It’s bad enough listening to the mainstream canonization of Ted Kennedy post mortem (David Shuster claims Ted never said a divisive thing in his life), but leave my favorite Western out of it.
The patriarch, Joseph P. Kennedy, spent a big part of his life in the movie business, so it’s fitting, perhaps, to quote from a film as we reflect on the family he built. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance opened in 1962, when John F. and Robert F. Kennedy ruled Washington and young Edward M. Kennedy was winning his first of nine U.S. Senate elections. It is the story of a decent, but entirely human, fellow whose fame doesn’t quite match the ambiguous facts of history. And there comes a point when the myth assumes a reality all its own. “This is the West, sir,” says a newspaper editor. “When the legend becomes fact, print the legend.”
The Kennedy family saga is an epic tangle of true legends and legendary truths. The father, with his bottomless checkbook and flair for p.r., cast his clan in flawless Carrara marble, more beautiful than human flesh – but in the long run, less compelling. To his younger children – especially the youngest, Ted – fell the difficult job of reconnecting a family of statues, dead icons, to the living and the vital and the real.
Time Magazine’s attempt at “bringing the myth down to Earth” does little to take Kennedy in full account. Despite leaving his girlfriend to rot in the car to save his political career, despite never owning up to it, despite living off the political capital of two dead brothers, despite his policies that led to the killing fields, despite 40 years of the welfare state, we’re still lionizing someone who was a wretched human being at best and a microcosm of corrupt government. Kennedy is the worst of American politics. Why the people of Massachusetts felt it their duty to heave this scourge upon the rest of us every six years is beyond the pale. To quote The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance – “That’s carrying democracy much too far.”
Myths and royalty come cheap these days. All it takes is a successful bootlegging operation, a few generations of elitist entitlement and a media willing to paint the picture – newspapers are hardly useful for news at the moment, but at least the last day or so they have provided some good laughs.
Ted might have gone early. In 1964 he was dragged, critically injured, from the wreckage of a plane crash. Had he died that day, he too would have remained forever young and dashing. No Chappaquiddick, no divorce, no boozy indiscretions. But also no antiapartheid campaign, no Americans with Disabilities Act, no Family and Medical Leave Act. Ted Kennedy survived to the ripe age of 77 and in the process brought the family saga full circle, back to the vital, urgent, messy clutch of the real. Back to America, a land of common people, not of princelings, where even our marble monuments celebrate lives molded from clay.
Lets remember Ted for his good intentions, no matter how many small businesses he killed along the way. They say the path to hell is paved with good intentions, yet politicians seldom have to walk that path – it’s the constituents who do, usually the ones least connected. The next thing Ted was ever held accountable for as a politician would be the first.
How appropriate that Obama’s draconian public takeover of health care is being renamed for Ted, a man who would never submit himself to government care with a gun to his head, but would have no problem foisting it on the rest of us.
Michael Kelly, perhaps the greatest conservative journalist of his generation, saw Ted much differently than Time Magazine. If you want to know a man, especially a politician, watch him when the camera is off. With Ted, the picture is clear.
As Gaviglio enters the room, the six-foot-two, 225-plus-pound Kennedy grabs the five-foot-three, 103-pound waitress and throws her on the table. She lands on her back, scattering crystal, plates and cutlery and the lit candles. Several glasses and a crystal candlestick are broken. Kennedy then picks her up from the table and throws her on Dodd, who is sprawled in a chair. With Gaviglio on Dodd’s lap, Kennedy jumps on top and begins rubbing his genital area against hers, supporting his weight on the arms of the chair. As he is doing this, Loh enters the room. She and Gaviglio both scream, drawing one or two dishwashers. Startled, Kennedy leaps up. He laughs. Bruised, shaken and angry over what she considered a sexual assault, Gaviglio runs from the room. Kennedy, Dodd and their dates leave shortly thereafter, following a friendly argument between the senators over the check.
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The nature of true power…
And Joseph P Kennedy was an evil human being. Foul.
