Posted on 08/26/2009 9:18:28 AM PDT by AJKauf
I am deeply grateful for the contribution that Ted Kennedy, who died last night, made to my education. Until Kennedy delivered his intemperate tirade against Robert Bork’s nomination to the Supreme Court in the summer of 1987, I hadn’t known that a United States Senator could brazenly lie to his colleagues and the American people and get away with it. I’m not talking about little fibs, or broken promises, or private dissimulations: all that I took as standard operating procedure in a fallen world. No, Ted Kennedy raised — that is to say, he dramatically lowered — the standard by standing up on the floor of the Senate and emitting one lie after the next against one of the finest legal minds America has ever produced.
But of course, Ted Kennedy’s most important lesson for the world involved Mary Jo Kopechne, the secretary he let drown in 1969 when he drove his car off a bridge at Chappaquiddick Island late at night after a party. Kennedy said he endeavored to rescue the girl. Maybe. But what we know he did was contact several aides to work out a story. He waited until after the police discovered the car and Kopechne’s body the next morning before informing the police about the incident. He received a two-month suspended sentence for leaving the scene of an accident after causing an injury. Wikipedia calmly notes that “Questions remained about Kennedy’s time line of events that night, about his actions after the accident, and the quality of the investigation and whether official deference was given to a powerful politician and family.” Do you think, just possibly, that unusual deference was shown to Ted Kennedy?...
(Excerpt) Read more at pajamasmedia.com ...
This is his ugly legacy.
Here’s another part of his legacy: Ted Kennedy chose to pursue all possible treatment options in order to maintain his life. No “end of life” counselling with gov’t bureaucrats, no “take a pill” alternatives.
The same choices he would deny to others.
Yahoo actually referred to him as “the most important Kennedy”... are you kidding me??? He was the most evil Kennedy... my thoughts are with the Kopechne (sp?) at this time, I’m sure they are finally finding some closure.
What Fat Teddy said regarding Mr. Bork:
Kennedy’s smear of Judge Bork on the US Senator floor:
“Robert Bork’s America is a land in which women would be forced into back-alley abortions, blacks would sit at segregated lunch counters, rogue police could break down citizens’ doors in midnight raids, schoolchildren could not be taught about evolution, writers and artists could be censored at the whim of the Government, and the doors of the Federal courts would be shut on the fingers of millions of citizens for whom the judiciary is — and is often the only — protector of the individual rights that are the heart of our democracy....”
Neah. Teddy didn’t hold a candle to his dad. But he was worse than his brothers.
Health care for
All (including Aliens)
Regardless of
Deficits
White
House
Inspired
Senator Ted
Kennedy Memorial
Insurance
Enrollment
Scheme
Don't drink and drive?
Wonder how God feels about that one?
sw
Another lesson:
You can assuage your guilt over inheriting your wealth instead of earning it
without cramping your lifestyle in the least
by endorsing the use of the threat of deadly force through the State to take
the wealth of others to “help the poor”.
Brother Jack’s grave has the eternal flame. I don’t know about Bobby’s grave. I’m wondering what they will do for Teddy’s grave. Maybe have a fountain with Chivas Regal flowing?
A breathtaking congeries of falsehoods that, were they not protected by the prerogatives of senatorial privilege, would have taken a conspicuous place in the annals of malicious slander and character assassination. In The Tempting of America, Judge Bork recounts his incredulity at this tissue of malign fabrication. “It had simply never occurred to me that anybody could misrepresent my career and views as Kennedy did.” At the time, he notes, many people thought that Kennedy had blundered by emitting so flagrant, and flagrantly untrue, an attack. They were wrong. His “calculated personal assault, . . . more violent than any against a judicial nominee in our country’s history,” did the job (with a little help from Joe Biden and Arlen Specter). Not only was Kennedy instrumental in preventing a great jurist from taking his place on the Supreme Court, he also contributed immeasurably to the cheapening of American political discourse. The fact that “bork” has entered the language as a transitive verb is, I’ve always thought, a final unfairness. Really, the verb should involve the name “Kennedy.” Less staccato, I admit, but in that scenario, the malfeasance was practiced not by Robert Bork but Edward Kennedy and his cronies.
