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Curse to Bear,A new account of Ted Kennedy’s Palm Beach adventure(Good Friday,Ted's 15th Annv.)
National Review ^ | 08.01.03 | John J. Miller

Posted on 04/14/2006 7:23:39 PM PDT by Coleus

very season seems to bring a new best-selling book full of sordid details about the Kennedys, from allegations that JFK was a pill-popping intern predator to Carolyn Bessette Kennedy having a fondness for cocaine.  The Kennedy Curse, by Edward Klein, is the latest entry. The premise is simple: "The Kennedy Curse is the result of the destructive collision between the Kennedys' fantasy of omnipotence — their need to get away with things that others cannot — and the cold, hard realities of life."

Sen. Ted Kennedy once wondered "whether some awful curse did actually hang over all the Kennedys." Of course, the distinguished Democrat from Massachusetts has been the author of many of his own problems. A case in point is the Palm Beach incident of 1991, when the famous senator went romping with his son Patrick (now a Rhode Island congressman) and William Kennedy Smith.  Klein is the first writer to have gone through the boxes of sworn statements, depositions, and other official documents associated with the ensuing rape trial. His chapter on the events of March 29, 1991 and what took place afterward are riveting.

A few scene-setting excerpts:

"Because few people had seen the Kennedy compound from the inside, the house had acquired a certain mysterious allure, and men in the family often exploited this attraction during the annual Easter hunt for women. The promise of 'a quiet drink at the house' was a surefire technique for luring women back to the compound for sex."

"Sex itself was never the primary purpose of these evenings; it was an opportunity for the Kennedys to put on a show of manly swagger in front of one another and to demonstrate that women were discardable objects."

"The Kennedys behaved as though they were invulnerable and had nothing to fear. Palm Beach was their seraglio, a place of licentious pleasure. It was there that they could drink themselves into a state of drunken senselessness and turn sex into a power game of seduction, manipulation, and control."

"Perhaps [Ted] was hoping that his young son and nephew could help a drunken, grossly overweight, middle-aged man get lucky again that night."

As it turned out, the two younger Kennedys each brought a woman back to the compound late that night, which happened to be Good Friday. Willy took his companion, Patty Bowman, to the beach just outside. There, according to Bowman, he raped her. What's more, she told a police detective that the senator must have known what was going on.  Klein describes the conversation: "'When [Willy and I] went to the beach, [Ted] was there, and I was screaming, No! and Stop, and I remember thinking, 'Ted Kennedy is here. Why doesn't he come down and stop this man?''"

If Ted Kennedy didn't hear Bowman, perhaps it's because he had become Peeping Ted. His son was in his bedroom with Michele Cassone. At the trial, Cassone spoke about what happened: "Patrick and I were ... making out, kissing. ... About ten minutes at the most later, the senator emerged through the door from inside the house ... and at this time he only has on a button-down oxford shirt. He has taken his slacks off. I didn't see if he had any Jockeys or boxers on [because the shirt] came halfway down the thighs. He was standing there, wobbling, and had no pants on. ... And I was just really freaked out."

Around this time, Bowman says she escaped from the clutches of Smith. She ran back into the house, hid, and then called friends on a cordless phone. They came and picked her up. Then Bowman reported what happened to the police.  Klein describes what happened next: "Teddy appeared to get himself tangled in a web of lies and contradictions." Many of his statements didn't seem to jibe with what others were saying about that night at the compound. "What's more, Teddy stonewalled the police and, at times, interfered with their investigation." When the police came to the compound on Easter Sunday, for instance, one of the senator's henchmen told them that Ted and Willy weren't there — even though they really were. Later on, the Kennedys leaked unflattering information about Bowman to the press, even though liberals aren't supposed to "blame the victim." NBC and the New York Times even used her name, despite Florida's rape-shield law.

Willy, of course, was eventually acquitted — rape convictions can be difficult to secure, especially when one of America's most powerful families has a vested interest in protecting their members. Yet it's impossible to read Klein's account and not think something awful happened that night — and that Ted Kennedy, that hero of Chappaquiddick, was a party to it.  Keep it in mind the next time Kennedy take to the floor of the Senate for a lecture on social justice.


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Politics/Elections; US: Florida; US: Massachusetts; US: Rhode Island
KEYWORDS: catholicpoliticians; edwardkennedy; goodfriday; holyweek; kennedy; kennedys; patrickkennedy; rape; tedkennedy; williamkennedysmith; ytedk
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To: Coleus

Ted got off with murder, Compared to that rape doesnt amount to much.


21 posted on 04/14/2006 8:00:24 PM PDT by sgtbono2002
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To: ntnychik; devolve; PhilDragoo; Smartass

Ping


22 posted on 04/14/2006 8:00:49 PM PDT by potlatch (Does a clean house indicate that there is a broken computer in it?)
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To: do the dhue
I can't wait to piss on his grave.

My uncle,after whom I'm named,is buried about 100 feet from his parents.Each and every time I've gone to visit his grave,I have the urge to take a little detour and "water the flowers".

