Free Republic

Since Robert F. Kennedy’s assassination on June 6, 1968, his widow, Ethel, has been his torchbearer. Unlike her late sister-in-law, Jackie, she never remarried, never sought a path or identity that was hers alone. She held herself up as the martyr, the good Catholic widow left to raise 11 children alone, the empress of Hickory Hill. She was content to be the other Kennedy widow, the domesticated antidote to the glamorous, globe-trotting Jackie. Today, Ethel Kennedy is 87, the clan’s de facto matriarch — a dubious position given the neglect shown toward her own children. In his new book, “RFK...

Geraldo Rivera sees a double standard at work in ABC News’ decision to stand by George Stephanopoulos after the network’s chief anchor apologized for failing to publicly disclose $75,000 in donations to the Clinton Foundation over the last three years. In a Facebook post Friday morning, Rivera claimed he was fired by ABC News in 1985 for making a $200 political donation and wondered why Stephanopoulos isn’t getting the same treatment. “In 1985, after fifteen great years, I was fired by ABC News,” Rivera wrote. “The official reason for my firing was a non-disclosed $200 donation to a family friend...

EXCLUSIVE - 'She couldn't wait and allowed him to seduce her in a creaky French elevator': Bombshell book reveals Jackie Kennedy's secret lovers, her revenge on JFK with William Holden, her steamy night with Brando and her forbidden affairs with Bobby AND Teddy New book reveals that Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis was a passionate woman who had many men--before, during and after her marriage to JFK Authors say she bedded Hollywood actors Warren Beatty, Paul Newman, Gregory Peck and Frank Sinatra, among others Confessed Brando, 'She took matters into her own hands and popped the magic question, ‘Would you like to...

NEW HAVEN, Conn. — Ted Kennedy Jr. is planning to run for the state Senate in Connecticut. Two people briefed on the decision say the son of the late U.S. Sen. Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts will announce Tuesday that he intends to seek the Democratic nomination for the state's 12th District. They spoke on condition of anonymity because Kennedy wants to make the announcement. Kennedy is a 52-year-old health care lawyer who lives in Branford, a coastal town outside New Haven, and has been mentioned as a possible political candidate for years. He had said last month he was considering...

Kennedys honor George H.W. Bush's ‘read my lips’ flip-flop with Profile of Courage award The Kennedy foundation is praising George H.W. Bush for risking “his reputation and ultimately his political career by forging an important compromise on the budget in 1990.” Jack Schlossberg, President Kennedy’s grandson and a Yale University student, will present the award to Bush at a ceremony in May. George H.W. Bush’s epic “read my lips: no new taxes” promise cost him a second White House term, but it’s earning him a 2014 Profile in Courage award from the Kennedy clan. Despite his fervent pledge against a...

Driven to distraction by the amorous betrayals of her husband, Jackie Kennedy embarked on a wild fling with ballet dancer Rudolf Nureyev while she was still in the White House, according to a new tell-all book. Nureyev, who was nine years younger than the First Lady, was also once spotted with Jackie’s brother-in-law Robert F. Kennedy ‘kissing each other passionately in a phone box’, the book claims. Much has been written through the years about President Kennedy’s dalliances while in office. His mistresses were famously said to include actresses Marilyn Monroe and Angie Dickinson, mafia moll Judith Exner and a...

President Barack Obama will on Tuesday discuss a topic he is familiar with from his childhood – American women living in economic insecurity and trying to be breadwinners and caregivers at the same time. Raised by a single mother who was described as someone who struggled to pay the bills, Obama on Tuesday will meet with Maria Shriver, who is reporting on some 42 million women who she says live “one single incident – a doctor's bill, a late paycheck, or a broken-down car – away from economic ruin." Shriver's latest investigation in her series from "The Shriver Report" is...

Joseph Kennedy had befriended McCarthy because he found him to be a likable fellow Irish-Catholic who had all the right ideas on the domestic communist menace. These warm feelings were quickly transferred to the entire Kennedy family. JFK liked the fact that McCarthy went after the "elites" in the State Department whom JFK regarded with contempt. (13) Even before McCarthy made accusations against the State Department of subversion, JFK had already aligned himself with the militant anti-communists who blamed the Truman State Department for the "loss" of China. So JFK declared on the House floor in January 1949. "The responsibility...

