He and his twin brother Matthew Rauch Kennedy (brother’s middle name is same as the surname for their birth mother,
Sheila Rauch; their dad tried to get the Catholic church to
annul the marriage) were both born in 1980, indeed. His brother was burned by some fireworks (illegal) lit off by his arrogant father. Boston talk host Howie Carr plays a clip from
the Godfather—the scene where Moe Green angrily confronts
Michael Corleone: “DO YOU KNOW WHO I AM?” — to represent
Joe Kennedy II’s anger and sense of entitlement.
So far Joe III* hasn’t been in trouble; no drunken driving
situations involving drowning, no affairs with 14 yr old
babysitters, no rape charges, etc.
*—the lad should be Joe IV but the Kennedys somehow screwed it up. The patriarch was “Joe Sr.”, the one who died in WW II was “Joe Jr” (should have been Joe II);
RFK’s son is “Joe II” (should be Joe III) and he is
“Joe III” but should be Joe IV. For several years his dad,
now about 60 yrs old and white haired, has run TV ads for
Citizen’s Energy, heating oil provided by “the good people of Venezuela” (i.e., Chavez).
“Joe II”’s brother Michael also used to work for Citizens
Energy, as did Michael Skakel, nephew of Ethel Skakel
Kennedy (RFK’s wife). Michael Skakel of course is in prison now for Martha Moxley’s murder with a golf club, and I think it was Michael Skakel who spilled the beans about
Michael Kennedy’s affair with the 14 yr old babysitter...later Michael Kennedy would die when he skiied into a tree when the family was playing ski-touch-football.
Irony #1: Michael Skakel married a...golf pro (this after
the situation of beating Martha to death with a golf club).
Irony #2: Michael Skakel would also work driving Ted Kennedy...this despite that fact that Skakel, like Ted,
had a bit of a problem with the bottle.
What a fun family...we in MA can’t wait for more. (Better yet, let’s hope someone can beat him should he declare.
Sean Bielat, who ran against Barney Frank in ‘10 and put a good scare into him, has declared I believe and so has
a woman named Elizabeth Childs, IIRC, both GOP)
(regarding the whole deal with Kennedys and suffixes to names,
in the “Talk” section of Wikipedia’s entry on Joe II—the
almost 60 yr old son of RFK—it says that Joe Jr’s death in
WW II resulted in RFK’s son moving up from being considered Joe III to being called Joe II; or, as I have thought, it may have to do with not being in a direct line. Joe II is the son of RFK, not the son of Joe Jr (who never lived to have kids IIRC). Similarly “Joe III” isn’t called Joe IV for that same
reason.
Whatever.)