Bookended by killing Mary Jo and working with Soviet Union KGB thug Andropov against Reagan.
The lessons I learned from him:
1) If I had a father who was corrupt, venal, and a felon, I can inherit lots of money.
2) I can use that dough to purchase a place at Harvard, cheat my way through, and retake the bar enough times to pass.
3) I can use that dough to purchase a senate seat.
4) I can use that dough to cover up a felony.
5) But - I can use other people’s dough to pretend that I’m compassionate. Other people’s dough, not mine.
He is the most important in the sense he was able to inflict 47 years of serious damage on the american people. Damage we’re going to be living with for a very long time.
“Socialism hasn’t worked in 6000 years of recorded history because it didn’t have me to run it.” - Ted Kennedy
I've always assumed that the long delay before Ted notified the authorities was to allow his blood alcohol level to drop down so he couldn't be charged with drunk driving. Of course no one who wasn't at the party knows for sure, but that's the only hypothesis that accounts for Ted's behavior.
Before Roe Teddy was on record as being pro-life and wrote he wouldn’t consider it an option he’d support.
After Roe, of course, he did a 180. Forever got the women’s groups off his back for drowning a gal.
Arlington National Cem., Is a Big place, long walks...
Maybe a everflowing urinal / toilet. 
If Apollo 11 hadn’t been going on during that precise weekend his story would have been SOOOOO much bigger and I believe it would have ended his career. They would not have been able to have gotten it off the front page news in five days.
I try to operate on the assumption that my political enemies are at least privately decent people, well-meaning if mistaken.
Ted Kennedy made it impossible to assume that in his case. What he did to Bork was unforgiveable. He did the same thing again and again to GW and no one even noticed. I saw GW reach out to him again and again and get spat on for his trouble. He did not hesitate to trash his opponents in the most personal and vile terms and he didn’t hesitate to lie when he did it.
Over the course of his life he was on the wrong side of almost every issue. Even giving him the benefit of the doubt, granting that he was from another philosophical persuasion, he could not manage decency or honesty or honor even in disagreement.
Ironically, Kennedy had turned down an invitation from President Nixon to be present at the festivities at Cape Canaveral (I’m not sure if those covered the whole period of Apollo 11 or just the launch, but if he had attended that he wouldn’t have been at the party in Chappaquiddick).
Boy I bet he forever regretted not accepting THAT invitation. You’d almost have thought he would have because it fulfilled his brothers’ goal.
Wow. Huge mistake. One of many.
I assumed her parents would be deceased...but I”m sure she had other family members who mourned her.
I don’t know why he turned down the invitation...maybe because it was from the hated Richard Nixon.
Three critical things to learn from Ted Kennedy at the end.
One: I want “Ted Kennedy Care” over Obamacare any day. I want to pick the best doctors for my problems. I want experimental treatments if I think they’ll help. I want the best cutting edge medical care around. Not this rationed, cheap-assed, maybe-we’ll help you, we’re trying to keep costs for the rest of us down, Obamacare.
Two: It is completely hypocritical to try to pass socialist Obamacare in memory of Ted Kennedy, who would not have gotten the excellent, cutting edge care he was able to get, if he was under Obamacare itself. He would have been told to it was not worth it for a 77 year old with terminal cancer and a history of obesity and alcoholism to waste millions on justa few extra months of life at best.
Three: Ted Kennedy, like all people created BY GOD, have a built-in desire for LIFE. Ted Kennedy wanted to LIVE. He tried everything to beat the cancer, he tried everything to prolong his life. We all want to live, even those of us who believe we go on to something better afterwards. We are all given self-preservation and a will to live. Obamacare wants us to surrender that and become a budget item in a faceless, socialist system.
Ted Kennedy wanted to live. Obama said whether an old or sick person wants to live should not be considered when making determinations for care. Ted Kennedy, like most of us, showed us by his own actions, he fundamentally disagreed with Barack Obama on this point - one of THE critical points of Obamacare.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.