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Politics is politics. If the Dem majority can pass a law to insure Kennedy is replaced with someone like him I say go for it.
Sure, but at least acknowledge it for what it is...a blatantly political and hyporcritical move designed to grab power for the Democrats.
I would also classify the move as anti-democratic (with a small d), and given the Democrats rhetoric in 2004 when the process for filling vacancies changed, I would assume they would all agree.
Will never happen in Massachusetts. The closest we ever came was in 1996 when then Republican Governor William Weld ran against Kennedy. That's been the only serious challenge Teddy has ever had and will ever have for his seat.
It was Romney who ran against Kennedy, Neil, and Weld against Kerry.
I don't know how closely you've been following things here anymore, but Deval Patrick is fairly unpopular and not likely to be appointing anyone to the seat right now. If anything, he would most likely appoint himself just to get out of town.
It was Romney who ran against Kennedy, Neil, and Weld against Kerry.
Yup....you're right. I watched the debates for both. Guess I'm getting old and my memory is getting worse.
Quote:
Originally Posted by CaseyB
I don't know how closely you've been following things here anymore, but Deval Patrick is fairly unpopular and not likely to be appointing anyone to the seat right now. If anything, he would most likely appoint himself just to get out of town.
I read the papers online and keep up to some degree and have friends in Braintree, Shrewsbury, Leominster, and relatives in metro west. I could see Deval overstaying his welcome before he got elected. I see him as a prototype for Obama, in many ways, with race just being the superficial coincidence.
He made a stink about appointments when he thought that the MA Governor could appoint a Republican in an interum period. Now he wants to change the law in his favor. Like every Democratic hypocrite. I suppose he thinks that the American people don't see this.
He is in favor of wind power ... as long as he and his Multi-million dollar family don't have to see wind towers from their ocean side mansions.
What kind of dink is this? Doesn't anyone see through his crap?
If Ted had the kind of universal healthcare that he has spent his whole life promoting ( on the taxpayer's dime ) he'd be dead by now.
For ford's sake, Joe Kennedy has been dead for decades.
The people of Massachusettes have voted Ted in year after year.
It's none of your business what another state chooses to do.
Give up your partisan hatred, will you?
This isn't about partisan hatred, I could care less what party he's in along with how many times he's been re-elected. Everyone knows the Kennedy's have suffered terrible family tragedies....so many too. It's also well known that they've been privy to favoritism that they've been willing to pay for. It's not a bunch of rumors (there are some of those too though), the incidents have been well documented in the media and some even a matter of public record and everyone was always willing to turn their head the other way, including the public.....even Mary Jo Kopechne's parents (after they were compensated)....taken from wikipedia:
The Kopechne family did not bring any legal action against Senator Kennedy, but they did receive a payment of $90,904 from the Senator personally and $50,000 from his insurance company. The Kopechnes later explained their decision to not take legal action by saying that "We figured that people would think we were looking for blood money."
Ted Kennedy literally got away with murder. At the very least he was guilty of vehicluar manslaughter but, his actions immediately following the incident should have turned it into a homocide.....again taken from wikipedia:
The inquest into Kopechne's death took place in Edgartown in January 1970. At the request of Kennedy's lawyers, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ordered that it be conducted in secret. The 763-page transcript of the inquest was released four months later. Judge James A. Boyle presided at the inquest.
and this as well:
Under Massachusetts law Boyle, having found "probable cause" that Kennedy had committed a crime, could have issued a warrant for his arrest, but he did not do so. District Attorney Dinis chose not to pursue Kennedy for manslaughter, despite Judge Boyle's conclusions.
Then there was the Grand Jury hearing that went like this:
On April 6 1970, Dukes County Grand Jury assembled in special session to consider Kopechne's death. Judge Wilfred Paquet instructed the members of the grand jury that they could consider only those matters brought to their attention by the superior court, the district attorney or their own personal knowledge. Citing the orders of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, Paquet told the grand jury that it could not see the evidence or Judge Boyle's report from the inquest (which at that time were still impounded). District Attorney Dinis, who had attended the inquest and seen Judge Boyle's report, told the grand jury that there was not enough evidence to indict Senator Kennedy on potential charges of manslaughter, perjury or driving to endanger. The grand jury called four witnesses who had not testified at the inquest: they testified for a total of 20 minutes, but no indictments were issued.
When he drove off the bridge (and let's face it, he was drunk), he should have gone to the nearest house and called the rescue squad. Instead he walked back to the party (passing 4 houses on the way) to get his buddies so they can figure out what to do. The diver that recovered Mary Jo's body the next morning said it took him 25 minutes to recover her body and that if he had been called within 5 to 10 minutes after the accident, Mary Jo would have probably survived because, her body was pressed into a spot in the car where there would have been an air bubble giving her enough air to breathe until he could rescue her.....so she was alive while Kennedy and his buddy's were figuring out a plan.
