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WHY TED'D WANT HIS DEATH EXPLOITED
NY Post ^ | August 29, 2009 | Jonah Goldberg

Posted on 08/29/2009 3:30:53 AM PDT by Scanian

IF you read the papers or watch the news, you'll en counter a long list of accom plishments by the late Sen. Edward M. Kennedy. You're less likely to hear, however, that in his death Kennedy proved Rush Limbaugh right.

In March, the talk-show host and bete noir of progressives everywhere said that the health-care bill wending its way through Congress would eventually be dubbed "the Ted Kennedy Memorial Health Care Bill." At the time, the official position of the Democratic Party was outrage and disgust. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee initiated a petition drive demanding that the Republican Party formally denounce Limbaugh for his "reprehensible" and "truly outrageous" comments.

Fast-forward to a few hours after the announcement of Kennedy's death. Suddenly, naming the bill after Kennedy would be a moving tribute.

ABC News reports that "the idea of naming the legislation for Kennedy has been quietly circulating for months" but was kicked into overdrive by Sen. Robert Byrd, the Democratic Party's eldest statesman.

Intriguingly, this suggests that either Democrats already had the idea when Limbaugh floated it, which would mean their protests were just so much opportunistic and cynical posturing -- or they actually got the idea from Limbaugh himself, which would be too ironic for a Tom Wolfe novel.

But that Kennedy's death should be marked by cynicism, opportunism and irony is not shocking, given that these qualities are now the hallmarks of the party he largely defined.

(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Government; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: chappaquiddickcare; democrats; healthcare; kennedy; limbaugh
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1 posted on 08/29/2009 3:30:54 AM PDT by Scanian
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To: Scanian
He cracked jokes about Chappaquidick and Mary Jo's death.

In answering the question, "what would Teddy do?", well, then, allllllrighty, let's break out the Dead (Ted) Kennedy jokes.

2 posted on 08/29/2009 3:33:58 AM PDT by AmericanInTokyo (When reality hits us that it's not "Incompetence" but rather "Intentional", what are we going to do?)
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To: Scanian

“Rule one: Never allow a crisis to go to waste,”

Ernst Röhm Emanuel

Ballerina, Pantywaist, White House Chief of Staff

3 posted on 08/29/2009 3:36:59 AM PDT by Vaquero ("an armed society is a polite society" Robert A. Heinlein)
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To: Scanian

Let us not forget Teddy Kennedy at his finest:

As soon as his cancer was detected, I noticed the immediate attempt at the “canonization” of old Teddy Kennedy by the mainstream media. They are saying what a “great American” he is. I say, let’s get a couple things clear ¬ twist the facts to change the real history.

1. He was caught cheating at Harvard when he attended it. He was expelled twice, once for cheating on a test, and once for paying a classmate to cheat for him.

2. While expelled, Kennedy enlisted in the Army, but mistakenly signed up for four years instead of two. Oops! The man can’t count to four! His father, Joseph P. Kennedy, former U.S. Ambassador to England (a step up from bootlegging liquor into the US from Canada during prohibition), pulled the necessary strings to have his enlistment shortened to two years, and to ensure that he served in Europe, not Korea , where a war was raging. No preferential treatment for him! (like he charged that President Bush received).

3. Kennedy was assigned to Paris , never advanced beyond the rank of Private, and returned to Harvard upon being discharged. Imagine a person of his “education” NEVER advancing past the rank of Private!

4. While attending law school at the University of Virginia, he was cited for reckless driving four times, including once when he was clocked driving 90 miles per hour in a residential neighborhood with his headlights off after dark. Yet his Virginia driver’s license was never revoked. Coincidentally, he passed the bar exam in 1959. Amazing!

5. In 1964, he was seriously injured in a plane crash and hospitalized for several months. Test results done by the hospital at the time he was admitted had shown he was legally intoxicated. The results of those tests remained a “state secret” until in the 1980’s when the report was unsealed Didn’t hear about that from the unbiased media, did we?

6. On July 19, 1969, Kennedy attended a party on Chappaquiddick Island in Massachusetts . At about 11:00 PM, he borrowed his chauffeur’s keys to his Oldsmobile limousine and offered to give a ride home to Mary Jo Kopechne, a campaign worker. Leaving the island via an unlit bridge with no guardrail, Kennedy steered the car off the bridge, flipped, and into Poucha Pond.

