Getting Mean and Distinctly Ugly (Free Republic Dissed as 'Chappaquiddick-Type people')

The Ottawa Citizen ^ | Friday, August 28, 2009 | Janice Kennedy

[kristinn]

Two kinds of people reacted to news of Ted Kennedy’s death last week. The first — not all liberals, either — spoke of Kennedy’s hard work in the United States Senate, his dream of universal healthcare, his commitment to working people, civil rights and equality.

This “most imperfect man,” wrote analyst William Bradley, was also a powerful advocate for progressive principles. Barack Obama predictably (though accurately) observed that “for America, he was a defender of a dream.” In another variation on the visionary theme, Joe Biden said of his old friend, “He was never small.”

The other kind of reaction to Kennedy’s death could be summed up in one word: “Chappaquiddick.”

Not “vision” or “health-care reform,” not “peacemaking” or even “Camelot.” Just the controversial 40-year-old event, the ugliest single moment from the late senator’s 77 years on Earth, nearly 47 of them in public service. The small souls who spend their days hanging out in discussion forums at Free Republic, one of the U.S ultra-right’s more popular online homes, greeted news of Kennedy’s death characteristically, flinging around words like “traitor,” “coward,” “disgrace”— and, yes, references to the 1969 event. Chappaquiddick minds in a narrow, ungenerous world.

But the Chappaquiddick faction is not limited to either the United States or the senior senator from Massachusetts. It’s a state of mind, a summation of everything that is small and cribbed and contemptible — not unlike the sour (and embarrassing) one-line statement of perfunctory condolence on Wednesday from our own prime minister.

Chappaquiddick-type people possess a meanness of spirit that goes beyond simple politics. They’re responsible for a creeping diminution of vision and values. In Canada, which used to appreciate largeness of soul, they even have a government platform, thanks to Stephen Harper and company.

Consider the dramatic case of Guantanamo detainee Omar Khadr, picked up by the U.S. military in Afghanistan at 15, or child-soldier age. When Harper’s government announced last week it would appeal — again — a ruling that it demand the Canadian-born Khadr’s repatriation, lawyer Dennis Edney said he wasn’t surprised. “We are used to this mean-spirited approach.”

But this government’s disgraceful stand on Khadr — the only Western detainee still in Guantanamo — is just part of it. The limited worldview, the impulse toward whatever is most ungenerous, is how it operates.

SNIP

[fanfan]

Personally, I have the vapors.

I've seen her Laz.

She's not worth the vapors.

[Gay State Conservative]

"Chappaquiddick-type"

Funny...I don't recall a single blonde having ever drowned in any car that I was driving.

[HiTech RedNeck]

Unregenerate lefty. Well they got that one pegged.

[pissant]

No. Apparently he is a necrophiliac, fellating the late Senator in his grave.

[libertarian27]

Free Republic Dissed as 'Chappaquiddick-Type people'

Bridgers?

Great One Chappy!

[FrankR]

The Last of The Kennedy Dynasty

As soon as cancer was found, I noticed the immediate attempt at canonization of old Teddy by the main stream media.

They are saying what a "great American" he is. I say, let's get a couple things clear & not twist the facts to change the real 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 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 oncewhen 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. He swam to shore and walked back to the party, after passing several houses and a fire station. Then two friends 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 pled 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"?

7. 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 en sured a variety of civil rights, increased the minimum wage in 1981, made access to health care easier for the indigent, and funded Meals on Wheels for fixed-income seniors and is widely held as the "standard-bearer for liberalism". In his very first Senate roll, 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.

8. Since that time, he has been the prime instigator and author of every expansion of and 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 were the standard bearer for the nation in matters of right. What a pompous ass.

9. He is known around Washington as a public drunk, loud, boisterous and very disrespectful to ladies. JERK is a better description than "great American".

Let's not allow the spin doctors make this jerk a hero -- how quickly the American public forgets what his real legacy

is...and you just know it's all BUSH'S fault!

[McGruff]

Dear Janice,

If I were you I'd be ashamed to share the same last name as the Kennedys. The Kennedy men were ones to be loathed not glorified.

McGruff

[Lancey Howard]

I know Volkswagens float better.

[pieceofthepuzzle]

First of all, where were these comments when the left was making their disgusting comments about Reagan and Alzheimer’s, or Charleston Heston, or when Letterman made those comments about Sarah Palin’s daughter, or when they made egregious comments about how America brought 911 on itself?

Second, how are whatever comments that were made here more offensive than the left immediately using Ted Kennedy’s death to push their health care agenda?

I think we should be respectful in how we voice our opinions, but to label the right as insensitive and ugly while ignoring the vitriol of the left is dishonest and hypocritical.

[central_va]

Please don't post pics like this, it would be a mean thing to do. Liberals are sensitive you know.

[bert]

This is a truly profound rationalization. It leaves no doubt that an appeal to rational thought when discussing anything with a liberal is doomed from the start

[longfellow]

Now now, mary jo was allegedly pregnant, and teddy not being a doctor performed the abortion the best way he knew how.

[bert]

It looks like an ordinary traffic cone to me

[nonliberal]

Kennedy has never had a job. He was a parasite who lived off the taxpayers and daddy’s money.

[GnuHere]

A joke indeed, as if they are all martyrs walking across hot ashes on top of a bed of nails, just for added effect.

Once elected, it is all about keeping their grip on the power and privilege that elected office brings. And the more moochers dependent upon their largess, the more the power each election cycle.

Public service my arse. And I am not confining my remarks to the Dems.

[saganite]

Your post reminded me of the album by Toby Keith. White Trash With Money. That perfectly summed up Teddy.

[JavaJumpy]

But I’ve never even been to Chappaquiddick! How can I be a “type?”
_________________________________

Wow - that is exactly what I said. You took the words right out of my mouth!

[dragonblustar]

Mods, if you have to delete this, I understand but I'm just so damn angry!

My rant

Screw Janice and the horse she rode on. Unlike you liberals, we use the truth and you just hate to be confronted by it.

Where was this journalist witch when Palin and her family were being smeared? Has this witch ever watched Keith Olberman or anything on MSNBC? Has she ever looked over at the Daily Kos during the Bush years? Or how about the Huff Po? I'm so damn sick of this hypocritical BS from the left. Kennedy left a woman to die in a car and that is a fact. BOO HOO if she didn't like to be reminded of it on the day fat head is getting buried. Where was her damn outrage over poor Mary Jo being left in the car in the first place?

[Drango]

I think Janice Kennedy is a pedophile. Now I don’t have any proof of that, but Ted invented the sport of BORKING. So when you have disagreements, it’s allowed to say things about others without proof.

[HiTech RedNeck]

HAAAAAAAA!