Posted on 02/04/2010 9:25:50 PM PST by GOPsterinMA
The Kennedy political dynasty is shaking in the aftershock of U.S. Sen. Scott Browns earth-shattering election, with a new poll showing U.S. Rep. Patrick Kennedy losing ground as he faces a well-financed GOP foe backed by Browns top strategists.
The WPRI-12 poll showed the Rhode Island Democrat with a 56 percent unfavorability rating in his district - a negative that grows to 62 percent statewide.
Only 35 percent of voters in Kennedys district said they would vote to re-elect him. Another 31 percent said theyd consider a different candidate and 28 percent said they would vote to replace him, according to the poll.
Republican John J. Loughlin II, a veteran state lawmaker, formally announced his campaign yesterday against Kennedy, saying the son of liberal icon Edward M. Kennedy is out of touch with Rhode Island voters as he seeks a ninth two-year term
Great news! Great thread!
Added bonus: English Composition 101
“Even the dang Precedent can’t properly pronounce the word corpsman, and he’s supposedly “highly” educated!”
I agree with the gist of your post, but the “Precedent?” To lecture about being “ill about the general level of English spelling, punctuation, and grammar,” and to butcher the word “President” in the same post is pretty funny. I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt for being tired.
I think all is about right except for your very first statement — Prohibition began when the 18th Amendment took effect in 1920. While Kennedy had enjoyed some modest financial success to date, His first major fortune was made in the 1920s, during Prohibition — although most of his fortune (as you noted) came first from his shady stock market dealings, and later from his investments in Hollywood, oil etc.
re: Prohibition and the 1920s
I’m pretty sure his major fortunes were made first with stock market manipulations and then as he re-invested funds in Hollywood, oil, and real estate.
Not sure he ever made much money from alchol before the 1930s, once it had become legal again. The bootlegging has been a rumor, maybe a “legend” — but I don’t know of anything which has emerged about his life in the 1920s that suggests he was in the bootlegging biz. Certainly he became a major successful importer of whiskey and gin in the 1930s, but for all his other faults I’m not sure that the “bootlegger” label has really been pinned on him with any evidence (although maybe he just covered his tracks well since it was illegal).
SHAKE!
Joe was a great stock manipulator too plus he had the movie studio and booze. They manipulated the crash just like.....2008... gave FDR’s tyranny...which someone else is following the same play book.
Did they bootleg with the slimy Seagrams clan up in Canada?
Sounds like karma came back on Joe. Truly evil man and also a famous stock manipulator pre 1929 crash.
Joseph P. Kennedy
Father of President Kennedy, banker, financier, diplomat. Chairman, Securities and Exchange Commission (1934-1937); Chairman, Maritime Commission (1937); Ambassador to Great Britain (1938-1940).
http://www.jfklibrary.org/Historical+Resources/Archives/Archives+and+Manuscripts/Kennedy.Joseph+P
Joseph P. Kennedy was the ambitious son of a prosperous Boston saloon keeper and ward boss. He married the mayor’s daughter, went to Harvard, and generally made the most of his ample connections and talent. He ran a bank (admittedly two-bit) at 25, and was number-two man at a shipyard with more than 2,000 workers during World War I. At 30 he became a stockbroker and made a fortune through insider trading and stock manipulation. He was a master of the stock pool, a then-legal stunt in which a few traders conspired to inflate a stock’s price, selling out just before the bubble burst.
Kennedy may also have traded in illegal booze, although the evidence is circumstantial. His father had been in the liquor business before Prohibition, and Joe himself got into it (publicly, that is) immediately after repeal. Some believe the family business simply went underground during the dry years. He may have been strictly a nickle-and-dimer; Harvard classmates say he supplied the illicit booze for alumni events.
But there might have been more to it than that. In 1973 mob boss Frank Costello said he and Kennedy had been bootlegging partners. Other underworld figures have also claimed Joe was in pretty deep. At least one writer (Davis, 1984) thinks bootlegging enabled Joe to earn his initial financial stake, but that’s hard to believe; he had plenty of chances to make money more or less legally.
http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/716/what-is-the-true-source-of-the-kennedy-familys-wealth
I always spell President as Precedent when speaking of Obama.
I have never, and will not ever grace him with the proper appellation for that office.
Yes, yes, yes. LOL
When giving examples to students, it's always best to use scenarios that are as close to reality as possible. The concepts communicate better that way, you know.
Heh...
It make’s me ill, two!
As doe’s the Precedent.
(I got it.)
Yup. Sad. I do not like Oliver Stone but the info in the movie about the odd things and hobos and witeness harassed were mentioned in the film.
I still wonder who it was. The end result after that is the Vietnam War made a lot of contractors and people in Texas wealthy. Texas had a lot of defense firms. No one got richer than LBJ. He was the second wealthiest after GEo Washington. Washington inflation adjusted was a billionaire due to land holdings.
LBJ was a major shareholder in Brown and Root which became part of Halliburton. B&R did tons of work in SE Asia. Johnson fence company had the contract for all fences in SE Asia.
The Mafia was also pissed off cause the Kennedy’s double crossed them and Bobby was harassing them. Sinatra raged at JFK ending their relationship after they one. Castro or Cuban anti communist. I had read the sharp shooters were French. Why French? LBJ promise to bail our France in IndoChina. Wasn’t Vietnam largely about rubber plantations?
well that’s pretty thin so far as any potential fortune made from bootlegging..... I don’t doubt that he would have felt free to do whatever he wanted with illegal booze so long as he didn’t get caught, but supplying Harvard classmates etc. is not going to provide the Kennedy fortune....
all I’m saying is that (1) there is not much reason to believe that his major fortune came from bootlegging, and (2) there are plenty of well established reasons to detest him: all sorts of unethical business and investing practices, virulent anti-Semitism and Nazi sympathies among the most notable.....
“Of course, there’s still Schwarzenegger in California... “
Not for long.
Thanks. I really don't intend to come off as being cross. Everyone's got their pet peeves, and one of mine is the mangling of the language.
Normally, I just let it pass, but I guess I'm just tired. I'm hanging up my English teacher hat for the evening. ;-)
I recall when he said he didn’t need a tax cut cause he’s never worked a day in his life (drunken honesty? he claims it was satire). I hope he needs employment as of January.
Thank you! Cheering for the good guys is nice, but I will send cash too ... to every conservative who is competitive to remove a socialist.
This is huge - a Kennedy possibly ousted in Rhode Island? The Dems are facing an electoral tsunami in November and don't even know it.
I am getting pretty old now - a grammy now!- born and bred, Irish Catholic, in Boston. I can tell you, I am about sick to DEATH of the Kennedys. I started loathing them when I was just a kid and can’t stand them even more now. Only in America, can a family of murderers, rapists, con artists and liars get rich on mob money and buy their way into politics.
May they ROT.
"well-financed" = nefarious, corrupt
"foe" = enemy, adversary, 'one of THEM'
"top strategists" = sneaky, sinister, smoke-filled back room cheaters
Nope, no bias there. Honest, straight-up factual reporting!
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