Unfortunately not all legacies are good legacies.
With the media on his side this will all be washed away. If there is anything fortunate about this, its that the man’s “good intentions” were so shallow and his actual effect on legislation so tertiary that he will be all but forgotten in a few years.
I think all Threedonians need to participate in a little experiment. Lets right a glowing history of someone really despicable maybe Stalin or Mao. The challenge is to take the most horrid person you can and make them sound like a saint. Anyone up for that challenge?
Joe Kennedy was indeed loathsome. He was a Nazi sympathizer that had his daughter Rosemary lobotomized because, darn it, she was ruining too many cocktail parties with her willful attitude. Piss on Joe Kennedy, and piss on the media who continue to ‘print the legend’ at the expense of truth.
Let’s not forget Joe’s manipulation of the stock market and its impact on the ’29 crash.
Does anyone really even care? I mean, aside from the cathartic value of kvetching, the guy was a bad man, and he’s dead, and who really cares what his idiot supporters believe? Let them have their bottle, they’re clearly not dealing well with reality anyway.
They don’t make crappers big enough to flush turds like Teddyboy…good riddance.
Hope that senile old bastard Robert Byrdbrain isn’t far behind.
How bad were the Kennedy’s? VERY VERY BAD. Read The Dark Side of Camelot by Seymour M. Hirsh. Like Joe Kennedy, Ted let the bitch drown Kennedy, should have been hung for high treason. Now dig this and the last part of ho Kennedy admits Reagans economic policy’s worked and were the exact OPPOSITE of the Obamessiah that he mutuall loved and endorsed:
“kevincolby.com/2009/01/22/the-story-of-ted-kennedy-the-chappaquiddick-murderer/
bungalowbillscw.blogspot.com/2009/08/ted-kennedy-kgb-and-soviets-kgbs-ted.html?showComment=1251327051853#c6149374328511976940
“As KGB documents were released after the fall of the Soviet Union, a letter showed that Kennedy was a traitor of the United States during the Reagan administration. He wanted the help of the Soviet Union to defeat Reagan’s policies. He played a very dangerous game that more than likely increased tensions, all designed for political gain the following year as Reagan ran for reelection. Kennedy’s contacts with the KGB and other Soviet Officials should have been considered treason. They were obviously against the policies of the State Department. Here is the letter from 1983:
Special Importance Committee on State Security of the USSR 14.05.1983 No. 1029 Ch/OV Moscow
Regarding Senator Kennedy’s request to the General Secretary of the Communist Party Comrade Y.V. Andropov Comrade Y.V. Andropov
On 9-10 May of this year, Senator Edward Kennedy’s close friend and trusted confidant J. Tunney was in Moscow. The senator charged Tunney to convey the following message, through confidential contacts, to the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, Y. Andropov:
Senator Kennedy, like other rational people, is very troubled by the current state of Soviet-American relations. Events are developing such that this relationship coupled with the general state of global affairs will make the situation even more dangerous. The main reason for this is Reagan’s belligerence, and his firm commitment to deploy new American middle range nuclear weapons within Western Europe.
According to Kennedy, the current threat is due to the President’s refusal to engage any modification on his politics. He feels that his domestic standing has been strengthened because of the well publicized improvements of the economy: inflation has been greatly reduced, production levels are increasing as is overall business activity. For these reasons, interest rates will continue to decline. The White House has portrayed this in the media as the “success of Reaganomics.”
He was such a pig. OMG. I had forgotten the Ted/Chris/Waitress sandwich. What a scum bag. Lets not forget how he destroyed by personal, vindictive attacks Robert Bork. Like I said I won’t mourn Ted. Not one tear will be shed from my eyes for him or his kind.
Obamacare/Teddycare is a lobotomy for the masses.
When Dodd was in the race last year, I looked everywhere for this story. It is remarkably hard to find on the net without knowing the name of the waitress or the restaurant. Good for you, JohnFN!
We can officially have a Holiday In Cambodia now.