Dumb as a stone ...
Posted on 08/30/2009 3:25:22 AM PDT by Scanian
In all the obits published and specials aired this week, Chappaquiddick gets a few paragraphs, a few minutes, a tidy recapping of the events of July 19, 1969: The married Ted Kennedy, driving late at night with young campaign aide Mary Jo Kopechne, pitches off a bridge and into the water below. He escapes; she drowns. He does not report the accident for 10 hours. He pleads guilty and gets a suspended sentence, two months in jail.
In most of these narratives, Chappaquiddick is told as Ted's tragedy, the thing that kept him from ever becoming president. And in these narratives, he is chastened, goes on to make amends through a life of public service, advocating for the disadvantaged and the downtrodden -- and, especially, women. No one's perfect, right?
But how is it that so many women unabashedly revere Kennedy today? The particulars of Chappaquiddick are especially gory; his behavior after the accident approaches the amoral. Once he broke free and swam to the surface, Kennedy said that he dove back down seven or eight times to rescue Kopechne. Failing, he swam back to shore and checked back into his hotel, and a short time later lodged a noise complaint with the desk clerk. The people in the room next to his were partying and it was interfering with his sleep. Then he asked the desk clerk for the time.
According to the Aug. 4, 1969 edition of Newsweek, that clerk, Russell E. Peachey, told Kennedy it was 2:25 a.m., then asked, "Is there anything else I can do for you?"
"No, thank you," Kennedy replied.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
(Mark Steyn inspired a new tagline for me)
“Ted Kennedy went a different route. He got kitted out with a neck brace and went on TV and announced the invention of the ‘Kennedy curse,’ a concept that yoked him to his murdered brothers as a fellow victim — and not, as Mary Jo perhaps realized in those final hours, the perpetrator. He dared us to call his bluff, and, when we didn’t, he made all of us complicit in what he’d done. We are all prey to human frailty, but few of us get to inflict ours on an entire nation…
The senator’s actions in the hours and days after emerging from that pond tell us something ugly about Kennedy the man. That he got away with it tells us something ugly about American public life.”
Ah, yes, the hype. Football star! Military man!
About that football, from the Harvard Crimson:
"Kennedy was a noted member of Harvard's football team during his college career, scoring the only Harvard touchdown in the Harvard-Yale Game his senior year. He turned down an offer of interest from the Green Bay Packers, instead opting to attend law school at the University of Virginia."
Even the Crimson can't get away with calling him a "star." He was "noted," which means he was a Kennedy, and by golly, Harvard better have him on the football team! And that touchdown is apparently the only highlight of his "star" status. No other stats, just that one touchdown, quoted over and over again. And, yeah, I'm sure the Packers were drooling over him, and he had dreams of playing pro ball. (Rolls eyes).
And that manly-man military service? Also from the Crimson:
At the end of his freshman year, Kennedy was suspended after having another student take a Spanish exam in his place. He spent the next two years serving in the U.S. Army as a military policeman in Paris before re-enrolling at Harvard in the fall of 1953.
Translation: he was kicked out of Harvard, and ol' Joe figured now's a good time to add military service to his CV, as long as the spoiled brat doesn't have to actually see combat, and disgrace himself and his family legend. Voila! An MP in Paris! (With no disrespect intended to those vets who may have wound up in similar assignments without a Joe Kennedy pulling the strings.)
Yeah, like men never vote for democrats, right?
What does "broke free" mean?:
1. Did Kennedy exit via the door or the window?
2. Was the door or window open when the car was discovered?
3. If so, how is is that Kennedy was able to escape and Ms. Kopechne was not?
of course they do — but it’s the block of women that puts it over the top.
yes, men did. Now subtract all the women who voted for him in a block — all because of abortion. He wouldn’t have won.
And there were plenty of women who voted for McCain. By your logic, blacks and minorities shouldn’t be allowed to vote either because they vote more consistently for democrats than women do.
You raise an intersting point — how can we have democracy when we have an entire population delivered en mass as a voting block —
Because that is democracy, unfettered mob rule. What we’re losing is our Republic.
Dumb as a stone ...
You didn’t say anything much, you just said it with a sneer as though a sneer is substantive.
How powerful do you think a Kennedy was in 1955 do you think the other families of Harvard students then were just ordinary folk that were totally impressed with the Kennedy family of 1955?
Very.
You really do need to brush up on history. Joseph Kennedy, Sr., by 1955, was a Harvard grad himself, and a very wealthy and powerful man. Google it.
I know my history and just how unique do you think that Ted’s pedigree was among the Harvard students and alumni in the early 50s? I doubt that the school was in awe of what was not it’s first student from a rich, somewhat powerful family in it’s more than 300 year history at that point.
This reminds me of people that think that George W. Bush was a giant among the world of yalies in 1964 because his dad was a President.
you’re right. Sarted with Reconstruction and reached its peak with the 19th amendement.
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