7. He swam to shore and walked back to the party passing several houses and a fire station. Two friends then returned with him to the scene of the accident. According to their later testimony, they told him what he already knew - that he was required by law to immediately report the accident to the authorities. Instead Kennedy made his way to his hotel, called his lawyer, and went to sleep. Kennedy called the police the next morning and by then the wreck had already been discovered. Before dying Kopechne had

scratched at the upholstered floor above her head in the upside-down car. The Kennedy family began “calling in favors”, ensuring that any inquiry would be contained Her corpse was whisked out-of-state to her family before an autopsy could be conducted.

Further details are uncertain, but after the accident Kennedy says he repeatedly dove under the water trying to rescue Kopechne and he didn’t call police because he was in a state of shock. It is widely assumed Kennedy was drunk, and he held off calling police in

hopes that his family could fix the problem overnight. Since the accident Kennedy’s “political enemies” have referred to him as the distinguished Senator from Chappaquiddick.

He pleaded guilty to leaving the scene of an accident, and was given a SUSPENDED

SENTENCE OF TWO MONTHS. Kopechne’s family received a small payout from the Kennedy’s insurance policy and never sued. There was later an effort to have her body exhumed and autopsied, but her family successfully fought against this in court, and Kennedy’s family paid their attorney’s bills.... a “token of friendship”?

8. Kennedy has held his Senate seat for more than forty years, but considering his longevity, his accomplishments seem scant. He authored or argued for legislation that ensured a variety of civil rights, increased the minimum wage in 1981, made access to health care easier for the indigent, funded Meals on Wheels for fixed-income seniors, and is widely held as the “standard-bearer for liberalism”. In his very first Senate roll he was the floor manager for the bill that turned U.S. immigration policy upside down and opened the floodgate for immigrants from third world countries..

9. Since that time, he has been the prime instigator and author of every expansion of an increase in immigration up to and including the latest attempt to grant amnesty to illegal aliens. Not to mention the pious grilling he gave the last two Supreme Court nominees, as if he was the standard bearer for the nation. What a pompous ass!

10. He is known around Washington as a public drunk, loud, boisterous, and very disrespectful to ladies. JERK is a better description than “great American”. “A blonde in every pond” is his motto.

11. In anticipation of his demise, his latest antic is to give the governor of Massachusetts the power to appoint his replacement to the Senate. Ironically, it was he who lead the successful movement to deny the Governor that power five years ago when Senator John Kerry was a presidential candidate and Mitt Romney was Governor....Yep,

He’s all about fair play!

Let’s not allow the spin doctors to make this jerk a hero — how quickly the American public forgets what his real legacy is.


4 posted on 08/29/2009 3:44:16 AM PDT by chainsaw (If you think health care is expensive now, wait until you see what it costs when it's free! -- P.J..)
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To: chainsaw

May he rot in hell.


5 posted on 08/29/2009 3:49:49 AM PDT by Lockbar (March toward the sound of the guns.)
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To: Vaquero

Just look at the expression on that little girl’s face...
What a disgusting man.


6 posted on 08/29/2009 3:50:36 AM PDT by FES0844
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To: chainsaw

7 posted on 08/29/2009 3:57:16 AM PDT by Vaquero ("an armed society is a polite society" Robert A. Heinlein)
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To: Scanian

Ted Kennedy’s death was the very best day of my life.


8 posted on 08/29/2009 3:58:11 AM PDT by Lazamataz (It's Claire Wolfe Time.)
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To: AmericanInTokyo; Scanian
I suspect that they'll be disappointed to discover that the currency of the Kennedy name purchases far less than it once did -- thanks in large part to what Ted Kennedy did with it

That's my feeling, too, although I don't think the Dems are particularly bothered by what he did with it. He was obviously a bully and full of himself, and I suspect that there were some of his legislative colleagues who were more afraid of him than fond of him and that this was why he had such great influence. He can't do anything to them now, and I imagine that some of them are breathing a sigh of relief.

And as for the rest of America...well, there are a couple of generations to whom the name simply doesn't mean anything (anywhere outside of Massachusetts).

9 posted on 08/29/2009 4:02:25 AM PDT by livius
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To: chainsaw

your post goes to show one important thing. Just how many decades the media has been in the tank for lib’s. Had they hounded him the way they hounded conservatives we might have been spared his buffoonish presence for many years.


