Massachusetts Sen. Ted Kennedy dead at 77

[eternal light]

news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_kennedy_memorial

BOSTON – Republican rival and longtime friend John McCain says Senator Edward Kennedy was "the best ally you could have" when they agreed on issues.

McCain called Kennedy the most reliable, prepared and persistent of his colleagues and said he taught him to be a better senator.

McCain spoke at a private "Celebration of Life" service for friends and family held at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library.

The service featured music, laughter and family and friends sharing anecdotes about Kennedy's sense of humor and kindness.

It follows two days of public viewing in which an estimated 50,000 people filed past the flag-draped coffin of Kennedy, who died this week of a brain tumor at age 77.

[~tangerine~]

I watched some coverage of the "celebration of Ted's life" earlier tonight. Was very beautiful that the family welcomed so many with such graciousness. Ted Kennedy was a rich man who cared about those less privileged. Not easy to find in someone who always had wealth. RIP...

http://www.nbcconnecticut.com/news/politics/NATLLuminaries-Family-Celebrate-Life-of-Ted-Kennedy-55927797.html

[Electrophile]

Obama will be giving the eulogy at the funeral tomorrow in Boston. Considering that they were quite close, I think that's fitting. All the living presidents, with the exception of George H.W. Bush will be attending as well.

[Aquamarine]

The source is Ed Klein of Newsweek. National Review merely provided a link to his interviewand their own commentary. True remorse over the horrible death one causes an innocent young girl would entail shunning the subject as fodder for a chuckle it seems.

Exactly.

As far as complexity is concerned, that trait can be found in all sorts of scoundrels, but it doesn't dilute the loathsome nature of their transgressions.

Your point about a topic being moot for discussion because people have already reached their own conclusions could be extrapolated to render forty years of Ted's comments on political issues pointless and not required. A more implacable demogogue set in his left wing opinions would have been difficult to find.

I disn't dispute, or even address, either of those points.

On a more positive note, Orrin Hatch gave a terrific speech at tonight's memorial service.

[ro_a]

Hey Steve AJ, do you use your full name to make a name for yourself on the back of the achievements of Led Zeppelin?

Sure looks that way to me. How cheesy is that? You should manufacture an accomplishment of your own.

[Patrycja]

milking it

http://www.patrickkennedy.house.gov/

lapping it up

[ZPN]

I just watched most of the celebration of life thing at the Kennedy library. I thought it was moving. There were many stories told by friends and colleagues, and Caroline Kennedy spoke at the end. They left you feeling that he had a great sense of humor,was often very generous and was sensitive to other people's struggles and tragedies (calls, personal visits to homes & hospitals, gifts, attending funerals).

I don't know the details of Chappa-however you spell it. Just now on tv (MSNBC Headliners and Legends-came on after the Celebration)they're playing footage from back then. They say he reported to authorities that he tried to save her and couldn't, and walked back to the party to get help. He went back with them and they tried again to save her and again couldn't. He pled guilty to leaving the scene and was sentenced to 2 months in jail which was dropped. Someone on this program just said TK told him the incident was with him every day of his life. They showed Kennedy saying the real tragedy of the incident was the loss of a life and that he takes complete responsibility for it. As to the jokes, it would be in bad taste, depending on the joke. Someone said he has a self-deprecating sense of humor.

I didn't know that shortly after that his son was diagnosed with cancer in his leg and they had to amputate the leg. And his father Joseph Kennedy died soon after. I can't imagine what he went through losing all 3 of his brothers at such a young age. It may not be enough consolation to that woman's (Mary Jo C-again ? spelling)

family, but I think Ted Kennedy probably endured more suffering with the loss of all 3 brothers than he was responsible for causing. In the sense of karma or whatever. Then the loss of JFK Jr. I'm not making excuses for what he did, but I guess in the context of his life-losing his brothers, which also meant as they noted tonight that he became a father figure to the whole generation of Kennedys, in addition to his own kids, all the good he did through legislation, his friendships, fighting the cancer-overall he made a positive contribution to the world. I'm grateful for his work in the Senate. He could have just spent all his time being a rich playboy, and he didn't. He could have decided it was too risky to stay in politics, because he was afraid of being assasinated, and he didn't. His whole life was on a scale and so foreign to me that I really can't wrap my head around it.

