The Crimes of Edward Moore “Ted” Kennedy
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With the passing of the late Kennedy well wishes, praise, and anecdotal recounts of his personal charisma and efforts to help people abound. But dare we forget the things that bar him from being immortalized as the “model public servant”?
To say that Edward Kennedy was acquainted with tragedy would be an understatement. No one denies the tragedies that have befallen the Kennedy family. But they in no way excuse the detrimental effect his tenure in Washington inflicted on this country.
Image via Wikipedia
Ted Kennedy’s Early Years
The name Kennedy and the word prestige seemingly go hand in hand. It is no surprise that Ted Kennedy became a student at Harvard despite a lackluster school history. But it seems young Ted liked football more than studying and arranged for another student to complete his coursework. When his cheating was discovered he was expelled from Harvard.
With the help of his father, he managed to obtain entrance to the military. Also with his father’s influence obtained a post that made sure he was not deployed to Korean War.
After two years he was discharged and with the help of his father re-entered Harvard, managing to graduate this time with a B.A. in History and Government.
Marriage
He married Virginia Joan Bennett, but the marriage struggled through year after year of rumors of infidelities. A trait apparently shared by many of the Kennedy men.
Chappaquiddick
In what appears to be the greatest of his moral lapses is the story of Chappaquiddick. It would be negligent to say nothing of Mary Jo Kopechne when reviewing the life of Ted Kennedy. The young twenty-eight year old political activist who took a ride with Kennedy on that fateful night and ended up paying with her life.
We shall probably never know the whole story, except that Kennedy managed to escape the vehicle, Mary Jo did not. Kennedy did not summon help but instead went home and arranged an army of lawyers and spin-doctors. He didn’t call the authorities until after the vehicle and her body were found. He pled guilty to a ridiculously light charge and received a two month suspended sentence. It was not the first time he got off of a reckless driving charge.
It is amazing that just from this incident alone the people of Massachusetts continued to elect this man term after term into office.
What about Mary Jo Kopechne?
Anti-American Anti-Citizen
But these are all his personal shortcomings and some would argue they play no part in the character of the man, or in his capacity as a public servant.
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Former President George W. Bush was eloquently gracious in his comments regarding the death of Ted Kennedy referring to him as a great man. It’s a pity the same could not be said for the Senator who often trampled conservatives through underhanded and dishonorable tactics.
No one remembers that Kennedy said “There is no doubt that Saddam Hussein’s regime is a serious danger, that he is a tyrant, and that his pursuit of lethal weapons of mass destruction cannot be tolerated. He must be disarmed.” before we went to war. All that is remembered is Kennedy’s scathing attack on Bush.
How many times was the clip played on all the networks of Kennedy stating “…lie after lie after lie after lie…”?
Perhaps he could not get over his disgraceful part in effecting the Vietnam War debacle and wanted to relive the glory of harming our troops and giving succor to the enemy.
Could anyone harm our standing in the world anymore than Ted did when he recounted “Shamefully, we now learn that Saddam’s torture chambers reopened under new management — U.S. management.“ People comment that one should not speak ill of the dead. Kennedy could speak only ill of the living.
Going even farther back we can look at the disgraceful showing the Senator put on in his crucifixion attempt on Robert Bork. Bork is rumored to have said that Ted said to him, “nothing personal”, but the show Kennedy put on in running roughshod over Robert was anything but not personal. Ted Kennedy set out to publicly and personally destroy Robert Bork, and no tactic or lie was too low for him to be ashamed to use it. Slander was a tool, not an ethical issue.
It is truly amazing that Teddy could find time to be involved in politics at all with the dizzying amount of carousing he participated in. So much so that it started to affect his political standing.
Throughout his career he consistently voted in favor of anything that promoted abortion. While the good Senator could not seem to find any foreigner who was here illegally that he did not wish to represent, he could not be bothered to champion the most defenseless of our soon-to-be citizens. Senator Kennedy left behind his pro-life convictions when they became a political drag on his career.
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His voting record is a prime example of tax and spend democracy. That is when he voted. His record is littered throughout with “No Vote”.
His voting record can be found here.
His ideas have hurt this great nation and it’s citizens. He was soft on crime, soft on drugs, pro tax and spend, and in public education’s back pocket. He thought his bodyguards should have guns, but you shouldn’t.
Given the chance he would have happily shackled this nation with the Kyoto Protocol whose sole purpose would appear to be to turn the US, and the West into third world countries while siphoning a steady supply of wealth into small and not entirely reputable countries.
While he denounced the maze of labyrinthine medical insurance and healthcare options and procedures, no one points out that it was his hand that helped create this convoluted mess through legislation in 1973. We stand on the verge of destroying the best health care you can receive anywhere in the world, thanks to Ted’s tinkering which set up nearly every bad thing people dislike about the way healthcare is run.
