Getting Mean and Distinctly Ugly (Free Republic Dissed as 'Chappaquiddick-Type people')

The Ottawa Citizen ^ | Friday, August 28, 2009 | Janice Kennedy

[kristinn]

Two kinds of people reacted to news of Ted Kennedy’s death last week. The first — not all liberals, either — spoke of Kennedy’s hard work in the United States Senate, his dream of universal healthcare, his commitment to working people, civil rights and equality.

This “most imperfect man,” wrote analyst William Bradley, was also a powerful advocate for progressive principles. Barack Obama predictably (though accurately) observed that “for America, he was a defender of a dream.” In another variation on the visionary theme, Joe Biden said of his old friend, “He was never small.”

The other kind of reaction to Kennedy’s death could be summed up in one word: “Chappaquiddick.”

Not “vision” or “health-care reform,” not “peacemaking” or even “Camelot.” Just the controversial 40-year-old event, the ugliest single moment from the late senator’s 77 years on Earth, nearly 47 of them in public service. The small souls who spend their days hanging out in discussion forums at Free Republic, one of the U.S ultra-right’s more popular online homes, greeted news of Kennedy’s death characteristically, flinging around words like “traitor,” “coward,” “disgrace”— and, yes, references to the 1969 event. Chappaquiddick minds in a narrow, ungenerous world.

But the Chappaquiddick faction is not limited to either the United States or the senior senator from Massachusetts. It’s a state of mind, a summation of everything that is small and cribbed and contemptible — not unlike the sour (and embarrassing) one-line statement of perfunctory condolence on Wednesday from our own prime minister.

Chappaquiddick-type people possess a meanness of spirit that goes beyond simple politics. They’re responsible for a creeping diminution of vision and values. In Canada, which used to appreciate largeness of soul, they even have a government platform, thanks to Stephen Harper and company.

Consider the dramatic case of Guantanamo detainee Omar Khadr, picked up by the U.S. military in Afghanistan at 15, or child-soldier age. When Harper’s government announced last week it would appeal — again — a ruling that it demand the Canadian-born Khadr’s repatriation, lawyer Dennis Edney said he wasn’t surprised. “We are used to this mean-spirited approach.”

But this government’s disgraceful stand on Khadr — the only Western detainee still in Guantanamo — is just part of it. The limited worldview, the impulse toward whatever is most ungenerous, is how it operates.

SNIP

[outhousepatrol]

“He was never small.” No, he never was, ASK THE WAITRESS in the middle of the SANDWICH!

[dirtboy]

She has that ugly-stick liberal look.

And I'm not talking about basic physical attractiveness. I am talking about the soulless eyes and the brain-dead demeanor that comes from a lifetime of crafting moral equivalence and twisting logic into knots.

[FreeReign]

First of all, where were these comments when the left was making their disgusting comments about Reagan and Alzheimer’s, or Charleston Heston, or when Letterman made those comments about Sarah Palin’s daughter, or when they made egregious comments about how America brought 911 on itself?

Janice Kennedy has made some comments of her own about Sarah Palin calling her regrettable, dumb, dimwitted, Machiavellian, dishonest, malicious, ruthless, a megalomaniac and explosive of her family.

Janice Kennedy says there are two types of people who like Palin:

" Type One is the sweaty-faced, beer-swilling redneck in a pickup (complete with mounted gun rack), nostalgic for the greatness of the U.S. of A. before they let all the damned foreigners in. He's a good ol' boy, his female counterpart a Tammy Wynette variation on same. The other ultraright stereotype -- and you can't imagine both in the same room, though they do cast the same ballots -- is his social antithesis. Type Two is the educated, scotch-drinking (single malt), well-to-do promoter of the free market and the closed mind, a man who prizes his own freedom and sneers at efforts by the drooling masses -- the unchosen -- to achieve that same freedom. Politically, he secures his spot at the table of privilege by playing to the fears and ignorance of Type One. There's a touch of Newt Gingrich about him, and his female counterpart is the woman who can reproduce Ann Coulter's trademark smirk. What Type Two does so well is lie, tossing out egregiously untrue but highly inflammatory statements, then standing back to see what havoc they can wreak, especially when the Type Ones take them up and run with them. Obama's nefarious health scheme would be one such firebomb."

link

Janice Kennedy objects to Freepers criticizing Ted Kennedy, but she has no problems trashing people that she disagrees with.