BTW: Laura Bush killed her boyfriend in a car accident. I heard she & GWB both used and possibly dealt coke in college-I don't remember the details, and GWB was an alcoholic. I'm not saying this because I disagree with Bush's policies, just because it's another example of people in politics who have skeletons in their closets, and for whatever reason, voters have decided that they have changed and deserve another chance. I'm not saying the voters are right or wrong.

[TypeO]

Hey Steve AJ, do you use your full name to make a name for yourself on the back of the achievements of Led Zeppelin?

Sure looks that way to me. How cheesy is that? You should manufacture an accomplishment of your own.

wow.

ad hominem much? Talk about cheesy.

[ebk]

I just watched most of the celebration of life thing at the Kennedy library. I thought it was moving. There were many stories told by friends and colleagues, and Caroline Kennedy spoke at the end. They left you feeling that he had a great sense of humor,was often very generous and was sensitive to other people's struggles and tragedies (calls, personal visits to homes & hospitals, gifts, attending funerals).

I don't know the details of Chappa-however you spell it. Just now on tv (MSNBC Headliners and Legends-came on after the Celebration)they're playing footage from back then. They say he reported to authorities that he tried to save her and couldn't, and walked back to the party to get help. He went back with them and they tried again to save her and again couldn't. He pled guilty to leaving the scene and was sentenced to 2 months in jail which was dropped. Someone on this program just said TK told him the incident was with him every day of his life. They showed Kennedy saying the real tragedy of the incident was the loss of a life and that he takes complete responsibility for it. As to the jokes, it would be in bad taste, depending on the joke. Someone said he has a self-deprecating sense of humor.

I didn't know that shortly after that his son was diagnosed with cancer in his leg and they had to amputate the leg. And his father Joseph Kennedy died soon after. I can't imagine what he went through losing all 3 of his brothers at such a young age. It may not be enough consolation to that woman's (Mary Jo C-again ? spelling)

family, but I think Ted Kennedy probably endured more suffering with the loss of all 3 brothers than he was responsible for causing. In the sense of karma or whatever. Then the loss of JFK Jr. I'm not making excuses for what he did, but I guess in the context of his life-losing his brothers, which also meant as they noted tonight that he became a father figure to the whole generation of Kennedys, in addition to his own kids, all the good he did through legislation, his friendships, fighting the cancer-overall he made a positive contribution to the world. I'm grateful for his work in the Senate. He could have just spent all his time being a rich playboy, and he didn't. He could have decided it was too risky to stay in politics, because he was afraid of being assasinated, and he didn't. His whole life was on a scale and so foreign to me that I really can't wrap my head around it.

BTW: Laura Bush killed her boyfriend in a car accident. I heard she & GWB both used and possibly dealt coke in college-I don't remember the details, and GWB was an alcoholic. I'm not saying this because I disagree with Bush's policies, just because it's another example of people in politics who have skeletons in their closets, and for whatever reason, voters have decided that they have changed and deserve another chance. I'm not saying the voters are right or wrong.

Very nicely said!!

[TypeO]

BTW: Laura Bush killed her boyfriend in a car accident.

While technically accurate, your choice of phrasing suggests intent of some degree.

No drugs or alcohol involved, no charges pressed.

To this day she can't/won't speak of it, much less joke about it.

Yeah, I can see how similar that is to Ted Kennedy's incident.

[Reggie1971]

I just watched most of the celebration of life thing at the Kennedy library. I thought it was moving. There were many stories told by friends and colleagues, and Caroline Kennedy spoke at the end. They left you feeling that he had a great sense of humor,was often very generous and was sensitive to other people's struggles and tragedies (calls, personal visits to homes & hospitals, gifts, attending funerals).

