaska got in the act and somehow got it attached to a bill on funding the Coast Guard, Ted later admitted talking to Ted about it.

And In 2004, Sen. John Warner, the Virginia Republican, added a last-minute rider to an urgent Iraq war-funding bill that forbade the Army Corps of Engineers to spend money permitting offshore wind projects. That is just plain sick, I am glad you took a dive.

The maneuver to stop the wind farm ”is clearly a back-room deal, and they’re going to get called publicly on it,” said John Passacantando, executive director of Greenpeace USA. ”The Democrats are going to kill the first big offshore wind farm in the United States because of their relationship with Ted Kennedy.”

While vacationing on the Cape, an amateur video on public access cable absolutely lambasted the Senator and his yachting buddies. And at a public hearing event, several supporters of the wind farm, testified dressed in outlandish yachting “clothes” complete with drunken slurring of their testimony. I am sure the elder Senator is not quite used to this kind of public rebuke.

A windmill has been erected at the bridge going on to the Cape, it is an example of what the farm would look like and an experiment in the bird fatalities rates, it looks great as far as I am concerned. It was erected by the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers who also have a training program setup in anticipation of the project.

”They’ve lost in the court of public opinion, so they’re taking this to the back room because it’s the only way they can get it done,” said Sue Reid, a staff attorney for the Boston-based Conservation Law Foundation, which backs the wind farm.

Meanwhile the great Senator just seems to be streamrolling ahead totally unawares of the damage this is doing to his legacy as he enters his final chapters of public service. This is going to seriously cut in on the public dinners he gets invited to.

A book just came out. “Cape Wind: Money, Celebrity, Class, Politics and the Battle for Our Energy Future on Nantucket Sound.” Written by Wendy Williams and Robert Whitcomb. I read part of it on Nantucket Island, it is well written and goes way back tracing the roots of the old money on the Cape and Islands.

3 Responses to “Cape Wind: Kennedy, “But don’t you realize — that’s where I sail!””

1. TMel Says:
   September 10th, 2007 at 5:53 pm

   Just another of the many reasons for the low opinion of Congress these days - I believe even lower than Pres. Bush.

2. Patrick Henry Says:
   September 10th, 2007 at 6:08 pm

   Yeah, Bush’s approval rating is actually close to double that of Congress.

   And I’ve seen nothing that will cause that to change.

3. Judy Aron Says:
   September 11th, 2007 at 8:58 am

   I honestly do not understand how the people of Massachusetts keep electing him to office.
   What an embarassment.

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