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We must, as a matter of precept, pray for the salvation of heretical Catholics like Senator Edward Kennedy, but we do not have to praise him let alone extol him with the full honors of a public Catholic funeral and all the adulation that attends such an event. There was very little about Ted Kennedy's life that deserves admiration from a spiritual or moral point of view. He was probably the worst example of a Catholic statesman that one can think of. When all is said and done, he has distorted the concept of what it means to be a...

This isn't an accusation from Ted Kennedy's political opponents, but a nostalgic remembrance by one of his friends. Ed Klein, former Newsweek editor, tells the Diane Rehm Show: "I dont know if you know this or not, but one of his favorite topics of humor was indeed Chappaquiddick itself. And he would ask people, have you heard any new jokes about Chappaquiddick? That is just the most amazing thing. Its not that he didnt feel remorse about the death of Mary Jo Kopechne, but that he still always saw the other side of everything and the ridiculous side of things,...

On the day of Senator Kennedy's death, this site published an article about the Democrats exploiting the Senator's death to push Obamacare. The title of the article, "Lets Kill Grandma for Teddy Kennedy," was met with some derision as some readers felt that it did not pay proper respect for the dead. The gallows humor sometimes displayed on this site is nothing compared to what the Senator used himself. Apparently one of his favorite humor subjects was Chappaquiddick, the incident 40 years ago where the Senator drove off a bridge, saved himself and allowed a young woman to die in...

Kennedy Friend Recalls How Much He Loved to Joke About Chappaquiddick http://www.breitbart.tv/kennedy-friend-recalls-how-much-he-loved-to-joke-about-chappaquiddick/

From Kennedy’s close friend Ed Klein: I don’t know if you know this or not, but one of his favorite topics of humor was indeed Chappaquiddick itself. And he would ask people, “have you heard any new jokes about Chappaquiddick?” That is just the most amazing thing. It’s not that he didn’t feel remorse about the death of Mary Jo Kopechne, but that he still always saw the other side of everything and the ridiculous side of things, too. Hear audio here

Ed Klein, former editor for Newsweek and New York Times Magazine, was a close personal friend of Ted Kennedy and decided to share some memories of the late Senator on The Diane Rehm Show. KLEIN: I don't know if you know this or not, but one of his favorite topics of humor was indeed Chappaquiddick itself. And he would ask people, "Have you heard any new jokes about Chappaquiddick?" That is just the most amazing thing. It's not that he didn't feel remorse about the death of Mary Jo Kopechne, but that he still always saw the other side of...

Senator Edward 'Ted' Kennedy stood for sleaze. Bloated and drunken, he used his standing in the Kennedy clan to chase vulnerable women - which brought his dream of reaching the White House to a shameful end. He was the youngest of the four Kennedy brothers, and by far the longest lived. Incredibly, he was in line to inherit his brother John F. Kennedy's legendary presidency, but his chances were dashed following the drowning of the pretty, young campaign assistant Mary Jo Kopechne. Forever known as the Chappaquiddick Incident after the Massachusetts island where it took place, the scandal in 1969...

As long as we’re on the subject of humor this morning, what kind of jokes did the late Ted Kennedy like to tell his closest friends? One of Kennedy’s close friends, former editor of Newsweek and New York Times Magazine Ed Klein, tells the Diane Rehm Show that Chappaquiddick jokes were high up on the list

New York Times Magazine's Ed Klein: "I don’t know if you know this or not, but one of his favorite topics of humor was indeed Chappaquiddick itself. And he would ask people, “have you heard any new jokes about Chappaquiddick?” That is just the most amazing thing. It’s not that he didn’t feel remorse about the death of Mary Jo Kopechne, but that he still always saw the other side of everything and the ridiculous side of things, too."

"I don't know if you know this or not, but one of his favorite topics of humor was indeed Chappaquiddick itself. And he would ask people, "have you heard any new jokes about Chappaquiddick?" That is just the most amazing thing. It's not that he didn't feel remorse about the death of Mary Jo Kopechne, but that he still always saw the other side of everything and the ridiculous side of things, too."

Here are two poll questions about Ted Kennedy the swimmer.What is your overall feeling about Kennedy?How important is Chappaquiddick to Kennedy's legacy?(Aug. 26) He looks bad already, but I sure would like to see him look a lot worse still. The guy deserves as much respect as he gave Mary Jo on that late night in 69 when he allowed her to die instead of trying to rescue her.If obituaries were written based on Google Trends results, Chappaquiddick would be in the first paragraph of Sen. Ted Kennedy's obituary. "Chappaquiddick" and other search terms related to the car accident on...

Political figures are said to be remembered in one line. George Washington was the father of his country. Abraham Lincoln freed the slaves. Ronald Reagan won the Cold War without firing a shot. Ted Kennedy let a woman die at Chappaquiddick and tried to cover it up. If obituaries rightly remember the Massachusetts solon as America's third longest serving senator, they do history a disservice by downplaying why he served so long in the Senate and not a day in the White House.

The real-life Mayor Quimby and America’s answer to Boris Yeltsin, Senator Edward “Ted”, “Teddy”, “Somebody Tell That Drunk Guy To Put Some Clothes On and Get Out of My Restaurant”, Kennedy is dead. Edward Moore Kennedy’s place in the hierarchy of great Kennedy men might have been foreshadowed at his birth when his father chose to name him after the family chauffeur, and he most likely would not have risen as fast in politics or remained out of incarceration for as long had he not been to the oyster house born. That said, what he lacked in the ability to...

On this message board a poster started this thread: http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=529543 and was threatened with being suspended from the message board for posting it. Then she went to discuss this in the section dedicated to discussing moderator actions and she was threatened with being banned. http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=529547 Then after that another poster defended her: http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=529549 and a bunch of posters complained they rescinded the warning violation order but said that her thread wouldn't be reopened and not allowed to be posted because it was posted in the wrong subcategory. So she posted it into a different subcategory: http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=529558 and a bunch of...

The following is an edited and abbreviated transcript of Edward Kennedy's statement following the Chappaquiddick controversy: There is no truth, no truth whatever, to the widely circulated suspicions of immoral conduct that have been leveled at my behavior and hers regarding that evening. There has never been a private relationship between us of any kind. I know of nothing in Mary Jo's conduct on that or any other occasion — and the same is true of the other girls at that party — that would lend any substance to such ugly speculation about their character. Nor was I driving under...

...evidence from the inquest suggested that she survived for hours due to a air pocket. If only Teddy would have called the police, had called for any kind of help, she might have survived...

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Forty years ago last month, Sen Kennedy drove his car off Dyke Bridge in Chappaquiddick after a day's sailing and hard drinking with a group of married friends and young women who had worked on his brother Robert's presidential campaign. As the car turned over and sank in Pocha Pond, a tidal lagoon, its driver managed to swim to the surface, leaving his 28-year-old companion, Mary Jo Kopechne, to drown in the car.

Ailing Senator Robert Byrd, one of only two to have served longer than Kennedy, suggests in an emotional statement renaming the pending health care legislation for the late Massachusetts Senator: "In his honor and as a tribute to his commitment to his ideals, let us stop the shouting and name calling and have a civilized debate on health care reform which I hope, when legislation has been signed into law, will bear his name for his commitment to insuring the health of every American."

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