FOAM-AT-THE-MOUTH TV was all over this last night -- Sen. Edward Kennedy's speech yesterday before the National Press Club -- and CommonDreams has obliged us all by publishing the text of the speech here.

Among the other things Sen. Kennedy said were these:

On a supposed "mandate" for El Presidente in the last election: "I categorically reject the deceptive and dangerous claim that the outcome last November was somehow a sweeping, or a modest, or even a miniature mandate for reactionary measures like privatizing Social Security, redistributing the tax burden in the wrong direction, or packing the federal courts with reactionary judges."

On the Bush administration's hostility toward environmentalism: "We should stop the non-scientific, pseudo-scientific, and anti-scientific nonsense emanating from the right-wing, and start demanding immediate action to reduce global warming, and prevent the catastrophic climate change that may be on our horizon now."

On "saving" Social Security: "The biggest threat to Social Security today is not the retirement of the baby boomers. It's George Bush and the Republican Party."

On abortion rights: "...in this land that cherishes individual rights and liberties, a woman has the constitutional right to make her own reproductive decisions, and I support that right wholeheartedly. As the Supreme Court has recognized, reproductive decisions are among the most personal and private decisions a woman ever makes, and neither Congress nor the White House should be making those reproductive decisions for her."