Ted Kennedy’s phony moralizing resurrects Chapaquiddick

Union Leader ^ | 4/08/04 | JAY AMBROSE

[kattracks]

EDWARD KENNEDY, a man whose ideological and partisan frenzies have apparently obscured his vision, looks at George W. Bush and sees Richard M. Nixon. Perhaps Bush should be grateful. At least Kennedy has not compared the President to a member of the Senate who once skedaddled from the scene of a drowning, forgetting to inform officials about it until 12 hours later.

Is it fair to bring up Chappaquiddick 35 years after Mary Jo Kopechne’s death? Only for this reason: to search out the moral authority of this mouthy man who has repeatedly seen fit to accuse President Bush of grotesquely immoral behavior.

Kennedy has said, for instance, that Bush misled the American people into a war that has resulted in more than 600 American deaths. This week, in a speech at the Brookings Institution, he went even further. The war, he suggested without precisely saying so, was meant to divert public attention from “deceptions here at home,” such as a lie about when the recession started. He said Bush had created “the largest credibility gap since Richard Nixon.” And, news accounts inform us, he referred to Iraq as “George Bush’s Vietnam.”

What we have here is not simply a point of view on issues. It is vile, below-the-belt name-calling, a far remove, say, from the public pronouncements of someone like Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., who spells out policy disagreements in careful arguments. To propose as Kennedy does that the war in Iraq was politically motivated is tantamount to saying Bush has sacrificed lives for his own selfish ends — that the President is murderously Machiavellian.

If you are going to go that far, the least you could do is back up the charges with evidence and analysis. Kennedy gives us hokum and hysteria. For starters, he should figure out that there was no political advantage in a war that would delay economic recovery, run federal spending sky-high and lead to American casualties.

As for Bush misleading the nation about Iraq’s possession of weapons of mass destruction, as Kennedy has alleged, Kennedy himself had worried aloud about such weapons, as had Kennedy’s Massachusetts pal, John Kerry, now running for President. Kennedy is one of those who has also said that Bush warned that the threat from Saddam Hussein was imminent. Beyond any reasonable doubt, Bush did no such thing.

As for Iraq being another Vietnam, Kennedy might pause to reflect that it was his brother John who stepped up our involvement in that Southeast Asian country so as to make extraction difficult, and that it was JFK’s advisers who convinced LBJ that the U.S. stakes there were vital. Despite the fighting now going on in Iraq, it seems close to hallucinatory to suppose we will lose a fraction of the 58,000 American soldiers lost in Vietnam. These two wars are as different as desert and jungle.

The phrase “credibility gap” did not first come into prominence with Nixon, but with LBJ. Skip that for a moment and focus on Kennedy’s own credibility gap when he talks of the recession as if it were somehow Bush’s fault. In fact, the economic slowdown began in the Clinton years, and there is no Bush policy that can be blamed for instigating the recession that officially started in his administration. The Bush domestic policies Kennedy most detests — what he calls tax cuts for the wealthy — have helped spur record economic growth that finally appears to be translating into vast job creation as well.

In bringing up Nixon’s name, Kennedy brings up memories of Watergate, of illegal conduct and disgrace, linking those memories to an understanding of who Bush is. It’s a neat trick if the public does not also think back on Kennedy’s own conduct when he walked away from an underwater car and a passenger who did not walk away.

Kennedy, to his credit, has given himself wholeheartedly to public service since then. While I think his liberal ideology inimical in some respects to American vitality and freedom, I also think he represents liberalism well and that liberal views should be part of the mix in Congress. His attacks on Bush go beyond the bounds. The making of them is itself a character lapse.

Jay Ambrose is director of editorial policy for Scripps Howard Newspapers and can be reached at AmbroseJ@shns.com.

[bellas_sister]

"How can we (or the Bush/Cheney campaign) link these two together like Siamese twins and RE-OPEN Chappaquiddick?"

THE MONSTER HAS GOTTEN AWAY WITH MURDER!!!!!

His hipocracy is insulting.... and I don't believe enough people know about this part of his dark history...

I think Mel Gibson should make a movie about it since he's the only one with the B$^*s to tell the truth....

