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.
Eh. He doesn’t look befuddled, he looks like he is angling for an opening to shove his finger up his nose.
“My thinking is that Kennedy either swam it”
It is impossible that Kennedy swam it. The people who saw him entering the hotel all said he was in dry clothes. They also said he looked relaxed. If Kennedy had swum to Martha’s Vineyard he would have been soaking wet and exhausted. People would have noticed. His drivers license which he handed over the next morning showed no sign of water marks.
“Really? Suicide? ....Or...Was it made to look like a suicide?
Perhaps, this man’s end of life should be made into a movie.”
Here is his obituary.
What do you think?
Leo J. Damore, 66, an Author Of a Book on Chappaquiddick
Leo J. Damore, who uncovered previously unreported information for his 1988 book, “Senatorial Privilege: The Chappaquiddick Coverup,” took his life on Monday at his home in Essex, Conn. He was 66.
The police said that Mr. Damore fatally shot himself. His former wife, June Davison, said Mr. Damore had been despondent over their divorce last December.
Mr. Damore, a native of Ontario who moved with his family to North Tonawanda, N.Y., and graduated from Kent State University in Ohio, was working for a weekly newspaper, The Cape Cod News, in July 1969 when Senator Edward M. Kennedy’s Oldsmobile plunged off a bridge on Chappaquiddick Island, killing Mary Jo Kopechne, a 28-year-old Senate aide who had been attending a party with the Senator and other staff members nearby.
The incident, which is widely believed to have ended any possibility that Senator Kennedy might be elected president, has been repeatedly investigated by the national press.
Mr. Damore, who knew many of the local law enforcement officials, managed to persuade several figures to give extensive interviews for the first time. For Mr. Damore, who had a reputation as a dogged, thorough investigator, obtaining the interviews was easier than having the book published.
Random House, which gave him a $150,000 advance in 1982, rejected his manuscript in 1987, describing it as libelous and demanding the return of the advance.
Mr. Damore, arguing that the book was sound and that the publisher was bowing to the Kennedy family, went to court. After a judge ruled against him, he reached a settlement with Random House and sought another publisher. Regnery Gateway, a small, conservative house, brought the book out the next year, and although it received few reviews, it immediately became a big seller.
Mr. Damore’s other works include “The Cape Cod Years of John Fitzgerald Kennedy,” published in 1967. At his death, Ms. Davison said, he was almost finished with another Kennedy book, about the President’s affair with Mary Pinchot Meyer.
Mr. Damore is survived by his mother, Carmen, and a sister, Gloria of North Tonawanda; a son, Nicholas of Old Saybrook, Conn.; and two children from an earlier marriage, Charles of Niantic, Conn., and Leslie Hegarty of North Carolina.
_____________
One down, one other to go ............
“Most right thinking people don’t need to pay Hollywood their $$$ to see what they already know.”
Sure we do—————they are still making WWII movies and we all know how that ends.
.
A book on the Kennedy’s was almost finished?....Given the trail of unusual and **convenient** deaths that follow major democrats figures, I am skeptical about the “suicide”.
Mary Jo Kopechne was unavailable for comment.
“If Kennedy had swum to Martha’s Vineyard ——”
Ha was already ON Martha’s Vineyard-——the swim would have to the town.
.
Yes. Scum. Both of them.
“Americans never picked Ted Kennedy to be a leader.”
___
I believe Massachusettsians are, in fact, Americans.
I agree. He took one of the many dingys that are in the area.
That’s entertainment and people we respect. The Kennedy’s are more like smelling stale farts.
To the suburbs. Yeah. Easily a $50 ride with tip.
“Americans never picked Ted Kennedy to be a leader.”
“I believe Massachusettsians are, in fact, Americans.”
Massachusetts voted for him to be a Senator primarily because Joe Kennedy said he had paid a lot for the seat and wanted to keep it in the family. Massachusetts also voted John Kerry, Elizabeth Warren and other America haters as Senator.
Despite the media and the Democrat Party continually promoting Ted Kennedy for president, Americans would never vote for him for president.
When people say Americans it means Americans from more than one state. When people say leader of Americans it means the president.
I never understood why people in Massachusetts voted for the treasonous girlfriend killer.
Have you watched even one of the documentaries on this? OR have you bothered to read any theory on this? The ones that have experts who calculated the speed of the car? Insurance investigators with experience on what happens to the vehicle and occupants when a car goes into the water, turns over and it’s all in the dark? I bet a month’s salary you didn’t.
I admit, I took this whole story of Kennedy’s as probably full of truths, half truths and lies. Now I realize just about everything he said was a lie, and all concocted to make him out to be a hero.
If you did review any of this, you’d be enlightened like I was.
1. The passenger side window was smashed. The passenger in accidents like this will bear the brunt of the injuries.
2. She had no injuries. NOt a scratch on her.
3. Kennedy is 6’ 2”. How did he get out, unscathed, and she didn’t.
4. He claims he swam back to his hotel, yet his clothes are dry when he speaks to the manager at 2:30am, mentioning nothing to him about the accident.
5. Several investigators all agree that the whole thing is difficult to comprehend until you look at it from the stand point that Kennedy was NOT in the car.
6. Detailed underwater videos of divers with air in the front seat of a car as it goes into the water have been studied. Even in broad day light with the car upright, it is extremely difficult to extricate yourself. Kennedy claims he did it while it was pitch dark.
7. Oh yeah, one more. The doors of the care were locked when it was fished out of the water.
8. There was ample in the trunk of the car.
9. Mary Jo died of axphyxiation according to the embalmer. There was no water in her cavities.
10. She was stretched out in rigomortis as if she were in the back of the car gasping for air.
You speak of facts. Give me your facts and where you got them from.
I suspect the movie will go alone with Kennedy’s testimony that he drove the car.
I agree, although he could have gone to his room, put on dry clothing, and then come out again.
Also, I don’t think he had his driver’s license with him, he had to send for it. This is according to Sheriff Arena.
How did Markham and the cousin make it across the river?
“Ha was already ON Martha’s Vineyard-——the swim would have to the town.”
He was on Chappaquiddick Island. He claimed he swam back to Martha’s Vineyard.
Chappaquiddick Island IS Martha’s Vineyard-——and part of Edgartown.
.
I agree.
It is likely that Ted Kennedy was not in the car.
Then how do you explain why he lied and said he was driving the car when he wasn’t.
It only makes sense if you assume he wanted Mary Jo dead and or he did not want a full autopsy.
Why?
Because she was pregnant with his child.
“Chappaquiddick Island IS Martha’s Vineyard-——and part of Edgartown.”
Alright. How do you say it?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.