Chris Kennedy (left) participates in a debate in Chicago in 2018; Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (right) attends a campaign event in Oakland, California, on March 26, 2024.
Nam Y. Huh/AP; Josh Edelson/AFP via Getty Images
If a picture is worth a thousand words — how many votes is it worth?
A recent photo on social media showcasing America’s legendary Kennedy clan on the steps of President Biden’s White House was obviously a message of strong political support for the reelection of Uncle Joe.
But it also had a dual intent. Love … and shove.
President Joe Biden is also facing an opponent who is a member of their family: Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., who is running as an independent.
The message? RFK Jr. may be family. One of us. But we won’t be voting for him. We will extract cuts with grace and wield silk boxing gloves, but we are tossing our support elsewhere.
“It’s not enough to wish the world were better, you must make the world better” @POTUS President Biden, you make the world better. Happy St. Patrick’s Day ☘️@vradenburg3 @Mkennedycuomo @vickikennedy2277 @amykennedy715 @pjk4brainhealt @roryekennedy @maxeykennedy pic.twitter.com/UZBcUjtEDh
— Kerry Kennedy (@KerryKennedyRFK) March 18, 2024
But family fealty/friendliness can only go so far.
An exclusive Sneed interview this week with RFK Jr.’s younger brother, Chicago businessman Chris Kennedy, who is also chairman of his family’s investment firm, signaled a more pointed script.
“This would not be happening had our father lived,” said Kennedy, referring to their famous father, U.S. Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, who was assassinated while he was a leading Dem primary candidate for President in 1968.
Chris Kennedy did not elaborate on what is obviously still a family heartache.
“You know, if you stare into the abyss long enough … and try to unravel it, it can be consuming,” added Chris Kennedy, whose uncle, President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in 1963.
Chris Kennedy and his brother were also on opposite sides of the fence on the parole request by Sirhan Sirhan, their father’s assassin, who failed to win his 16th attempt for freedom last year. Chris Kennedy spoke out forcefully against it before the California parole board. (Sneed exclusive on March 5, 2023.)
RFK Jr. supported Sirhan’s parole.
Back on the campaign trail …
“So, l expect to be busy campaigning for Joe Biden in the general election,” said Chris Kennedy. “Fifty family members invited to the White House on St. Patrick’s Day are all on board to make it clear we are supporting President Biden since one of our own is running against him!”
The Kennedy brigade met Biden in the Oval Office, “where a bust of our father can be spotted looking over his shoulder as a backdrop,” Chris Kennedy said.
What an honor to spend St. Patrick’s Day afternoon at the @WhiteHouse with friends, family, and world leaders @POTUS , His Excellency @LeoVaradkar and many cousins – Smiths, Shrivers, and Kennedys!
We are blessed. pic.twitter.com/76cM5Ljdjg
— Patrick J. Kennedy (@PJK4brainhealth) March 18, 2024
“Then he told us stories; how our father ignored warnings not to go to a pre-scheduled trip to Indianapolis at the same time Chicago and Los Angeles were blowing up when Martin Luther King was killed.
“Biden told us how our father went anyway, putting himself in harm’s way to serve others. He was a hero.”
Tragically, the Rev. Martin Luther King was assassinated on April 4, 1968 at a motel in Memphis, Tenn. Robert Fitzgerald Kennedy was assassinated two months later — June 6, 1968 at a hotel in California.
The interview ended with the Kennedy family touch: “As a family, we’ve all been involved in politics, just like we’ve always been involved in family sports … and I expect we will continue to play like hell on the field, make up afterwards, probably jump in the ocean together and then head to our mother’s house for dinner … just like after every election.”
Fare Warning …
Yikes!
The starting auction bid was $37,000.
But when the on-line hammer hit this week, the 14.5-pound bowling ball called “The Red Rose,” once hurled down a movie lane by actor Bill Murray in the 1996 film “Kingpin,” was sold at auction for $350,000 bucks!
The sale of the translucent, polyester pinkish orb, available through Heritage Auctions located in Chicago, was a stunner!
Murray, who starred in the film along with actors Woody Harrelson and Randy Quaid, actually rolled three consecutive strikes during the climax of a bowling tournament in the film.
“What you’re seeing is this massive interest in the films of the 1980s and 1990s,” said Joe Maddalena, exec veep at Heritage.
“There has been a generational shift to massive franchises and blockbusters of the 1980s and 1990s – the “Home Alones”, the Indiana Jones films, the “Die Hards” and, of course, “Titanic” — are now collectors’ favorites. A testament to the power of nostalgia.”
No kidding.
La La Ga Ga!
A La La land party starring Gov. J. B. Pritzker and Tinseltown execs, capping off a week of meetings to showcase filmmaking in Illinois, known for our Buellers, Blues Brothers and Batmen, drew such notables as James Bond franchise producer Barbara Broccoli; Chaz Ebert, “Veep” star/Illinois native Matt Walsh, “One Love” producer Bob Teitel. And a special kudo to Illinois Film Alliance Chris Dudley, once head of the Illinois Film Office, who would hand a special notice to everyone else but herself. But this ain’t her column …
Sneedlings …
Condolences to Barbara Phelan on the death of her beloved husband, former Cook County Board President Dick Phelan. He survived six bouts of cancer over the past 25 years, but it was finally cancer that claimed his life at the age of 87. “He was the love of my life,” she said. Saturday birthdays: Eric Clapton, 79; Warren Beatty, 87; Celine Dion, 56. … Sunday birthdays: Al Gore; 76; Christopher Walken, 81; Richard Chamberlain, 90; Rhea Perlman, 76; Ewan McGregor, 53.