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.
Scared someone will be forgotten in history?
Why doesn't he just pay for it himself? He's got the dough. Leave the taxpayer out of it.
The only things that need be in his "oral history" is that he was expelled from Harvard for cheating and is a murderer - might also include the fact he is nothing but a fat drunk.
Given that all this guy does is Eat, Drink, and Talk (and noting in passing that he really, really Sucks) I think that an ORAL history is entirely appropriate.
He is afraid someone will speak the truth. He wants to control the sources.
There's no need for a monument. Just one word sums up his whole life.....Chappaqquiddick
wow does teddy hiccup have an ego or what? sorry hiccup we here in MA have had enough of your life thank you very much! punch out, you're fired........
bump
More than $3 million to plant an Oldsmobile nose-down in a reflecting pool?
From the title, I thought they were going to dedicate a bridge to him.
Man he must really be on a "bender" this time. What and how much of it has he recently been drinking?
Inquiring minds want to know????
Semper Curious
ROFLMAO!!!
Nose + coffee = ruined keyboard....
LQ
Welcome to the Official University of Virginia Club Swimming Web Page
"Even an important senator or president will write a memoir
This guy is not an important senator, he is a disgrace to the Senate and I don't know why they keep sending him up there.
So let's get things started. Here is my contribution - a transcribed interview with Mary Jo Kopechne.
INTERVIEWER: "Ms. Kopechne, what actually happened to you that fateful night?"
KOPECHNE:
INTERVIEWER: "Ms. Kopechne, what are you plans for the future? Do you intend to start a family?"
KOPECHNE:
INTERVIEWER: "Ms. Kopechne, do you bear any ill will toward Sen. Kennedy for what happened to you?"
KOPECHNE:
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