Might add for those 'rising generations'; you may be less familiar as to how this tragedy unfolded. This event followed Ted Kennedy like a dark spectre; because he never honestly dealt with it. - not then; not ever. 'Teddy's choice' that night; remains a 'wound' in the public consciousness' of those who still remember. As for 'the Left'; and by turn; for subsequent Generations; there is the orchestrated 'blurring of details'; that passes as the the 'rewrite of record' that the Kennedy's carefully scripted.
[For those young and uninitiated to this story; it was not a death from the accident per se; and by all medical/scientific accounts; Ms. Kopechne would not have died, had Ted gotten help; in 'emergency' fashion. ]
Best synopis available: Read here: http://www.peoplesfreepress.com/HTM%20folder/ted_kennedy_accident_chappaquidd.htm
Many places on the net. Even FBI files.