Ted Kennedy, the stalwart of liberal causes, has died of brain cancer at the age of 77.

Kennedy was from a family, which wore the mantle of noblesse oblige with honor and fought for those, who were not born with a silver spoon in their mouths.  He championed civil rights, gay rights, women’s rights, and universal healthcare.  With his passing, it seems all but certain now the administration will pass healthcare, with the crucial public option.

When his brother John was assassinated, the Congress embraced the fight for equality, passing the Civil Rights Bill in 1964 to honor his memory.  The nation picked up the gauntlet of the space race, and accomplished in July 1969 the goal of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to earth.  By carrying his torch, Johnson was able to deliver medicare, which so many old people now bitch about at town hall meetings.

Those of us on the right should be careful how we talk about Kennedy.  Rush Limbaugh danced on his grave, patting himself on his fat-filled back, noting that healthcare reform did not pass before Kennedy did.  Folks on Hot Air and Free Republic, are celebrating his death and hoping for the same for Pelosi, Reid, and Obama.  With a nation in mourning and a Congress determined to honor his memory, our masturbatory death dance will only come back and bite us on our oversized asses.

There will be time for celebration when have effectively killed healthcare–reform or otherwise–by convincing inbred, racist, retarded hillbillies that healthcare will mean the government will have death squads coming into their snake handling churches and dragging them off to resettlement and reeducation camps.  We have a lot of work ahead of us to trick the Greatest Generation into killing their grandchildren’s futures.  We need to keep the Palins and Hannitys going at full steam to convince those without healthcare, that healthcare is bad.

But until then, show some decorum.  A man whose family gave all in service to their country has passed.  God bless you and God speed, Mr. Kennedy.

Edward Moore Kennedy, 1932 – 2009, the Lion finally goes into that long dark winter night.