Posted on 09/03/2009 6:06:25 PM PDT by steven33442
WASHINGTON – Sen. Edward M. Kennedy said in a new book that he was not romantically involved with young Mary Jo Kopechne and that he never escaped the despair he felt after she died in the 1969 car crash that has been seared into the national consciousness as "Chappaquiddick." He acknowledged that he enjoyed women and drink — sometimes too much so — but said reports of wild Kennedy excesses were exaggerated. Yet it was the specter of Chappaquiddick that Edward Kennedy, the youngest brother, never could shake. "That night on Chappaquiddick Island ended in a horrible tragedy that haunts me every day of my life," Kennedy wrote in a memoir, "True Compass," to be published posthumously on Sept. 14. The Massachusetts senator died last week at 77 following a yearlong battle with brain cancer. Kennedy said his Catholic faith helped sustain him as he wrestled with guilt over the events of July 18, 1969, when he drove a car off a bridge into a pond on the tiny island. His own anguish, he said, paled in comparison with the suffering endured by Kopechne's family.
Amid the regrets, Kennedy asserted his zest for what he considered to be the good life, but he mocked the exaggerated reports of his personal excesses. "I have enjoyed the company of women," he wrote. Kennedy drove off a bridge into a pond. He swam to safety, leaving Kopechne in the car. Kopechne, 28, a former worker with Robert Kennedy's campaign, was found dead in the submerged car's back seat 10 hours later. Kennedy, then 37, pleaded guilty to leaving the scene of an accident and got a suspended sentence and probation.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Remember this FRiends...Fat ol’ Teddy Boy met his Maker last week, he can’t lie to Him. Not to judge, but for all we know he is in a very hot place right now....and I don’t mean a tropical beach.
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He had about as much honest regret as Clinton had about Monica. There was never contrition, only disappointment at having gotten caught. In Ted’s delusonal mind, this prevented him from becoming president and it was something that he couldn’t blame on anyone else.
“he could never escape the dispair” about the accident. Hmm, seems if he were really sorry about it, he’d not have waited overnight to tell someone, or better yet, he’d have saved her himself. It’s between him and God now. I trust completely that justice has been done.
I would think not.
It would certainly have doomed his chances to be a Democrat candidate for President.
Also we must not forget, by taking the moral low road, Ted provided a template to a young Billy J. Clinton about how to structure his life.
I am not sure why Teddy didn’t want to run in 1968 or 1972, as he would have been handed the Democrat nomination for the asking.
Of 1976 , for that matter.
That dead old dog just insists on getting in the last word.
Well, if he “made his peace” with God...only to throw in a bucket of lies at the end...It’d suck to be him!
“and that he never escaped the despair he felt after she died in the 1969 car crash that has been seared into the national consciousness as ‘Chappaquiddick.’”
Not enough to shy away from public life, or to get behind the anti-drunk driving movement, or not to run for president or anything. But he never escaped it nonetheless.
It’s interesting that his memoir is being published posthumously. People with much less fame and place in history have written memoirs much earlier in their lives.
I wonder how long this one had been in the works, or if he had begun writing it before he learned of his brain tumor?
I don’t think Ted and Mary Jo had an big time affair. I do think Ted was hoping to get lucky when he left the party with her and headed for the beach...
OK, time to start my internet rumor that Ted really died on July 18th (40th anniversary of Chappaquiddik), but they kept him on ice until they needed his death to promote the health care bill.
That’s my story, and I’m sticking to it!
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