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I have no problem stating 5 good things Kennedy has done in his long legislature career created and continued by family and fortune--hardly American.
Same goes with Bush, so don't even think about playing that card, but it is funny to see certain liberals canonize this man even though he stood against everything true liberalism stands for.
Teddy's character's did shape up, but it took him until his late 30's. He ****ed up numerous times before that, and thanks to aristocracy, he was saved (again hardly liberal, in its truest sense).
I grew up in MA and liberal doctrine and while it does have noble causes, I eventually grew out of it and became a libertarian. While there was no one incident that pushed me in that direction, Teddy's resistance to windfarm's on Nantucket Sound pushed me further and further away from this "great Lion of the people" and liberal doctrine. While it was shown to be economically sound, it disrupted his views and sailing extravaganzas. It was definitely a crucial moment in my views of liberalism in the state of MA. We could have been on the leading edge of wind energy, but no....aristocracy stood in our way.
I find it ironic that Dems praise environmental values, but shut down economically sound projects because it spoils their views. I was nonetheless, than a liberal without a party. I thought the state could mandate and legislate economically and environmentally sound policies, but I was wrong.
Late 30's!!!
No, Teddy did not "shape up" until he almost lost a re-election bid in the 1990s after the rape incident in Florida which he was forced to testify in. He appeared to calm his demons somewhat with his last wife, and by his later 60's, simply could not physically do what he once did regarding the binge drinking and womanizing. He was a shuffling, myopic shadow of his former self.
It is the last ten years of his life or so that his colleagues remember him as being a gentleman - before that, he was not highly regarded on a personal level.
Location: Oklahoma(formerly SoCalif) Originally Mich,
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Quote:
The Last of The Kennedy Dynasty
As soon as his cancer was detected, I noticed the immediate attempt at the "canonization" of old Teddy Kennedy by the mainstream media. They are saying what a "great American" he is. I say, let's get a couple things clear & not twist the facts to change the real history.
1. He was caught cheating at Harvard when he attended it. He was expelled twice, once for cheating on a test, and once for paying a classmate to cheat for him.
2. While expelled, Kennedy enlisted in the Army, but mistakenly signed up for four years instead of two. Oops! The man can't count to four! His father, Joseph P. Kennedy, former U.S. Ambassador to England (a step up from bootlegging liquor into20the US from Canada during prohibition), pulled the necessary strings to have his enlistment shortened to two years, and to ensure that he served in Europe, not Korea , where a war was raging. No preferential treatment for him! (like he charged that President Bush received).
3. Kennedy was assigned to Paris , never advanced beyond the rank of Private, and returned to Harvard upon being discharged. Imagine a person of his "education" NEVER advancing past the rank of Private!
4. While attending law school at the University of Virginia , he was cited for reckless driving four times, including once when he was clocked driving 90 miles per hour in a residential neighborhood with his headlights off after dark. Yet his Virginia driver's license was never revoked. Coincidentally, he passed the bar exam in 1959. Amazing!
5. In 1964, he was seriously injured in a plane crash, and hospitalized for several months. Test results done by the hospital at the time he was admitted had shown he was legally intoxicated. The results of those tests remained a "state secret" until in the 1980's when the report was unsealed.. Didn't hear about that from the unbiased media, did we?
6. On July 19, 1969, Kennedy attended a party on Chappaquiddick Island in Massachusetts . At about 11:00 PM, he borrowed his chauffeur's keys to his Oldsmobile limousine, and offered to give a ride home to Mary Jo Kopechne, a campaign worker. Leaving the island via an unlit bridge with no guard rail, Kennedy steered the car off the bridge, flipped, and into Poucha Pond.
7. He swam to shore and walked back to the party, passing several houses and a fire station.. Two friends then returned with him to the scene of the accident. According to their later testimony, they told him what he already knew - that he was required by law to immediately report the accident to the authorities. Instead Kennedy made his way to his hotel, called his lawyer, and went to sleep. Kennedy called the police the next morning and by then the wreck had already been discovered. Before dying, Kopechne had scratched at the upholstered floor above her head in the upside-down car.
The Kennedy family began "calling in favors", ensuring that any inquiry would be contained. Her corpse was whisked out-of-state to her family, before an autopsy could be conducted. Further details are uncertain, but after the accident Kennedy says he repeatedly dove under the water trying to rescue Kopechne and he didn't call police because he
was in a state of shock. It is widely assumed Kennedy was drunk, and he held off calling police in hopes that his family could fix the problem overnight. Since the accident, Kennedy's "political enemies" have referred to him as the distinguished Senator from Chappaquiddick. He pled guilty to leaving the scene of an accident, and was given a SUSPENDED SENTENCE OF TWO MONTHS. Kopechne's family received a small payout from the Kennedy's insurance policy, and never sued. There was later an effort to have her body exhumed and autopsied, but her family successfully fought against this in court, and Kennedy's family paid their attorney's bills... a "token of friendship"?
8. Kennedy has held his Senate seat for more than forty years, but considering his longevity, his accomplishments seem scant. He authored or argued for legislation that ensured a variety of civil rights, increased the minimum wage in 1981, made access to health care easier for the indigent, and funded Meals on Wheels for fixed-income seniors and is widely held as the "standard-bearer for liberalism". In his very first Senate roll, he was the floor manager for the bill that turned U.S. immigration policy upside down and opened the floodgate for immigrants from third world countries.
9. Since that time, he has been the prime instigator and author of every expansion of an increase in immigration, up to and including the latest attempt to grant amnesty to illegal aliens. Not to mention the pious grilling he gave the last two Supreme Court nominees, as if he was the standard bearer for the nation in matters of "what's right". What a pompous ass!
10. He is known around Washington as a public drunk, loud, boisterous and very disrespectful to ladies. JERK is a better description than "great American". "A blonde in every pond" is his motto.
No, Teddy did not "shape up" until he almost lost a re-election bid in the 1990s after the rape incident in Florida which he was forced to testify in. He appeared to calm his demons somewhat with his last wife, and by his later 60's, simply could not physically do what he once did regarding the binge drinking and womanizing. He was a shuffling, myopic shadow of his former self.
It is the last ten years of his life or so that his colleagues remember him as being a gentleman - before that, he was not highly regarded on a personal level.
Yup, the greatest aid to turning from a sinner to a saint is old age
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