Janice Kennedy I think sounds like a hypocrite and a dumb-ass.

[TxAnn56]

The diver, John Farrar, later testified at the inquest that Kopechne’s body was pressed up in the car in the spot where an air bubble would have formed. He interpreted this to mean that Kopechne had survived for a while after the initial accident in the air bubble, and concluded that “had I received a call within five to ten minutes of the accident occurring, and was able, as I was the following morning, to be at the victim’s side within twenty-five minutes of receiving the call, in such event there is a strong possibility that she would have been alive on removal from the submerged car.”

Yeah, principles alright. Let’s not forget the floorboard that was damaged in her attempt to get out while the revered senator slept it off.

[fanfan]

Well, Janice?

 

We know you are lurking. Would you like to discuss the subject?

 

Perhaps you're afraid you would lose the debate?

 

Do you stand behind your words, or not?

 

 

[1000 silverlings]

Here's what she really thinks of us and our small souls from another column

"I should explain that, for ease of discussion, the two "sides" I'm referring to on the ultraright -- the Palin dumbness lovers and the Palin shrewdness lovers -- are actually stereotypes. Type One is the sweaty-faced, beer-swilling redneck in a pickup (complete with mounted gun rack), nostalgic for the greatness of the U.S. of A. before they let all the damned foreigners in. He's a good ol' boy, his female counterpart a Tammy Wynette variation on same.

The other ultraright stereotype -- and you can't imagine both in the same room, though they do cast the same ballots -- is his social antithesis. Type Two is the educated, scotch-drinking (single malt), well-to-do promoter of the free market and the closed mind, a man who prizes his own freedom and sneers at efforts by the drooling masses -- the unchosen -- to achieve that same freedom. Politically, he secures his spot at the table of privilege by playing to the fears and ignorance of Type One. There's a touch of Newt Gingrich about him, and his female counterpart is the woman who can reproduce Ann Coulter's trademark smirk.

[dfwgator]

Hitler was for Universal Health Care too.

[FreeReign]

Where was this journalist witch when Palin and her family were being smeared?

The "journalist" witch was part of the smearing of Palin.

[parsifal]

Mean Spirited? I wrote an Ode to Teddy Kennedy, last night.

Ode to Teddy Kennedy
by parsifal of Free Republic

Hail to thee, O Tedster !
Heir and wealthy scion.
If thou couldst not win a race,
Thy family wouldst buy one.

Some might deem thee pantywaist.
Things are not as they seem.
Thou went to Harvard and Thou playst
Upon the football team.

Thou hadst a little trouble
With a foreign language lexicon
Thou hadst a friend go take the test.
(Thou could never could speak Mexican.)

Harvard, it didst chunk Thee out
And tho Thou parted friends.
Harvard would not let Thee back
Until Thou made amends.

Nineteen fifty one it was,
The Army it didst need Thee.
Thou enlisted and Thou served
And got out in fifty three.

Back to Harvard, Thou didst go,
And got Thee re-admitted
Thou did not cheat like once before
Thou fought and never quitted.

It was the day of the Big Game
Harvard versus Yale class
While Yale won by two touchdowns
Thou caught a touchdown pass!

The Green Bay Packers wanted Thou.
The scout, he had a feeling.
Thou turned them down and toldest them
Law School was more appealing.

From that point on, thy course was set
Fie Football! Up with Rhetoric!
Thus Thou ran for Senator
And never left the Politic.

The “Road Not Taken” sure applies.
We wouldst not curse thy name.
If instead of Senator, Thou wert
In the Football Hall of Fame.

parsy, who knows this is the third time he has put this in a thread, but I was proud of finding a rhyme for “lexicon”

[HereInTheHeartland]

“Chappaquiddick minds in a narrow, ungenerous world. “

Maybe that has something to do with Ted never expressing remorse.

Or, get this; (a very conservative idea) not taking accountability for a terrible wrong that he committed.

Yes we are very narrow minded. Character should matter in a United States Senator.

