A caution about what follows. As a dyed in the wool liberal (and getting more so every day) I am not a Kennedy fan. Any venom is entirely intentional.

troll,

Delighted you deferred to me. I know what an effort it was. Joe was the godfather to Robert Kennedy's first born.

During the censure, JFK was in the hospital recovering from back surgery. He was offered the chance to have his statement of censure against Joe put into the record. He refused. In part to please Poppa Joe, in part because both John and Bobby Kennedy were strong McCarthy supporters. JFK as early as 1949 and Bobby as a minority counsel to Joe's committee investigating communism. Poppa Joe finally gave up on Joe M in 1956 (2 years after censure) and JFK then got around to adding his voice to the censure record.

At the '56 convention, Eleanor Roosevelt openly berated him for not taking a stand. And did it again in 1958 in an interview, unimpressed with his attempt to don the liberal mantle. Democratic Progressives (the LSCers of the day) in 1960 actively opposed his candidacy.

JFK was also a fan of Nixon.

An old friend and long-time liberal had this take on the famous "ask not what you can do...." sound-bite. He claimed that the logical extension of that was what we can do, is what the government tells us to do. And then, perhaps, what they tell us to think. If you think about it to long, there are some fairly ominous overtones to the statement.

Regards,

John