Posted on 08/27/2009 7:21:21 AM PDT by Howard Morrison
As soon as his cancer was detected, there was the immediate attempt at the "canonization" of old Teddy Kennedy by the mainstream media. They are saying what a "great American" he is. Let's get a few things clear and not twist the facts to change history.
1. He was caught cheating at Harvard when he attended it. He was expelled twice, once for cheating on a test, and once for paying a classmate to cheat for him.
2. While expelled, Kennedy enlisted in the Army, but mistakenly signed up for four years instead of two. Oops! The man can't count to four! His father, Joseph P. Kennedy, former U.S. Ambassador to England (a step up from bootlegging liquor into the US from Canada during prohibition), pulled the necessary strings to have his enlistment shortened to two years, and to ensure that he served in Europe, not Korea , where a war was raging. No preferential treatment for him! (like he charged that President Bush received).
3. Kennedy was assigned to Paris, never advanced beyond the rank of Private, and returned to Harvard upon being discharged. Imagine a person of his "education" NEVER advancing past the rank of Private!
4. While attending law school at the University of Virginia, he was cited for reckless driving four times, including once when he was clocked driving 90 miles per hour in a residential neighborhood with his headlights off after dark. Yet his Virginia driver's license was never revoked. Coincidentally, he passed the bar exam in 1959. Amazing!
5. In 1964, he was seriously injured in a plane crash and hospitalized for several months. Test results done by the hospital at the time he was admitted had shown he was legally intoxicated. The results of those tests remained a "state secret" until in the 1980's when the report was unsealed. Didn't hear about that from the unbiased media, did we?
6. On July 19, 1969, Kennedy attended a party on Chappaquiddick Island in Massachusetts. At about 11:00 PM, he borrowed his chauffeur's keys to his Oldsmobile limousine and offered to give a ride home to Mary Jo Kopechne, a campaign worker. Leaving the island via an unlit bridge with no guard rail, Kennedy steered the car off the bridge, flipped, and into Poucha Pond.
7. He swam to shore and walked back to the party passing several houses and a fire station. Two friends then returned with him to the scene of the accident. According to their later testimony, they told him what he already knew - that he was required by law to immediately report the accident to the authorities. Instead, Kennedy made his way to his hotel, called his lawyer, and went to sleep. Kennedy called the police the next morning and by then the wreck had already been discovered. Before dying, Kopechne had scratched at the upholstered floor above her head in the upside-down car. The Kennedy family began "calling in favors", ensuring that any inquiry would be contained. Her corpse was whisked out-of-state to her family before an autopsy could be conducted. Further details are uncertain, but after the accident, Kennedy says he repeatedly dove under the water trying to rescue Kopechne and he didn't call police because he was in a state of shock. It is widely assumed Kennedy was drunk, and he held off calling police in hopes that his family could fix the problem overnight. Since the accident, Kennedy's "political enemies" have referred to him as the distinguished Senator from Chappaquiddick. He pleaded guilty to leaving the scene of an accident, and was given a SUSPENDED SENTENCE OF TWO MONTHS.
Kopechne's family received a small payout from the Kennedy's insurance policy and never sued. There was later an effort to have her body exhumed and autopsied, but her family successfully fought against this in court, and Kennedy's family paid their attorney's bills.... a "token of friendship"?
8. Kennedy has held his Senate seat for more than forty years, but considering his longevity, his accomplishments seem scant. He authored or argued for legislation that ensured a variety of civil rights, increased the minimum wage in 1981, made access to health care easier for the indigent, funded Meals on Wheels for fixed-income seniors, and is widely held as the "standard-bearer for liberalism". In his very first Senate role, he was the floor manager for the bill that turned U.S. immigration policy upside down and opened the floodgate for immigrants from third world countries.
9. Since that time, he has been the prime instigator and author of every expansion of an increase in immigration up to and including the latest attempt to grant amnesty to illegal aliens. Not to mention the pious grilling he gave the last two Supreme Court nominees, as if he was the standard-bearer for the nation in matters of "what is right" How Pompous!!
10 . He is known around Washington as a public drunk, loud, boisterous, and very disrespectful to ladies. JERK is a better description than "great American" is. "A blonde in every pond" is his motto.
Let's not allow the spin-doctors to make this jerk a hero -- how quickly the American public forgets what his real legacy is.
Send this on, as a LOT of the younger people don't have a clue about all of this, and us older ones tend to forget things that happened so many years ago.
His treasonous collaboration with the Soviet Union in an attempt to undermine US foreign policy during the Reagan administration needs to be mentioned as well.
The man was a low-life.
He was a true democrat leader of errors that is.
We all know about the many public displays of ignorance. Can you even imagine what’s been successfully covered up over the years?
His deification is sickening.
Signing up for the longer enlistment was not a mistake. You didn’t sign up for two years back then, you volunteered for the draft. By enlisting he had more options for REMF duty, which his family money and connections guaranteed for him.
“...Oldsmobile limousine...”
I think not.
Sheesh!
And that's a higher rank than Dick Cheney ever attained. Obviously the mainstream media is going overboard with the Kennedy coverage, but I'm uncomfortable with attacking any American's military service. It only makes conservatives look hysterical and petty. Sometimes a dignified silence is response to a public figure's death is the best course.
He really didn’t accomplish anything of importance, all else aside. A POS.
the nicest thing I can say about Teddy is that I hope he made his peace with God before his death.
his life’s work consists of destruction........no amount of liberal bills spending our money can redeem him from a life of promoting the death of untold babies and leaving Mary Jo to die. His drunken life is a testament to how soberly he took that task.
it is all very sad....and pathetic.
My parents taught me “if you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all.”
Let’s have a moment of silence for the late Sen. Edward Kennedy.
VietVet
He can now personally apologize to Mary Jo.
To leave the island from the party Kennedy needed to catch the ferry to the larger island before midnight and he could have avoided the death bridge altogether. Apparently his real intention was visiting the beach on the open ocean side.
I have no respect for this former loud mouth liberal in life or death. It is what it is. He was a typical RAT. And those conservatives that goes along with his “canonization” is equally a sad American.
The apple didn’t fall far from the tree. The father was a nazi sympathiser.
mark
Kennedy-KGB collaboration
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2006/oct/27/20061027-084248-4386r/
Text of KGB Letter on Senator Ted Kennedy
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1760564/posts
Ted Kennedy was a ‘collaborationist’
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3827/is_200312/ai_n9318614/
Ted Kennedy is “shovel ready”.
PFC (E-3). Not unreasonable for a 2 year stint. If he had gone any further, we'd say it was because of his father's influence.
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