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.
CHAPPAQUIDDICK … CHAPPAQUIDDICK … CHAPPAQUIDDICK …
Yea, and you'll find it between Hitler's and Stalin's.
Brutal. I like it.
" Kennedy himself will generously donate 75 hours of his time for talks with the center."
Gee, donating 75 hours to a monument to yourself. The liberal definition of generosity keeps getting more and more self-centered.
ONE of the things ole teddy is full of is himself...
oh, please ...who really cares WHAT Teddy boy wants! I know one family wanted their Mary Jo back, alive and well!
Make it as large and expensive as he wants, but it has to go in Katama Bay or across the Chappaquiddick bridge.
LOL!
I read this article and nearly gagged.
What a total waste of money.
Mary Jo should NEVER be forgotten.
I thought "oral" history was Clinton's thing.
Psychologically, this makes perfect sense. The scandal-plagued, ne'er do well brother of two well-loved and legendary political figures desperate to carve out his own little place in history. Kind of sad if you ask me.
How large can they make a bottle of booze these days?
I propose the monument should be a huge Jack Daniels bottle, with a submerged car and a body inside.
The Oldsmobile that Mary Jo died in:
Yes it will be an Oldsmobile that you get in and while you listen to Ted's history the car fills up with water....
Will the memorial offer a "Crash course" in swimming? An entire wing would have to be dedicated to Teddy's liver alone.
I wonder how many hours the Kopekne family will donate to the project.
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