Good Lord

Ted Kennedy was outed as a member of the Owl Club, “a social club for Harvard alumni that bans women from membership.”

In an interview with WHDH Channel 7’s Andy Hiller that aired last night, Kennedy said, “I joined when I . . . 52 years ago, I was a member of the Owl Club, which was basically a fraternal organization.”

Asked by Hiller whether he is still a member, Kennedy said, “I’m not a member; I continue to pay about $100.”

He then said of being a member in a club that discriminates against women, “I shouldn’t be and I’m going to get out of it as fast as I can.”

The Harvard Crimson reports that, in 1984, the university severed ties with clubs like the Owl, citing a federal law championed by Kennedy.

Meanwhile, Kennedy admitted to Hiller that he himself probably couldn’t pass Judiciary Committee muster.

“Probably not . . . probably not,” Kennedy said.

The Owl Club is simply not of the same ilk as Conservative Alumni of Princeton—the group which Alito had on his résumé but has no recollection of ever being a part of—who sought to keep women and minorities out of Princeton altogether. Yet, in being an exclusively male group from whom Harvard disassociated itself after legislation endorsed by Kennedy himself, it’s got the whiff of similarity, and that’s, as we all know, enough these days. And, quite honestly, Kennedy should have given them the old heave-ho long ago, and he sounds like a jackass when he says stuff like “I’m not a member; I continue to pay about $100.”

Democrats can’t run on a platform of integrity unless they are willing to have integrity. That simple.

(This story is all over the conservative blogosphere, btw—and I see by doing a search that now Limbaugh and O’Reilly are on it, too. Too bad. Another blow for liberals because Dems can’t walk the walk.)