Leaving a a young woman to die ( and not even making a freaking phone call to save her????!!!!???) seems to us a very bad thing.

Had Ted apologized for Mary Jo's death, and tried to help her at the accident; I would guess most of us would have a very different opinion of him.

But Chappaquiddick can't just be “forgotten” because he is a Kennedy.

[fanfan]

Bio: Mary Jo Kopechne

[1000 silverlings]

Bravo!

[ColdWater]

Had Ted apologized for Mary Jo's death, and tried to help her at the accident; I would guess most of us would have a very different opinion of him.

Not I.

[Tax-chick]

The mean and distinctly ugly North Carolina State Forum has produced this limerick in a cooperative effort:

There once was a Senator from Nantucket
If he had liposuction, they’d need a big bucket
Chappaquidick, Waitress Sandwich, and a dog named Splash
Corrupt to the core, his gills stuffed with cash
When he croaked, most of the nation said “_ _ _ _ it”

(I composed the second line)

[rlmorel]

"...Nearly half of all vehicular homicides in MA are alcohol related ..."

Far be it for me to defend anything about Massachusetts in this environment, but is that really any different ANYWHERE else? We are only a little higher than Virgina in these 2006 statistics...

Drinking and driving fatalities by state in 2006 (ranked by highest number of alcohol related deaths):

State	Total Fatalities	Alcohol-Related Fatalities
		Number	Percent
Texas	3,466	1,544	45%
California	4,229	1,509	36%
Florida	3,363	1,111	33%
Pennsylvania	1,517	556	37%
Illinois	1,254	540	43%
Georgia	1,688	539	32%
Arizona	1,280	502	39%
North Carolina	1,558	490	31%
New York	1,454	483	33%
Tennessee	1,286	478	37%
South Carolina	1,037	477	46%
Missouri	1,087	469	43%
Ohio	1,235	451	37%
Alabama	1,206	445	37%
Louisiana	982	425	43%
Michigan	1,081	390	36%
Mississippi	911	358	39%
Wisconsin	722	352	49%
Virginia	961	347	36%
Indiana	896	290	32%
New Jersey	771	285	37%
Washington	630	269	43%
Kentucky	913	257	28%
Arkansas	665	245	37%
Oklahoma	765	243	32%
Maryland	651	235	36%
Colorado	533	207	39%
Oregon	477	177	37%
Minnesota	493	175	36%
Nevada	432	168	39%
Kansas	466	162	35%
Massachusetts	422	159	38%
New Mexico	484	155	32%
West Virginia	408	155	38%
Iowa	439	142	32%
Connecticut	301	121	40%
Montana	255	114	45%
Idaho	267	102	38%
Nebraska	266	86	32%
South Dakota	191	78	41%
Wyoming	195	78	40%
Hawaii	160	77	48%
Maine	188	70	37%
Utah	284	63	22%
New Hampshire	127	51	40%
Delaware	148	50	34%
North Dakota	111	47	42%
Rhode Island	81	37	46%
Vermont	86	28	33%
Alaska	73	23	31%
Dist of Columbia	37	14	36%
National	42,532	15,829	37%
Puerto Rico	507	176	35%

[Eddie01]

According to the website...
Ms. Kennedy’s Email

4janicekennedy@gmail.com

[Cheetahcat]

“Your post reminded me of the album by Toby Keith. White Trash With Money. That perfectly summed up Teddy.”

You are right that fits him well.

[FreeReign]

Lol. I guess it is worse to mention that the man was a murderer than to be an actual murderer.

Yes, to mention that Ted was a murderer makes one a murderer-type, using the Janice Kennedy characterization.

[Cheetahcat]

“Kennedy has never had a job. He was a parasite who lived off the taxpayers and daddy’s money.”

The worst of the worst he destroyed this country's immigration system and lowered the entire quality of life here for real Americans who have shed Blood sweat and tears for this place

[FreeReign]

To any rational mind, “Chappaquiddick-types” should mean people who run other people into a pond and leave them to die because they matter little when self-preservation is at stake. If this idiot thinks we who would hold those types accountable are “mean,” well then I’ll wear it proudly. “What a maroon.”

Yup, we are the “Chappaquiddick-types” to this twisted idiot.