Posted on 12/07/2004 10:19:01 AM PST by areafiftyone
Teddy Kennedy is raising a reported $3.5 million to pay for an oral history project he conceived that will memorialize his life.
The project is unique in that it will be the first ever oral history of a sitting U.S. senator.
The project will be carried out by the Miller Center for Public Affairs at the University of Virginia, which has created oral histories of President Jimmy Carter and is doing others on presidents George H.W. Bush, Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton.
According to the Boston Globe, however, it has never made a senator the subject of a historical study.
The newspaper reported that the Miller Center will interview more than 100 of Kennedy's former and current staff members, colleagues from both sides of the aisle, family and other notable figures who have known him.
Kennedy himself will generously donate 75 hours of his time for talks with the center. Stephen Knott, associate professor at the Miller Center, told the Globe that Kennedy will not control who is interviewed or what questions are asked.
"This is very unusual," historian Michael R. Beschloss told the senator's hometown newspaper. "Even an important senator or president will write a memoir or do some interviews with a ghost writer, and that is basically it," he explained.
Knott promised that the project would not avoid the more unpleasant aspects of Kennedy's life and career. While the questions have not been written yet, historians said they expect that the center would address the Chappaquiddick episode and other nonpolicy-related matters.
"The way we've approached it is that nothing is off-limits," Knott said. "The study is going to cover the whole of his life, including his pre-Senate years and up to the present," Knott told the Globe, which noted that despite the many books, articles and movies that deal with the Kennedy family, Teddy's interviews will probably reveal new information or anecdotes.
And while Knott said Kennedy will have no control over the final product, his funding and heavy involvement in the project gives him an unusual opportunity to create a lasting monument to himself.
Unique? Proposed and promoted by the same sitting U.S. senator. Also, brazen, narcissistic, self-serving... Shameless.
LOL, a sad LOL. No just about 100 large for that, the rest is for 'cocktails' and also tazers to keep 'guests' from leaving before they hear the entire oral history...
Maybe the extra money also covers the hydraulics that create the crash, complete with it's splashing sounds, over and over again...
LOL, well then I wish they would come here to Free Republic and interview us!!
LOL!
Just who does he think he is, Senator Byrd?
What a scum bag. This fat slob should be in Prison.
My tought exactly. Let him pay for it. He has enough money. What a creep. And let's not forget Mary Jo.
Naturally, pants will be optional, ladies are free, and it will be just far enough off the coast as to be in international waters, but close enough to shore so that some dweeb intern can take the dhingy in for another keg or 2 and a case of Chivas in no time at all... After all, it's thirsty work giving an oral history and all.
No way in He11 that's ever gonna happen. No way could he stay sober that long.
what a pompous @$$.
This is too easy, will Clinton and Chris Dodd be in it?
Told you it was too easy
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.