23 posted on 04/14/2006 8:03:56 PM PDT by Gay State Conservative
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To: potlatch; ntnychik; PhilDragoo; devolve; OXENinFLA; bitt; La Enchiladita; JustPiper
Everyone should be able to drink
and drive without a driver's license.
I DID and got away with murder!





24 posted on 04/14/2006 8:13:04 PM PDT by Smartass (Si vis pacem, para bellum)
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To: Smartass
LOL.

Image hosting by Photobucket

25 posted on 04/14/2006 8:15:02 PM PDT by potlatch (Does a clean house indicate that there is a broken computer in it?)
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To: Coleus

Has Ted Kennedy ever practiced his faith? Does he even have a "faith" other than in name only?


26 posted on 04/14/2006 8:15:18 PM PDT by no dems (Illegal Immigration? Congress best do something or look for a Civil War to break out.)
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To: potlatch

 


27 posted on 04/14/2006 8:21:27 PM PDT by Smartass (Si vis pacem, para bellum)
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To: Smartass

Who could eat after viewing that? My pager isn't pinging again, looks like Quick Time did some stealth work again!!


28 posted on 04/14/2006 8:23:31 PM PDT by potlatch (Does a clean house indicate that there is a broken computer in it?)
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To: Coleus

"The Kennedy Curse" is a description of what America has had to endure.


29 posted on 04/14/2006 8:25:44 PM PDT by HighWheeler (The liberal dinosaurs bellow defiantly while sinking deeper into the swamp.......)
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To: Petronski
"don't mind someone else"..."digging up dirt"

LOL. Well, I guess we could say he didn't really have to dig. He just had to kinda sift through it before he stirred it up and spread it. ;-)

30 posted on 04/14/2006 8:26:46 PM PDT by LucyJo
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To: do the dhue

The Kennedy gene pool could use some chlorine..


31 posted on 04/14/2006 8:28:33 PM PDT by sheik yerbouty ( Make America and the world a jihad free zone!)
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To: Coleus
"On Good Friday Catholics are called to take part in the Solemn Liturgy of our Lord's Death and participate in the Stations of the Cross. They are required to fast and abstain. How did Ted Kennedy and his family practice their faith on Good Friday, 1991?"

Number one, the Kennedy's are about as "Catholic" as Osama Bin Laden; and number two, yes, they are cursed.
32 posted on 04/14/2006 8:31:35 PM PDT by khnyny
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To: Coleus

Do a google search for William Kennedy Smith, and just about all you find is rape stories. As one of these stories remarks, he is a real sleazeball.

http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&rls=GGLJ,GGLJ:2006-05,GGLJ:en&q=William+Kennedy+Smith


33 posted on 04/14/2006 8:36:55 PM PDT by Cicero (Marcus Tullius)
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To: Coleus
The Kennedy Curse...neat way of shfting the responsibility for the Kennnedys' disgraceful behaviors from themselves to some dark and distant force out of their own control - victimology rides again......
34 posted on 04/14/2006 8:37:04 PM PDT by Intolerant in NJ
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To: Coleus

A pack of pathetic, drunken, bums.


35 posted on 04/14/2006 8:48:41 PM PDT by mkjessup (The Shah doesn't look so bad now, eh? But nooo, Jimmah said the Ayatollah was a 'godly' man.)
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To: sheik yerbouty
I just got done talking to some investors. They are interested in getting buses and putting Kegs of beer on the bus. Then sell bus tickets for rides to Ted 'hicup' Kennedy's grave. The investor would then like to sell pictures of ticket bearers squirting used Budweiser on his grave.

I think it will work and we could probably go public with it one day.
36 posted on 04/14/2006 9:07:40 PM PDT by do the dhue (I hope y'all will help bail me out of jail after I dot Ted Kennedy's eyes.)
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To: WorkingClassFilth
"Q: How did Ted Kennedy and his family practice their faith on Good Friday, 1991?"

The answer was given during Teddy's confession on Thursday night:

Priest: "For your penance, do 10 "Our Fathers" and 10 "Hail Marys."

Teddy's interpretation: "For starters, I'll drink 10 Jack Daniels Leninskys and wind up the night with 10 Bloody Marys."

37 posted on 04/14/2006 9:14:37 PM PDT by jonrick46
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To: do the dhue

Would I be allowed to give his grave some Chivas, after it has been properly filtered through my kidneys?


38 posted on 04/14/2006 9:16:11 PM PDT by sheik yerbouty ( Make America and the world a jihad free zone!)
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To: Coleus

Man...fifteen years? How time flies.


39 posted on 04/14/2006 9:18:18 PM PDT by RichInOC (Ted Kennedy...The Man in the Brooks Brothers Shirt.)
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To: Coleus

There are plenty of Kennedy Catholics in Boston. Most confess on Sunday and support abortions on Monday.

Pray for W and Our Freedom Fighters


40 posted on 04/14/2006 9:19:26 PM PDT by bray (Racists for Rice '08)
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