Well to be fair, liberal posters weren’t particularly nice when Jesse Helms died last year.
IMO the actions of Helms regarding political and military aid to the military thugs of El Salvador caused more deaths than anything one can blame Kennedy for. BTW Ted Kennedy made efforts to limit or eliminate the aid to those Central American thugs for not doing anything (or for being part) of the death squads during the 70’s and 80’s.
Mom died with brain cancer 2 1/2 years ago, so I have a different take on this.
No one quoted the obvious bit yet?:
The guy had a lot of personal flaws, but he also spent his life working hard for the public good trying to serve his country. He also managed to be an effective and put a good face on what is often a pretty dysfunctional and hated institution, the US Senate. I’m sorry to see him go.
This fine upright man never even had the common decency to apologize to the parents of the young woman he left to drown. And he then had the fucking gall in 1994 to lie about even that.
He had no shame whatever. The most fitting epitaph there could be for this piece of work is an adaptation of that reportedly written by Byron for Lord Castlereagh.
*Posterity will ne’er survey
A nobler grave than this.
Here lie the bones of Kennedy,
Stop, traveler, and piss.
*
Given the degree of his illness, he wasn’t going to show up and vote anyway.
The damage has already been done. Regardless of how one feels about Kennedy personally, he had an astonishing amount of influence in the Senate, and an ability to pull opposing sides together, as well as a deep interest in and a deep knowledge of the subject. His simple absence has already altered the health care debate incalculably.
Why? I know a fair number of people who think exactly the same thing.
Why did he get a pass on his womanizing, leaving her to die, lying about it under oath several times… if I left some poor woman to die my ass would be in jail.
Classy.
In the political realm, with few exceptions, I lean more on the Helms-Falwell side than I do the Kennedy side.
Jesse Helms and Jerry Falwell both had a friendly adversarial relationship and a shared respect with him.
That’s good enough for me.
God grant you rest, Senator Kennedy, reward your virtues and forgive your sins, through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.
May the souls of the faithful departed, thru the mercy of Christ, rest in peace.
I didn’t agree with pretty much anything he said or did in his public life. Nonetheless, as Bob Dole said, he was my opponent, not my enemy.
My condolences to his family and his constituents.
Regards,
Shodan
At least nobody in this thread has called him a “socialist” yet. (That didn’t take long at all, on Free Republic.)
It’s really not about “murder.” There’s a purely rumor-based, speculative theory that Mary Jo Kopechne was Ted’s mistress and he murdered her to silence her, or because she was pregnant, something. Now, given what we know of Ted’s reputation, the idea of his having a mistress is by no means incredible; OTOH, it’s not the sort of thing that would have torpedoed his career, not even in 1969, so I can’t see him going to such lengths or taking such a risk. Reasonable people will agree it was an accident, as it appeared to be – one which maybe happened because Ted was driving drunk (again, his reputation – and something far more acceptable in 1969 than today). What people have held against Ted for decades is not that the accident happened but that his first reaction seemed to be to cover his own ass.
Excellent point, most people don’t know that Laura fled the scene of that accident, leaving her friend to die and used her position as US Senator and familial connections to avoid a vigorous prosecution. Most people think that her accident was just about a 17 year old high school student fucking up and running a stop sign, but you and I know better.
The righties shout “socialist” so much it’s as if they expect a stuffed duck with $50 in its bill to descend from the ceiling every time they say it.
Ted fought on the right side (from my perspective) on so many issues it’s hard to know where to start. 18 year old suffrage, Title IX, health insurance, it goes on and on. True, the Chappaquiddick incident was a black spot on his record. I think he got drunk, had the accident, and panicked and tried to cover it up. Truly reprehensible, just like having the Secret Service keep the sheriff away while you sober up after shooting a hunting buddy in the face. But I believe in judging people on the whole of their character and I think he was a flawed but great man.
A handful of other states have moved in that direction. BUT: a bill was already in the (overwhelmingly Dem) Massachussetts legislature to allow for the appointment of a Temporary Senator to fill the space between vacancy and election, and one of the last political efforts that involved Ted was getting his explicit endorsement to have the legislative leaders sign on (they finally did just days ago).
The last brother, the one that was not really groomed for glory, had the standard-bearer role thrust upon him, at a time when he was yet unprepared. He did what he could, got and did many things wrong and worked hard and long to make up for it, in the process stumbling many times and succumbing to the weaknesses and demons that tormented his kin across generations, but always standing back up and growing into a figure of undisputable relevance. As we often say about artists, there’s the man and there’s the work, and each of us choses which we look at. (And with the work, one can not like it, but acknowledge it was done well)
With Eunice and Ted, this chapter closes. But, as he would say, the dream lives on. Which if it’s worth dreaming, it should even in the absence of these persons.
Shodan, FriarTed, Airman Doors: well said, gentlemen, well said. Amen
In his own self-interest, he fund raised for and actively supported those who bombed my city and others indiscriminately in the 70s and 80s.
That’s my only experience of him.
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Senator Kennedy will be missed. I disagreed with the vast majority of his positions, but never doubted his commitment to better the world. We disagreed on the best way to do that, but he devoted his life to public service in the truest sense of the word. He was, indeed, the Lion of the Senate, and we are richer for having him here and poorer for his passing.
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I was confident that this would be an occasion to quietly note to myself how different conservatives are from liberals, at least on this board. I knew that after the hate-filled venom spewed at disliked conservative figures who have died, the contrast would be obvious.
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How disappointing it is to be so wrong about #2.
And yet how predictable. That’s not a slam on conservatives, by the way, just on people.
RIP Ted. Where ever you may be, I hope you get a giggle out of both the whitewashing and the mouthfoaming.
This. I disagreed with many of his positions, but he represented Mass. and this country well. Whatever his personal failings, he always did his job.