There is absolutely no reason this man should be aloud to influence anything in this country... the blathering, drunken fool....

[Fresh Wind]

This disgusting hypocrite needs to be FReeped, big time!

[NYpeanut]

Chappaquiddick Fats bump

[gracex7]

"Basically, Kennedy’s law said this: If you woke up in the middle of the night and discovered that someone had entered your house and was ransacking your property, you would be required to attempt to escape from your own home to get away from the predator. If there was a door or window in your bedroom you could use for escape, you would be required to use it...."

As I recall, if there was no window or door, you were to offer them a car ride over a bridge...

[hellinahandcart]

"land-bound blowfish". LOL

[CatoRenasci]

To speak of a character lapse in "Chappy" is profoundly wrong: his behavior is entirely consistent with the low moral character that has characterized "Chappy" in every endeavor since he was thrown out of Harvard for cheating.

[tkathy]

If Nixon had done what Ted did, he would have ended his days in prison.

[MagnoliaB]

"At least Kennedy has not compared the President to a member of the Senate who once skedaddled from the scene of a drowning, forgetting to inform officials about it until 12 hours later."

Is it too late to exhume the body to see if Mary Jo was pregnant with Teddy's baby? I'd be willing to bet that Mary Jo was dead before that car ever went into the lake.

[niteowl77]

As bad as this faded Kennedy afterbirth is, at least he hasn't made a thirty-three year career out of stabbing uniformed servicemen in the back while hiding behind his own brief military career. What is worse is that the person I'm ralking about doesn't just limit his damage to peacetime, but seems to redouble his efforts when it is crunch time and our troops are in a fight... often for their lives.

We are discussing two rich boys who successfully hoodwink working people, but Ted Kennedy is the spoiled, swollen appendix of a political machine, while John Kerry is a good, old fashioned, cunning son of a bitch.

Who happens to have treason as a hobby.

[SevenDaysInMay]

Senator Kopecne will soon enough die, possibly drowning in his own vomit.

[Xenalyte]

I can't see how right-thinking people stand to live in the cesspool that keeps re-electing the murderer.

[Xenalyte]

He's had at least 35 good years that Mary Jo didn't have.

[DainBramage]

Kennedy, to his credit, has given himself wholeheartedly to public service since then

Given himself to being a Senator??? What a joke. Its the only thing he could have done

since being annointed president was out and not \ having to work and still maintain his normal 1pm cocktail hour was a big priority.

[OMalley]

Ya know he looks awful like clinton-scary....

[Amelia]

And, news accounts inform us, he referred to Iraq as “George Bush’s Vietnam.”

Remind me....who was it that got us involved in Vietnam?

[guitfiddlist]

To propose as Kennedy does that the war in Iraq was politically motivated is tantamount to saying Bush has sacrificed lives for his own selfish ends — that the President is murderously Machiavellian.

He accuses Bush of this, because that's what a Kennedy, LBJ, Clinton and Kerry would do, and has done.

[Cuttnhorse]

Great thread....saving for later.

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

There's no statute of limitations on murder, but there is still double jeopardy. Kennedy was tried and convicted for misdemeanor offenses arising from the accident. The prosecution cannot come back and raise the bar.

Double jeopardy is very rarely overturned. One instance involved a case were the defendant had bribed the judge. The prosecution successfully argued that no real jeopardy ever attached. That the Massachusetts judiciary and law enforcement were in the satchel for Kennedy in 1969 is clear beyond peradventure. Absent clear evidence of bribery or other undo influence, you're not going to get another crack at him.

[eeriegeno]

It must be that the majority of citizens from Massachussettes are liars too since they have sent EffinKerry and the drunk back to DC for decades. Those folks must really like these two sorry jackasses........

[GraceCoolidge]

I think the liberals are pretty bold when they say what Ted Kennedy did in the past is irrelevant. Let's see, this happened 35 years ago. I seem to recall the Democrats found what President Bush was doing 30 years ago to be very important (what dentist? when did you go?) and of course, those four months of John Kerry's life some 35 years ago have been easily half of his campaign. Since the Democrats wanted to inject actions of 30 plus years ago into the campaign, let's do it across the board.