Not the adverb I'd have chosen...

Boehner on JFK

"Sadly, this is the first Congress to convene without a Kennedy since the Truman administration," Boehner said, as turned to his left.

I'm reminded of Bart Simpson, listening to Poe's The Raven during the first Treehouse of Horror episode. "You know what would have been scarier than nothing? ANYTHING!"

What would be better than "sadly"? ANYTHING! Joyfully, thankfully, happily, mercifully, gratefully, there's no Kennedy in the Congress.




(Of course, you can parse it to make it true - it's very sad that there have been Kennedy's, namely Teddy and Patrick, in the Congress for the last fifty years - but that's clearly not what Boehner meant. What this country has needed for a very long time is fewer and better Kennedy's, and given the unlikelihood of the latter, the former is just dandy, thanks...)