Fair's fair

Fair's fair. Edward "Ted" Kennedy had been pushing socialized health care in the Senate since the 70s, at least, and was personally responsible for the character assassination of Robert Bork which led to the Supreme Court Justice Nominee approval process turning into the partisan knife fight it is today, but he also said this:

The problems of our economy have occurred not as an outgrowth of laissez-faire, unbridled competition. They have occurred under the guidance of federal agencies, and under the umbrella of federal regulations.

Senator Kennedy, re: Trucking deregulation, in 1978. (American Spectator by way of Instapundit.) Yes, folks, Teddy Kennedy also led the charge which led to the deregulation of both trucking, and the airlines.

There is, buried deep within Kennedy's legislative legacy, a different set of policies worth exhuming and examining, precisely because they were truly a break with the normal way of doing business in Washington. During the 1970s, Kennedy was instrumental in deregulating the interstate trucking industry and airline ticket prices, two innovations that have vastly improved the quality of life in America even as—or more precisely, because—they pushed power out of D.C. and into the pocketbooks of everyday Americans. We are incalculably richer and better off because something like actual prices replaced regulatory fiat in trucking and flying. Because they do not fit the Ted Kennedy narrative preferred by his admirers and detractors alike, these accomplishments rarely get mentioned in stories about the late senator. But they are exactly the sort of legislation that we should be celebrating in his honor, and using as a model in today's debates about health care, education, and virtually every aspect of government action.

Nick Gillespie on Reason, again, by way of Instapundit. Of course, most of that article is about the more dubious--and, not coincidentally, more popular with the crypto-socialist base--things Kennedy was behind. GRTWT.