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Remembering Ted Kennedy
Townhall.com ^ | August 28, 2009 | Brent Bozell

Posted on 08/29/2009 6:08:21 AM PDT by Kaslin

Our national media are treating the passing of Sen. Edward Kennedy as a historic event, more historic even than the deaths of presidents like Gerald Ford. Is this level of attention warranted?

We can all grant that Ted Kennedy was a major legislator with his hands in a lot of historic government action. He was at times a very eloquent speaker and was always a passionate fighter. To his side of the aisle, he was their inspirational leader.

Now add the personal story: Two of his brothers were mercilessly assassinated. He was the final Kennedy from that generation. Clearly, when the media spent countless hours mourning the death of John F. Kennedy Jr., a man who never had a political career, the death of an actual senator of 47 years should be a greater event.

It is not the amount of coverage that bothers; it is the quality of reporting.

"(The Kennedys) are the closest thing we have in this country to royalty, the clan's iconic images engraved on our national consciousness." That's how ABC's Claire Shipman put it on the Aug. 26 "Good Morning America," echoing what others have been saying across the dial. CBS anchor Harry Smith began this way: "He bore the unspeakable grief and overwhelming hopes of a nation."

This suggests a popularity that simply did not exist. The last time Gallup polled nationally on Kennedy (in February of 2008), his favorable rating stood at 40 percent, his unfavorable a whopping 48 percent. Even earlier this month, with the news of his mortal illness known by all, still his favorables according to CNN could not climb past 51 percent.

Along with the inaccurate suggestions we're hearing from the press that he was beloved by all are the suggestions, again echoed across the dial, that Ted Kennedy was a great bipartisan leader. His was "a life that was able to bring friends and enemies together," said CBS anchor Maggie Rodriguez.

That is also inaccurate. It is not questioned that he enjoyed many friendships across the political aisle, but that has no bearing on political bipartisanship, and it is simply not true to suggest that Kennedy was committed to bipartisanship. What did he do to help Nixon with Vietnam? Reagan with tax cuts? Bush 41 with Clarence Thomas? Clinton with welfare reform? Bush 43 with Iraq?

Sen. Kennedy was smart enough and pragmatic enough to reach across the aisle to get deals done -- but only to the degree that they advanced his agenda. He worked across the aisle to ensure the never-ending growth of federal taxes and spending, consistently opposing American foreign policy abroad while working tirelessly to defeat conservative nominations and initiatives at home.

And when he felt it necessary to wear brass knuckles, he did so. Conservatives (especially) will quickly recall his initial floor speech in 1987 against Supreme Court nominee Robert Bork:

"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 would be censored at the whim of government," and on and on.

It was vicious and untrue, but for a liberal like Kennedy, for whom ends justified means, it was also strategically necessary and therefore appropriate.

"The statement had to be stark and direct so as to sound the alarm and hold people in their places until we could get material together. I was confident we could win this one." That's how Ted Kennedy justified his action to Ethan Bronner, author of "The Battle for Justice."

Bronner added that Kennedy later sought out Bork's wife to say, "I hope you understand it is nothing personal."

The networks cast every law Kennedy passed as an achievement. This is true -- if you're a liberal. It's the opposite if you're a conservative. Despite their surprising generosity to Ronald Reagan when he died, the TV elite nonetheless questioned his policies. On ABC, Peter Jennings asserted "a great many people (read: liberals) thought he'd made the wealthy wealthier and had not improved life particularly for the middle class." On CBS, reporter Bill Plante asserted the Iran-Contra affair helped "set the stage for the first Iraq war and the rise of Islamic fundamentalism." And so on.

Edward M. Kennedy was a liberal's liberal. His supporters can cheer his intense commitment to a leftist agenda. His opponents can -- and should -- respect his dogged refusal to compromise on that philosophy. But his detractors (which, let us remind ourselves, outnumbered his supporters) also found his leftist agenda destructive. And the national news media are doing a great disservice by omitting that from their Camelot narrative.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial
KEYWORDS: bozell; tedkennedy
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To: RecallMoran

Excellent.

I remember in the ‘60s when a preacher, from the pulpit, said that “Massachusetts” had been changed to “Machusetts” — because the “a-s-s” went to Washington.


21 posted on 08/29/2009 11:01:24 AM PDT by MayflowerMadam
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To: mulligan
(Aug.05,1962.)
Marilyn Monroe “overdoses?” within hours after a helicopter lands with Bobby and a Doctor)hmmmm.Still out on that suicide thing!She was involved with 2 Kennedy brothers at the time..hmmm...why not 3?hmmmm...

Then we have JFK-(Nov. 22, 1963.)
who is assinated by our own government(how many shots?hmm-grassy place-a buliding wayyy up high and far away-kennedys head blasted from behind-then from the front,and a shot coming from side to tear into 2 people)-yup, sounds like one shooter to me,folks!The government doesn't lie.Oswald can be in 6 places at the same time,for sure-he’s superman.All witnesses somehow “die tragic deaths”...so sad.
ie:
Jean Hill, a woman who told of seeing a Grassy Knoll shooter, of seeing Jack Ruby in Dealey Plaza, and of being waylaid and intimidated by phony “Secret Service agents” in the minutes following the assassination.

Roger Craig, who testified to seeing Oswald flee the scene in a Rambler station wagon with an accomplice, to seeing a Mauser recovered in the sixth floor of the Depository, and to have witnessed a confrontation in Dallas Policy headquarters that implicated Ruth Paine in the assassination.

