ABC news is reporting that Senator Kennedy is dead at 77.
I’m putting this here in the event that people want to debate his legacy.
If it is true, then it is a mess for Obama. Massachusetts got too clever when Romney was governor. It will take a special election for him to be replaced.
In five months. We could hold off for the final vote until then.
I suppose it’s also possible that the election could be held in less than five months.
Checking Mass. General Laws Chapter 54, Section 140: Nope, the relevant language is:
I just did a quick bit of math…
11/7/62 - 8/25/09 = 46 years 9 months 18 days
5/29/17 - 11/22/63 = 46 years 5 months 25 days
Teddy was Senator longer than Jack was alive.
I suppose somebody should set the tone for this, why not have it be an avowed Ted Kennedy opponent:
I don’t like anything he did, I don’t like his connections, his influence, his personal actions, much of anything, but I can say that legislatively he did what he thought was right and he was loved by millions. That’s as good an obituary as any man can reasonably expect, and far better than I expect when I die.
Gone at last to stammer his excuses to the shade of Mary Jo Kopechne just before God sends his ass to roast in eternal hellfire for leaving a young woman to drown.
Disgusting apology for a human being, the world is well rid of this sanctimonious, hypocritical weasel.
Just think how awesome the world will be when we get rid of you. 
Eternal rest grant unto him
Let perpetual light shine upon him
May he rest in peace
Can you say “budget reconciliation”? 
As for Ted Kennedy I just do not know. There are things I did not like about the guy but then he was perhaps the iconic politician and politicians as a breed give me the heebie-jeebies whatever stripe they may be (admittedly some more than others though).
On the flip side he was an iconic figure in American politics pretty much my whole life and from an iconic political family. Love him or hate him it is a passing of an era and notable because of that.
As for Chappaquiddick I just don’t know. On the one hand looks like one more instance of rich/powerful folk getting away with something. On the other the thing has been looked at and dissected ad nauseum and the dude never got busted. There is no statute of limitations on murder and he was never accused of if (legally) so no double jeopardy applies. He could have been arrested for it yesterday if evidence came to light to justify that.
I honestly do not know. Never gave it a lot of study TBH.
In 1955 Green Bay Packer head coach Lisle Blackbourn sent a message to a Senior Right End at Harvard that read in part:
“You have been very highly recommended to us by a number of coaches in your area and also by our talent scouts as a possible Pro Prospect.”
Young #88 responded that he was flattered, but that he planned to attend law school and to go “into another contact sport, politics.”
Game well played, Ted.
From ‘I Think Continually of Those’ by Stephen Spender
“Near the snow, near the sun, in the highest fields
See how these names are fêted by the waving grass
And by the streamers of white cloud
And whispers of wind in the listening sky.
The names of those who in their lives fought for life
Who wore at their hearts the fire’s centre.
Born of the sun they travelled a short while towards the sun,
And left the vivid air signed with their honour.”
Captain Amazing, thank you for not putting this news in the thread where death announcements usually go. And if others want to debate his legacy, I can respect that. Please excuse my not debating in your thread.
I didn’t know there was a thread where death announcements usually go, so I probably don’t deserve your thanks. 
We knew it was coming, but it’s still just shocking to see the legend go.
It didn’t take long before politics was brought into this (see Pelosi’s statement), but it really is pretty relevant giving the timing. I see the obvious hitch in health care (one less seat for the dems in a tight vote that probably won’t be filled before voting time), but also a potential upside in the martyr effect renewing passion since he was well known to have devoted much of his career to reform.
In any event, it’s very sad. And I was just about to go to bed, no luck of that happening anytime soon now.
Teddy, thanks for giving me the vote when I was 18. That political efficacy in my young adult years has made my life much more enjoyable. Thanks for everything you’ve done for disabled people on behalf of the disabled peeps I love. You’ll always be an icon dude, get some rest.
I can name a recent politician (and another not so recent a politician but who recently died) responsible for far, Far, FAR more deaths and casualties.
If you can muster such vitriol for this than why not the other(s)?
Or is it a, “One death is a tragedy. A million deaths is just a statistic.” thing with you?
Couple thoughts:
-My grandpa had the exact same kind of cancer. It’s kind of nice to affirm that money and power can’t get you out of it. That sounds kind of twisted but I hope you understand my meaning; I never wished Senator Kennedy any ill will. The Mary Jo thing has always sounded horrendus to me if true, but it happened more than a decade before I was born, and seeing as I also don’t live in Mass, I never had many personal feelings towards him.
-Fuck Howard Stern for being on vacation this week. He does the best Ted Kennedy bits and would’ve been all over this. Errrah, errrah!
(Come on, this isn’t exactly a tragedy; 77 years + rich + famous + powerful = there are worse fates.)
Yes and i also hope aldiboronti has the same sentiment toward Laura Bush who also accidentally killed someone with a car.
I just noticed that he died exactly a year after his big DNC speech last year. Gives this memory even more emotional punch.
Wow.
I’m not so young anymore, but Ted Kennedy has always been in Congress, like, my whole life.
Those who gives Kennedy a pass over the events at Chappaquiddick have not read the accounts of what happened.
He spent more time trying to cover up what happened than rescuing Mary Jo Kopechne. He tried to get his friends to lie for him and went so far as to swim back to the mainland so he would be seen at the hotel where he was registered. He then tried to smear the officer who investigated it.
All his political accomplishments lay at the foot of this legacy. He deserves a burial at sea (at night) in the trunk of 1967 Olds 88 pushed off the deck while nobody is watching.
Well, if Michelle Malkin can ask her readers to be respectful and not go off on a man who’s just died, I think there’s room to argue that some wait time is appropriate.
Then again, this sort of opinion seems to vary wildly based on just what one thinks of the dead person; I remember the discomfort over when Nixon died. It’s an interesting and sensitive line to walk. That’s a longstanding GD all on its own, I’m sure.