A young John F. Kennedy thought fascism was the right system for Germany, a new book that reviews the late president’s travel diaries from his trip to Germany pre-World War II divulges. The new revelations are found in “John F. Kennedy—Among the Germans. Travel diaries and letters 1937-1945,” a book recently released in Germany, according to the Daily Mail. According to the British tabloid’s account of the book’s contents, Kennedy kept a diary during a 1937 journey to Nazi Germany. During the trip, he concluded: “Fascism? The right thing for Nazi Germany.” … Kennedy also seemed to have been enamored...

Ted Kennedy Jr. is seriously considering a run for the US Senate seat of John Kerry if, as expected, the Massachusetts senator becomes Secretary of State. Kennedy's brother, former Rhode Island Rep. Patrick Kennedy, told the Boston Globe that leading Democrats, including Senator Charles Schumer of New York, want his brother to consider a campaign to replace Kerry and hold the seat for Democrats.

Ted Kennedy Jr. is seriously considering a run for the US Senate seat of John Kerry if, as expected, the Massachusetts senator becomes Secretary of State. Kennedy's brother, former Rhode Island Rep. Patrick Kennedy, told the Boston Globe that leading Democrats, including Senator Charles Schumer of New York, want his brother to consider a campaign to replace Kerry and hold the seat for Democrats.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a lawyer and environmental activist, told the Huffington Post that the “right-wing” controls the media in the United States and as a result has “divided our country” in a way not seen since the Civil War. … “95 percent of talk radio in our country is right-wing,” he said. “And you need—according to Pew [Research Center] survey—and so you have whole sections of our country that’s what they are hearing from when they wake up in the morning to when they go to bed at night. Twenty-two percent of Americans say their primary news source is...

Awhile back, The Wall Street Journal ran a fascinating and deeply saddening article exploring the reasons behind the Kennedy Family’s staunch pro-abortion position. Believe it or not, Ted Kennedy used to be pro-life. So how did he and all the other prominent Kennedys swing so far in the wrong direction? For that matter, what about some of the other Catholic pro-abortion zealots in (or recently in) high public office, such as Nancy Pelosi, Mario Cuomo, and Tom Daschle? What happened to them? (NB: I originally posted this blog entry on January 2, 2009. Given all the chattering right now from...

Howie thread for the week starting with his Sunday Boston Herald column, "Side Effects May Include Kennedyism"

Take it for what’s it’s worth, Scott Brown, because after all I’m addressing you in the Herald, and “the Boston Herald is the Boston Herald,” as Granny Warren, the Native American emeritus, said yesterday on MSNBC (where else?). But here at the Boston Herald, that is the Boston Herald, I’m telling you, Scott, don’t even think about another debate at the Ted Kennedy All-You-Can-Drink Happy Hour Institute. Tom Brokaw? Yeah, he’s “respected” all right. By moonbats. Forget the exploding trucks of yesteryear, let’s look at what his alma mater NBC did just this week, and by NBC, I also mean...

Mary Kennedy went to her grave convinced that her husband, RFK Jr., had a fling with the wife of the man who broke up the marriage of his sister and Andrew Cuomo, The Post has learned. A heartbroken Mary confided to a group of her closest friends that she believed Robert Kennedy Jr. had an affair with well-connected fund-raiser Ann Colley, two of her confidants told The Post. One source who claimed to have been told about the purported hookup said that, if true, “an affair with the wife of his sister’s paramour is particularly tacky — even for a...

Mary Richardson Kennedy nearly missed her own wake Friday after a legal battle erupted over her body. On one side was her estranged husband, Bobby Kennedy Jr., who was in the midst of divorcing her when she hanged herself in a barn. He claimed the right to decide where she would rest in peace. On the other side were Mary’s brothers and sisters, who didn’t want her to be buried beside members of the Kennedy clan in Hyannisport — and filed suit to stop that from happening.

Despite endorsing Obama in 2008, JFK’s daughter Caroline now considers Obama a “liar,” according to a family source in Edward Klein’s new book on Obama called “The Amateur.” Caroline’s past support for Obama, which was mirrored by the late Sen. Ted Kennedy, caused a riff in the family. In fact, Klein writes of an incident where Bobby Kennedy Jr. got in his uncle Ted‘s face over Ted’s support for the president. Some of the Kennedy’s diminishing support for the president is due to the Obamas snubbing several members of the Kennedy family on multiple occasions — one that sent Ethel...

Joseph P. Kennedy III is defending his dad’s vocal support for oil-rich U.S. antagonist and Iran ally Venezuela, saying the deal his father’s power-for-the-poor nonprofit struck with a state-run petrol firm has done plenty of good and little, if any, harm.