Ted Kennedy said, “I am painfully aware that the criticism directed at me in recent months involves far more than disagreements with my positions. . . . I recognize my own shortcomings, and the faults in the conduct of my private life. I realize that I alone am responsible for them, and I am the one who must confront them.”
More rhetoric in the expedient life of an unrepentant politician? May God have mercy on his soul.
As for us, if the late Ted Kennedy was one thing, he is the poster boy for term limits.
12 Comments
“wanted to relive the glory of harming our troops”
The real harm was done when King George sent them over there in the first place.
“soft on drugs”
People are waking up to the ineffectiveness of the drug prohibition.
Everyone makes mistakes. If you were to die today, would you want be remembered purely by all the mistakes you made? Or would you rather be remembered for the great things you might have done?
And before you call me a liberal, I am a Conservative. I just think that once people are dead, they deserve respect while their loved ones mourn the loss. What would you think if someone you loved died and someone walked up to you and started talking about all of the evil in their lives? I am sure you would not like it at all.
The things he did to harm America were not mistakes. They were the expression of his worldview. Public figures become object lessons. It’s part of the price to be paid for what he gained in return.
That is a baldfaced lie. America does not have the best healphcare in the world. Just because you want something to be true does not make it true.
Well jamie, I’m real sorry to burst your bubble but we do. The only reason that the US scores to low on the WHO study on healthcare is because we don’t have a socialistic system. Having more people with the same really poor care would rank us higher. It’s totally bogus. Combine that with the fact that the numbers used to count the un- and underinsured are also bogus. Let’s call the number of un- and underinsured 45 million. 37% of that group are in households that earn over $50,000 a year. 19% are households that earn over $75,000 a year. 20% are not citizens but illegal aliens who are not entitled to any kind of program. And 33% already qualify for an existing program, but for whatever reason fail to sign up for it. So that leaves us with 4.5 million un- and underinsured. Quite a different picture than is spun by the media. A little over one percent of our population. That hardly counts as a margin of error. And some of those don’t have healthcare specifically because of the damage Teddy did with his legislation in 1973. The US offers the best care for the most people. It doesn’t get any better than that.
And those are the facts.
Stephen, Our healthcare is not great. I have a dream that one day we will go completely to a capitalistic healthcare, but that dream is never going to be a reality. Right now we pay more then most socialist countries (all but Norway) for HC in taxes. Then we have to pay for it again when we need to go to the hospital. We need to pick one way or another. We cannot ride this worst of both worlds any longer. But I really do hope one day we can go to capitalism and take our businesses back from the government.
Dean, the question is why are things more expensive here? Two reasons, the first being the interference with the process by the government, and the second being, we have money. Why are prescriptions here so much more than in Canada? Is it bulk ordering? People would like you to think so, but that isn’t the answer. The answer is that the money is here, and thanks to the government, we cannot even order drugs across state lines let alone across national borders that would place at least a little competition into this heavily regulated market. Companies charge what they do here because the government has set it so that they can, without having to worry about competition. If they tried charging that in Canada nobody could afford the medicine to even make it worthwhile to ship it there.
Government needs to get out of the healthcare business.
Everyone forgets what Chris Hitchens said regarding the death of Jerry Falwell – “I don’t care whether his family’s feelings are hurt or not. But if they are, they can take comfort from the extraordinary piety and stupidity, and generally speaking, uniformity of the coverage of the man’s death.”
Your article is mis-named. Only the first part of your article actually dealt with his alleged criminal trespasses.
Kennedy’s voting record and ideology is not technically crminal, even if you find it distasteful or even “un-American.” So his views aren’t the same as yours, that doesn’t make him a criminal.
That’s one of the major problems we have in this country, instead of arguing that the other guys is wrong, we argue that he is criminal or, better yet, “evil.”
The world ain’t black and white, take a look around at all the different colors that make up a much more complex tapestry than either Conservatives or Liberals would like to believe.
Also, as for “everyone forgetting what Chris Hitchens said…” Ha ha ha. Most people don’t even know who Chris Hitchens is or bother with what he has to say about anything.
Facts: Old facts,twisted facts, shallow facts, lean facts….all facts.
Ardent…why don’t you become chairman or unofficial monkey to Rush Limbaughs organ grind….better yet how about a hunting expedition with Darth Vader on a few gin martinis…shaken, not stirred! Republican idealogue is old hat, and the one your weraing is tainted with blood, dust, and lusty thoughts of the good ole boys. Join the U.N., they’ll embrace those misguided truths. Lock and load Bubba, Satan is on the horizon!
Pretty easy to bang on the dead Kennedy’s…also disgustingly distasteful. You couldn’t hold Teddy’s Jock Strap BOY!!!!!!
I’d make a reply if I could wrestle my way through the grammar, sentence structure, and overflow of mismatched rhetoric. I should have posted a sign – NO DROOLING!