Posted on 08/29/2009 5:19:12 PM PDT by Chairman of the Bard
Mark Steyn: Things only a Kennedy could get away with And by not calling his bluff on Chappaquiddick, Americans became complicit in it.
We are enjoined not to speak ill of the dead. But, when an entire nation – or, at any rate, its "mainstream" media culture – declines to speak the truth about the dead, we are certainly entitled to speak ill of such false eulogists. In its coverage of Sen. Edward M. Kennedy's passing, America's TV networks are creepily reminiscent of those plays Sam Shepard used to write about some dysfunctional inbred hardscrabble Appalachian household where there's a baby buried in the backyard but everyone agreed years ago never to mention it.
In this case, the unmentionable corpse is Mary Jo Kopechne, 1940-1969. If you have to bring up the, ah, circumstances of that year of decease, keep it general, keep it vague. As Kennedy flack Ted Sorensen put it in Time magazine:
read on....
(Excerpt) Read more at ocregister.com ...
Outside of Massachusetts, DC and a few neighborhoods in Manhattan, the name “Ted Kennedy” will always be a punchline.
“We conservatives are classy and respectful; however, the adulation being heaped upon this man are undeserved. Sorry if you find me overly cynical.”
The point is well taken. The man is dead, I feel no need to be overly critical of him. I really try to avoid speaking ill of the dead. But, I can’t stand to see the hero worship of a man who led a less than exemplary life and in all probability was a murderer.
Brilliant article. There are few people in public life for whom I had, and retain, less respect than for Teddy Kennedy. I do note, however, that by declining to resign he has placed the Democrats quite unnecessarily in the uncomfortable position of having lost their supermajority in the Senate for the time it will take to elect a successor, right before a critical vote on health care “reform”. It isn’t quite up to abandoning a young woman drowning but it’s perfectly in character.
But...
You have to admire the old turd's passion and perseverance in pushing his destructive agenda.
If we, in the right, would have had an old "conservative lion" all those years who would have counteracted the old "liberal lion", we would not find ourselves in the fix that we are today.
I ignore it. All I think about in all of this is the moment “The Senator” died and came face to face with Mary Jo again.
I hope it was painful for Teddy, but probably not. He was a murderer, a liar, and an evil man. Glad he is gone and burning in Hell!
I’m sorry but I think “The Senator” went south and Mary Jo went north. I don’t think they will ever meet.
I too have been saying for years (and heard Larry Kudlow say it this AM on the radio) that Kennedy was the true pioneer of the demagogic rhetoric that has come to define
the public face of the Far Left, ever since the extreme verbiage he used at the Bork hearings over twenty years ago. I guess his fellow Lefties heard it, saw how it went over, and built on it, OTSOG, as it were. It became the signature style for Clintonistas starting from the very beginning, as practiced and perfected by such luminaries as Paul Begala, James Carville, and countless “strategists” who’ve been fouling our airwaves for over two decades now.
They’ve become very adept as putting forth a certain
Master Thespian acting style in which (MOCK) moral outrage and gross overstatement go hand in hand, the search for truth and illumination gets thrown out the window, and Memorable Snarkiness is the high point of every appearance. Ultimately they are all ACTORS, and they’ve been building their audience very patiently. That audience is still there, but its ranks are already thinning. All that remains very soon will be the truly hard-core. Nobody has EVER called them on this entirely hollow “presentation of self”, so they’ve been enabled by their “enemies” every bit as much as their “friends”.
Steyn, you magnificent bastard! But sadly, I doubt the loss of 200 Kennedy sycophants would make much of a dent...
In Myron Magnet’s “The Dream and the Nightmare,” the classic
work on the 60s and the resulting poverty in America, he
notes that regarding, “The career of Senator Edward Kennedy,
..., Joe Kline has observed the no-fault way in which he has
conducted his personal life is mirrored by his no-fault
social policy, all rights and entitlements without
responsibilities.” That about says it all.
Fox news Cris Wallace and others kept wondering what the great ‘iconic moment’ of the ceromony would be, and I kept thinking “When it’s all over, and America wakes up fro mtheir comma, and realizes what a traitorous creep Teddy was- but alas, that moment may nev3r come
[[that by declining to resign he has placed the Democrats quite unnecessarily in the uncomfortable position of having lost their supermajority in the Senate for the time it will take to elect a successor,]]
The successor won’t be elected, but rather appointed- somethign keneddy opposed when Mitt was around
It bothered me to see Orin Hatch so in the tank for this low-life. I could not have a friend like that.
Excellent points, B.O. Plenty.
What the republicans have, by and large, is “MILQUETOAST”.
While intellectual giants like Mark Levin and Rush do not hesitate for a minute to voice their views, most elected Republicans remain tepid and pensive.
FOX has been purely reverent and respectful.
Chappaquiddick was the problem. He went nine hours putting together a coverup plan before going to the police and then was given only a 2 month suspended sentence.
You left out adulter.
[[The senator’s actions in the hours and days after emerging from that pond tell us something ugly about Kennedy the man. That he got away with it tells us something ugly about American public life.]]
Precisely!
no it goes further than respect- Cris Wallace and company were almost pining for a successor to Ted- hoping that Camelot would not end- it was sickning quite frankly
Watched a lot of the coverage waiting to see the part where the bury him in dirt...
...but they never show the good stuff at funerals.
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