Read the wikipedia page for your self, it's amazing all the crap he got away with....it's like a bad made for TV police drama (and this is just what happened at Chapaquiddick):
IMO, he was going to try and say Mary Jo wanted to go back to the party for her purse and keys so, he gave her the car keys to drive back her self and some how she drove off the bridge. Why would he swim back to his hotel? Why would he wake up the hotel owner complain about a party that was keeping him up? It was all to give him self an alibi. The next morning, in his initial statement to his aide to give to the police he said he went off the bridge at 11:15 PM (right after leaving the party with Mary Jo...early enough to still catch the ferry) but, he forgot about the deputy sheriff seeing him parked on the side of the road with Mary Jo at 12:45 AM. He said after the accident, he got a ride back to the hotel in a friends car, as though it was still early enough to catch the ferry....it was all so he didn't have to admit that he really had to swim back to the hotel at about 2:00 AM.
It's hard to believe he ended up getting charged with leaving the scene of an accident. DMV suspended his license for 6 months. How often did he drive any way? One of the other guys at the party was his chauffeur but, he asked for the keys so he could take off to some where private with Mary Jo. He actually had a chauffeur there that night!
He made a live televised statement to the public a week later after his hearing. Here are some of his statements (what a line of BS!):
"only reasons of health" had prevented his wife from accompanying him to the regatta.
there was "no truth whatever to the widely circulated suspicions of immoral conduct" regarding Kennedy's and Kopechne's behavior that evening.
he "was not driving under the influence of liquor".
his conduct for the hours immediately following the accident "made no sense to [him] at all".
his doctors had informed him that he had suffered cerebral concussion and shock, but he did not seek to use his medical condition to escape responsibility for his actions.
he "regard[ed] as indefensible that fact that [he] did not report the accident to the police immediately."
instead of notifying the authorities immediately, Kennedy "requested the help of two friends, Joe Gargan and Paul Markham, and directed them to return immediately to the scene with [him] (it then being sometime after midnight) in order to undertake a new effort to dive down and locate Miss Kopechne".
"[a]ll kinds of scrambled thoughts" went through his mind after the accident, including "whether the girl might still be alive somewhere out of that immediate area," "whether some awful curse actually did hang over all the Kennedys", "whether there was some justifiable reason for [him] to doubt what had happened and to delay [his] report", and "whether somehow the awful weight of this incredible incident might in some way pass from [his] shoulders".
he was overcome "by a jumble of emotions - grief, fear, doubt, exhaustion, panic, confusion and shock".
having instructed Gargan and Markham "not to alarm Mary Jo's friends that night", Kennedy returned to the ferry with the two men, and then "suddenly jumped into the water and impulsively swam across, nearly drowning once again in the effort, returning to [his] hotel around 2 a.m. and collapsed in [his] room".
Kennedy went on to ask the people of Massachusetts to decide whether he should resign:
“If at any time, the citizens of Massachusetts should lack confidence in their Senator’s character or his ability, with or without justification, he could not in my opinion adequately perform his duties, and should not continue in office. The opportunity to work with you and serve Massachusetts has made my life worthwhile. So I ask you tonight, the people of Massachusetts, to think this through with me. In facing this decision, I seek your advice and opinion. In making it I seek your prayers. For this is a decision that I will have finally to make on my own.”
He asked the people of Mass for their advice, opinions and prayers about him resigning but, that in the end he would be making the decision him self.
Wow, that must be kind of like what you were talking about when you said the people voted him in year after year.
I'll tell you what I'm not a Bush fan but, when the Kennedy's do scandal, they do it right!.......none of that amateur crap like the recovered alcoholic Bush does, where everyone has to make up conspiracy theories about what he did. Ted got sh*t faced, was fooling around behind his wife's back, drove off a bridge, left the girl he was with in the car to die (because he still was hoping to be elected president next election), completely screwed up trying to get his story straight about what happened, got caught and had to admit to some of it and make up new lies for the rest of it and not only got out of it, he stayed in office and gets re-elected too. Now that is a politician! Too bad Bush was a republican, he could have used some advice from Ted!
For ford's sake, Joe Kennedy has been dead for decades.
The people of Massachusettes have voted Ted in year after year.
It's none of your business what another state chooses to do.
Give up your partisan hatred, will you?
You're calling someone partisan when Mass. keeps voting in Ted every year. I would call that just as partisan as anything.
I wish Kennedy well and even hope he recovers, but the guy needs to get literally thrown out of office. Have him hit the pavement face first when they toss him down the capitol steps. What a bum. He changes the law out out of petty partisanship and then wants it changed back. Only doltish Chris Matthews thought there was any justification for that hypocrisy.
Yes they change the law when it is to their benefit. Nice isn't it? I agree about throwing Kennedy out along with his hypocritical request.
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