My Senator and Me: A Dog's Eye View of Washington

Edward Kennedy

This book is actually painful to read; if you ever wanted a clear-eyed, transparent view of attempted indoctrination in action, this is it. It starts off innocuously enough-- Teddy (who, oddly, looks a lot like Edwin Meese in one or two of these illustrations) and his dog going through the daily routine of a Capitol Hill denizen. Life is good. And then there's a debate about an education bill. It is, of course, a Good Thing, and Kennedy drops just enough details about it, and the process, to make it seem like any moron could see that it is a Good Thing. And here comes the problem with introducing such a thing into a kids' book-- this education bill is not, in any way, the kind of good thing Kennedy says it is. He's slipped in a message to the kiddies-- that saying you're going to do something, no matter how impractical that thing may be, or how harmful it may end up being, makes everything better. (Of course, in a society that truly buys into the "you can be anything you want if you try hard enough" silliness, Kennedy's way of thinking is, sadly, most likely par for the course.) The road to hell is paved with etc. Kennedy's making his good intentions bright and shiny, and slapping them down in the pavement to wait for the raccoons.

Still, the dog's cute.