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.
I can't believe this guy actually thinks because he is a Kennedy that makes him on par with a president. I think he truly believes that he took the place of JFK.
Ideas for memorial: Truth about Chappaquiddick; Grossly Obese statute; Educating America on cirrhosis of liver.
Teddy is starting to look like he needs his own zip code.
If nothing else, it would prevent him from taking others with him when he self-immolates due to his 100 proof breath coming into contact with an open flame.
The Kennedy's are of no real importance anymore so teddie has to make something up to either keep their name alive or to try and salvage his own name. It will fail for sure. You don't pat yourself on the back ted...
Where's the sheet?
He's really gin to be swimming upstream with this one.
If Mary Jo Kopechne had lived she would be grateful to the swimmer for having brought comfort to her old age.
My suggestion for the plaque:
"My name is Ozymandias, king of kings: Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"
Senator Teddy, wearing his controversial neck brace, leaves St. Vincent's
Church with his wife, Joan, after the funeral Mass for Mary Jo Kopechne.
Rich, fat, arrogant drunk.
Perhaps they can get Chris Dodd to speak fondly about how he and Teddy use to get drunk and "sandwich" waitresses. I am sure that there will be the obligatory video of the "vigorous" Kennedys playing football, sailing, skiing, etc. Too bad Ted didn't have the energy to dive down to his car and rescue his date.
I thought he was really trying to bring down what's left of UMass-Amherst by donating his papers
if they name a "school of shafting the taxpayers" after him?
Sen. Edward Kennedy, [D-Mass.], in a letter to a constituent, August 3, 1971:
"While the deep concern of a woman bearing an unwanted child merits consideration and sympathy, it is my personal feeling that the legalization of abortion on demand is not in accordance with the value which our civilization places on human life. Wanted or unwanted, I believe that human life, even at its earliest stages, has certain rights which must be recognized -- the right to be born, the right to love, the right to grown old.
"I share the confidence of those who feel that America is working to care for its unwanted as well as wanted children, protecting particularly those who cannot protect themselves. I also share the opinions of those who do not accept abortion as a response to our society's problems -- an inadequate welfare system, unsatisfactory job training programs, and insufficient financial support for all its citizens.
"When history looks back to this era it should recognize this generation as one which cared about human beings enough to halt the practice of war, to provide a decent living for every family and to fulfill its responsibility to its children from the very moment of conception."
I don't think I want to know about the oral history of Bill Clinton...eeewwwww
OMG! LOL
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