"When I was 7, America elected a fellow named John Kennedy president. He had been a senator and he was witty. His daddy was rich as he made money the way John Hancock did, by smuggling. Hancock smuggled tea. Kennedy’s dad smuggled hooch.
"In 1958, Kennedy began a speech to the Gridiron Club — a journalist organization when newspapers ruled the land — by saying, “I have just received the following wire from my generous daddy: ‘Dear Jack — Don’t buy a single vote more than necessary — I’ll be damned if I am going to pay for a landslide.’”
"Looking back as an adult, I realize he was not joking. He was bragging. But he was so charming that I secretly have wished for a Republican John Kennedy. Ronald Reagan came close. Donald Trump too. Maybe the John Kennedy we need is the senator by that very name from Louisiana. He uses humor and common sense to make his point and his points are always good ones.
"Early in his days in the Senate, the Republican John Kennedy said, “This is Washington, D.C. Politics is in everybody’s blood, kind of like herpes.”
"He was a Louisiana Democrat until he decided he wanted to win election to an office bigger than state treasurer. He converted to Republican but skipped the testicle-removal ceremony. In 2016, his state sent him to the Senate. He wound up on a boring committee that overlooks banks and the like.
"At a hearing on October 9, 2017, he said something that shocked the Advocate, Louisiana’s biggest newspaper.
"It reported, “During a Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee hearing last week, members of Congress expressed bewilderment that credit reporting company Equifax, under siege after a data breach affecting more than 145 million people, has received a $7.25 million contract with the IRS to validate the identity of taxpayers communicating with the agency on the telephone or through its website.”
"At the hearing, Kennedy said to former Equifax CEO Richard Smith of that contract, “You realize, to many Americans right now, that looks like we're giving Lindsay Lohan the keys to the mini-bar.' ”. . .
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