10 posted on 08/29/2009 4:03:09 AM PDT by wiggen (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WayzmX0WQvg)
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To: Scanian; shibumi
This was a most disgusting man. And even more disgusting were his accomplices and his enablers, his family and the MSM.

May they all R.I.P.T.

(Reside In Perpetual Torment)

11 posted on 08/29/2009 4:12:58 AM PDT by Semper Mark (ObamaCare was exemplified in the last days of the life of his white grandmother.)
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To: chainsaw

EXCELLENT. Great work. Brilliant. Very useful. I may swipe elements of it (heads up!) ;-) if you dont mind....


12 posted on 08/29/2009 4:26:49 AM PDT by AmericanInTokyo (When reality hits us that it's not "Incompetence" but rather "Intentional", what are we going to do?)
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To: AmericanInTokyo

American - I did not write that. It came to me in an email. But as fr as I knew, it iwas all true so I shared it with all on FR. There was no credit on the email that I could find.


13 posted on 08/29/2009 4:31:16 AM PDT by chainsaw (If you think health care is expensive now, wait until you see what it costs when it's free! -- P.J..)
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To: wiggen
When you hear the funeral and all the eulogies,

and words--from Democrat and RINO alike--such as

"he stood for social justice", and "he was a man of compassion" and "he helped those with no voice" or "he was on the side of civil rights"....

think of all of these...

juxtaposed with...

the image of that young girl in the car scraching the inside roof trying to get out...and think about how empty and dripping with untruth their silly words are.

And turn on the Cartoon Channel.


14 posted on 08/29/2009 4:33:50 AM PDT by AmericanInTokyo (When reality hits us that it's not "Incompetence" but rather "Intentional", what are we going to do?)
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To: Scanian

Show me Byrd’s location breathing ability, throw in his geographical location (heck, the hospital), a little video with a current life styles video and I’ll believe anything else he has supposedly said.


15 posted on 08/29/2009 4:44:44 AM PDT by torchthemummy (Sam opens bar late: "If the Post Office ran its business like yours...never mind." - Cliff Clavin)
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To: AmericanInTokyo

its astounding isn’t it how libs of any party line can compartmentalize,ignoring what would have,justly,put a poorer man away in prison?
We saw the same with Clinton who was a user of women yet had so many fem groups backing him.
These people that isolate the man from his deeds have no moral compass at all. This is why they support abortion. This is why they were able to call for a pullout from Iraq as if the cleansing that occurred in Vietnam after we left never happened.
Its what i want,its what i want now,its no matter who gets hurt so long as i get get what i want. now. me. i count. nobody matter unless they agree with me.


16 posted on 08/29/2009 4:45:50 AM PDT by wiggen (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WayzmX0WQvg)
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To: chainsaw

It looks you need more space. That barely scratches the surface of the treacherous dealings of Teddy.


17 posted on 08/29/2009 4:54:14 AM PDT by Steamburg ( Your wallet speaks the only language most politicians understand.)
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To: Vaquero

OK, that can’t possibly be a real ad... can it?


18 posted on 08/29/2009 4:58:56 AM PDT by GOP_Party_Animal
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To: wiggen

I have been spending time this week watching old videotapes saved by my mother. Yesterday I saw a McLaughlin report during the 1992 presidential election campaign. The panelists were Mort Kondracke, Fred Barnes, Eleanor Clift and Jack Germond.

Discussing a fax that Mary Matalin, of the Bush campaign, had sent around to news outlets about Clinton and “Bimbo Eruptions”, one of them said “I can’t believe the way the press has been rolling over for Clinton.”

Also, they showed a Bush campaign ad where he said “Everyone wants Change, but change must be guided by principle.”

They panned the ad, all agreeing that if Bush continued to campaign on Clinton’s character, he would lose.


19 posted on 08/29/2009 5:02:21 AM PDT by maica (Politics is not about facts. it is about what politicians can get people to believe. - Thomas Sowell)
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To: chainsaw

Kennedy was also married and the father of three little children when he was fooling around with Mary Jo.

Mark Sanford, gov. of SC, philanderer father of four boys, is not long for his job.

No one ever mentions that Ted had three young children at home when he was out “partying”.


20 posted on 08/29/2009 5:07:11 AM PDT by maica (Politics is not about facts. it is about what politicians can get people to believe. - Thomas Sowell)
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