Posted on 04/04/2018 5:37:35 AM PDT by Kaslin
On April 6, a bombshell will hit America's theaters.
That bombshell comes in the form of an understated, well-made, well-acted film called "Chappaquiddick." (Full disclosure: They advertise with my podcast.) The film tells the story of Ted Kennedy's 1969 killing of political aide Mary Jo Kopechne; the Massachusetts Democratic senator drove his car off a bridge and into the Poucha Pond, somehow escaped the overturned vehicle and left Kopechne to drown. She didn't drown, though. Instead, she reportedly suffocated while waiting for help inside an air bubble while Kennedy waited 10 hours to call for help. The Kennedy family and its associated political allies then worked to cover up the incident. In the end, Teddy was sentenced to a two-month suspended jail sentence for leaving the scene of an accident. The incident prevented Kennedy from running for president in 1972 and 1976, though he attempted a run in 1980 against then-President Jimmy Carter, failing.
So, why is the film important?
It's important because it doesn't traffic in rumors and innuendo -- there is no attempt to claim that Kopechne was having an affair with Kennedy, or that she was pregnant with his child. It's important because it doesn't paint Kennedy as a monster but as a deeply flawed and somewhat pathetic scion of a dark and manipulative family. But most of all, it's important for two reasons: It's the first movie to actually tackle a serious Democratic scandal in the history of modern film, and it reminds us that Americans have long been willing to overlook scandal for the sake of political convenience.
First, there's the historic nature of the film. Here is an incomplete list of the films made about George W. Bush's administration since his election in 2000, nearly all of them accusatory in tone: "W," "Fahrenheit 9/11," "Recount," "Fair Game" and "Truth." There has still not been a movie made about former President Bill Clinton's impeachment (though one is apparently in the works). There's been no movie about former President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's internment of the Japanese, former President Lyndon Johnson's dramatic mishandling of the Vietnam War (though we have had two hagiographies of LBJ, one directed by Rob Reiner, the other starring Bryan Cranston) or former President Woodrow Wilson's racism and near fascism.
And it only took nearly 50 years to make a film about a Democratic icon leaving a woman to die in a river. It's amazing it was made in the first place.
Most importantly, though, "Chappaquiddick" reminds us that confirmation bias and wishful thinking aren't unique to one side of the aisle. In the era of President Trump, media members have had fun telling Republicans that they have abandoned all of their moral principles in order to back a man whose agenda they support. But Democrats beat Republicans there by decades: They not only overlooked a man who likely committed manslaughter but also made him into a hero, the "Lion of the Senate." We can't understand how morals and politics have been split in two without reckoning with this history.
"Chappaquiddick" is a must-see. It's just a shame it took half a century for it to see the light.
I was in Vienna at the time and remember very large headlines on a tabloid newspaper: ZWEI MONATE FU"R KENNEDY. I thought that meant he would actually have to serve two months in jail.
The 67/68 Olds Delmont 88 had power windows.
There’s not much else to the story. The Kennedy guy and my father just started talking about the weather up at Chappaqiddick like that was a totally normal thing to talk about.
He loved him some ibama,too.
Not quite.
Kennedy waited 10 hours to call for help.
You guys need to give Fat Boy a break on this point ... I mean, have any of you ever tried to dress a nude woman under water?
How does that resolve him of the fault? Assume my explanation is the truth? After consulting with his attorneys he decided on a story that puts him in the car, trying to get back to the Edgartown Ferry. He takes a wrong turn and the car goes into the river. He dives countless times to save her and almost drowns himself.
In short, they paint the picture of the guy being a hero rather than the irresponsible drunk who left a single gal in his car, driving alone down a road to a dead end secluded beach etc etc.
The guy refuses to leave the Senate. Compare this with the countless others, including the clown from Minnesota who resigns over nothing, and people like Newt, and others. Kennedy stays in the Senate and does more to ruin our country then any one person ever. This includes the borking of Judge Bork and other cabinet choices that used to be the prerogative of the president to appoint.
Then Mary Jo's death was not in vain.
Yeah........Three rums with a splash of coke.
3? 4? beers? What ever he testified to in the inquest that was six months after the fact, just multiply that by 2.
Another myth dispelled in Chappaquiddick Speaks.
ML/NJ
Is “Morning Joe” worried?
Yes, it opens in MA on Friday at AMC theaters.
I can relate to this. I have a few guy friends who married lefty liberals, (can’t imagine), and some girls I’ve dated who are conservative themselves, but their parents liberal, and of course friends who are liberals. Rule one, you don’t discuss politics.
However, when you do, then your feelings come out and it’s like Kabul.
I met a gal at a party in Chicago several years ago. She was a lobbyist for the teacher’s union and really really liberal, but we hit it off. Lot’s of chemistry, stunningly head turning beautiful body and much younger than myself, so I asked her out on an official date. We went out and had a blast. Both being from Chicago and all, we went to a Greek restaurant we both liked, Kingston Mines, etc.
We ended the evening at a small cozy jazz club. No politics discussed the entire night up to then. Sipping champagne and just relaxing.
I finally reach over and give her moist lingering sexy kiss. She kisses me back. We retreat back to the music playing. Really content, and I’m thinking I finally found someone that I might ask out again and get to know better. I knew she felt the same way about me. And I’m thinking after tonight, I’ll not call her a couple days, i.e. really take this one seriously. Don’t rush into sex...etc etc.
Then completely out of the blue, she says. “Wasn’t that Nixon a friggin’ crook?”
I look at her, and go, “Huh? He was a great president.”
After about ten minutes of listening to her crap about Nixon, abortion etc etc. and of course mine too (that was summary of what you’d read in FR), I paid the bill, gave her a fifty for her cab and left.
Ted Kennedy never went for help.
Only after the car had been found partially submerged and divers had taken the dead girl from the car did Kennedy talk to the police.
They were already looking for him.
Kennedy tried several false statements before finally writing the statement saying he had driven the car.
No autopsy was performed on Mary Jo.
Mary Jo and Kennedy left the party to have sex.
They were seen arguing by officer Look.
So it is logical to surmise that Mary Jo got banged around. She was also drunk. Injured to some degree, disoriented, stunned and drunk, she wasn't thinking clearly and just went to the air pocket, probably thinking Kennedy would get rescuers. To me this is the most reasonable "innocent" explanation.
A non-innocent explanation is that she was already in the back seat, possibly unconscious either from drink or a blow from Kennedy. She wakes up in the back of an overturned car, not thinking clearly, so she waits for rescue. He might have pushed the car over. It is so close to the bridge that it could not have been traveling very fast or its momentum would have carried it further out away from the bridge. So I have always harbored the suspicion that she was murdered; that it was not an accident. Rumors swirled that she was pregnant. Whatever the truth, at minimum Kennedy got away with negligent homicide.
More like the Hyena of the Senate
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