Beverly Oliver, who claims to have seen Oswald and Ruby together in the Carousel Club, and to have photographed the assassination in Dealey Plaza (with the FBI confiscating the film).

Ed Hoffman, who claimed to have seen a Grassy Knoll shooter.

Charles Crenshaw, doctor at Parkland Hospital, who claimed that President Johnson called while Lee Oswald was being treated and demanded that a confession be extracted.

Robert Morrow, who claims to have been a CIA agent, and to have supplied weapons for the shooters in Dealey Plaza.

John Elrod, who claimed to have shared a cell in the Dallas jail with Lee Oswald.

James Files, who claims to have been the Grassy Knoll shooter in Dealey Plaza.

Gordon Novel, who claimed to be a CIA agent, first worked with the Garrison investigation and then turned into a Garrison suspect.

Judyth Vary Baker, a fellow employee of Oswald's at the Reily Coffee Company in the summer of 1963, claims to have been Oswald girlfriend, and involved with him in a secret bioweapons project that intended to kill Castro but ended up killing Kennedy.

Richard Case Nagell, who claimed to have worked for the CIA and the KGB, and to have had “foreknowledge” of the JFK assassination.

Robert Knudsen, Navy photographer who claimed to have photographed Kennedy's autopsy.

Tom Tilson, who claims to have seen a man with a gun (presumably a Grassy Knoll shooter) scramble down the slope behind the Knoll in the minutes following the assassination.

Madeleine Brown, who claimed to have been LBJ's lover, and to have attended a very suspicious party on the eve of the assassination.

Gordon Arnold claimed to have been on the Grassy Knoll during the shooting, to have heard a shot whiz past his left ear, and to have been confronted by a man who confiscated his camera.

Marita Lorenz who told of a “caravan” of cars driving assassins from Miami to Dallas on the eve of the assassination.
finally
Jack Ruby decides to “off” Oswald...who knows for sure?from cancer after being released for jail )Dec.5,1966).Amazing.Dies:Jan. 3, 1967.

Then we come to Bobby Kennedy,running for president...(June 5, 1968)Sirhan Sirhan takes him out-cause security
t has head up ass,and looks elsewhere as nutcase with gun yakes another Kennedy they can't control.(government wants Bobby gone and out of picture cause Teddy is their man!)Howrah!...so as of 2009 Sirhan Sirhan still imprisoned.

Now Go Old Teddy and MaryJo:July 19, 1969, Kopechne’s body was discovered inside an overturned car belonging to Senator Edward “Ted” Kennedy of Massachusetts under water in a tidal channel on Chappaquiddick Island, Massachusetts. After the body was found by local fishermen, Kennedy gave a statement to police saying that on the previous night Kopechne was his passenger when he took a wrong turn and accidentally drove his car off a bridge into the water. Later, he pleaded guilty to a charge of leaving the scene of an accident after causing injury; he received a suspended sentence. The incident became a national scandal and may have influenced Kennedy's decision not to run in the 1972 presidential election.
SHIT-YA THINK?????????
Wonder how much Her Parents figured their silence and HER life was worth?A “pretty penny I guess?”Not so pretty when it turns green though is it?Everyone forgets “old Teddy” is a freekin murderer and is now a “martyr”-wow-you just try that without Kennedy money and see what happens.
Then the really sad part a “good” Kennedy that couldn't be controlled:•Born: 25 November 1960
•Birthplace: Washington, D.C.
•Died: 16 July 1999 (airplane crash)
•Best Known As: JFK's son who also died young
John F. Kennedy, Jr. was the son of president John F. Kennedy and Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, and the younger brother of Caroline Kennedy. John Jr. appeared as a three-year-old in one of the most famous film clips of the 1960s, saluting his father's casket after the president was assassinated in 1963. As an adult Kennedy studied law and worked for a few years in the Manhattan District Attorney's office; later he founded the political magazine George. JFK Jr. was a famously eligible bachelor before finally marrying the former Carolyn Bessette in 1996. Kennedy, his wife and her sister were all killed in 1999 when a private plane piloted by Kennedy crashed in the Atlantic Ocean near Martha's Vineyard.Funny how eye witness from Long Island SAW something launched from the ground AT the aircraft...but they put it down as “pilot error”-funny pattern here with Kennedy's Deaths.John COULD have changed a lot in this world-and couldn't BE bought-and bad thing for the government people.
aww forgot the biggest jerk in the whole family:it only took them 20 years to figure this out:
OK: I forgot about Micheal...•Born: 1961
•Birthplace: Connecticut
•Best Known As: Martha Moxley murder suspect
Michael Skakel was tried and convicted in 2002 of the 1975 murder of Martha Moxley. Moxley was a 15-year-old resident of Greenwich, Connecticut who was bludgeoned with a golf club and left dead in her family's yard on the night of 30 October 1975. The crime went unsolved for more than two decades, though Skakel and his brother Tommy were among the suspects;
NO SHIT TWICE??Kennedy name saves his ass for a few years-but he isn't liked that much anyway-let him drown!

Now that I have ranted...Teddy Boy was a murdering piece of shit .Thats my story and I'm stickin to it!

22 posted on 08/29/2009 12:14:52 PM PDT by lael19533
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To: RecallMoran

ROTFLMAO TOO!GOOD ONE!


23 posted on 08/29/2009 12:14:52 PM PDT by lael19533
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