I don't know the details of Chappa-however you spell it. Just now on tv (MSNBC Headliners and Legends-came on after the Celebration)they're playing footage from back then. They say he reported to authorities that he tried to save her and couldn't, and walked back to the party to get help. He went back with them and they tried again to save her and again couldn't. He pled guilty to leaving the scene and was sentenced to 2 months in jail which was dropped. Someone on this program just said TK told him the incident was with him every day of his life. They showed Kennedy saying the real tragedy of the incident was the loss of a life and that he takes complete responsibility for it. As to the jokes, it would be in bad taste, depending on the joke. Someone said he has a self-deprecating sense of humor.

I didn't know that shortly after that his son was diagnosed with cancer in his leg and they had to amputate the leg. And his father Joseph Kennedy died soon after. I can't imagine what he went through losing all 3 of his brothers at such a young age. It may not be enough consolation to that woman's (Mary Jo C-again ? spelling)

family, but I think Ted Kennedy probably endured more suffering with the loss of all 3 brothers than he was responsible for causing. In the sense of karma or whatever. Then the loss of JFK Jr. I'm not making excuses for what he did, but I guess in the context of his life-losing his brothers, which also meant as they noted tonight that he became a father figure to the whole generation of Kennedys, in addition to his own kids, all the good he did through legislation, his friendships, fighting the cancer-overall he made a positive contribution to the world. I'm grateful for his work in the Senate. He could have just spent all his time being a rich playboy, and he didn't. He could have decided it was too risky to stay in politics, because he was afraid of being assasinated, and he didn't. His whole life was on a scale and so foreign to me that I really can't wrap my head around it.

BTW: Laura Bush killed her boyfriend in a car accident. I heard she & GWB both used and possibly dealt coke in college-I don't remember the details, and GWB was an alcoholic. I'm not saying this because I disagree with Bush's policies, just because it's another example of people in politics who have skeletons in their closets, and for whatever reason, voters have decided that they have changed and deserve another chance. I'm not saying the voters are right or wrong.

It is patently absurd to equate the accident Laura Bush was involved in with Teddy's. Laura was a teenage girl who ran a stop sign (how many of us have done that?) and as fate would have it collided with her boyfriend's car. She did not leave the scene of the accident, nor did she fail to report anything to the authorities. The comparison is bogus. The suggestion that she was a coke dealer is irrelevant, unproven, and nothing but a cheap smear.

With respect to Teddy, the fact that he refused to procure the help of the authorities or inform anyone during his long walk back (including rescue workers in a FIREHOUSE) is beyond dispute, and clearly paints a picture of a man who viewed keeping the whole thing under wraps as more important than getting help to the girl ASAP. What other possible reason would there be for selectively apprising only his cousin, and his cousin's close friend other than to save his sorry hide and political ambitions?

[SteveAJones]

wow.

ad hominem much? Talk about cheesy.

Yeah, that was pretty lame. Judging by the PMs he sends me I've got another nutter on my hands.

[SteveAJones]

I don't know the details of Chappa-however you spell it.

What Happened at Chappaquiddick

Late on the night of July 18, 1969, a car went off a bridge on Martha’s Vineyard. With a young senator from Massachusetts, Edward Kennedy, at the wheel, the Oldsmobile sank into the water beneath the Dike Bridge.

In a sequence of events that instantly became famous, Senator Kennedy escaped from the submerged vehicle and swam to shore. By 2:30 a.m. he had made his way back to his hotel in Edgartown, where he was sighted in the lobby. He made 17 phone calls to family members and associates. But not until 10 hours after the accident did he call the police to tell them about the car crash—and the other person in the car, who had died.

Senator Kennedy had not been alone. Riding alongside him had been a young woman, not his wife, named Mary Jo Kopechne. She had been sitting next to him as they drove away from a party, and as they crossed Dike Bridge on Chappaquiddick Island the accident ended her life. It would haunt the rest of Kennedy’s career.

After President John F. Kennedy’s assassination and then the killing of Robert F. Kennedy, Ted Kennedy was regarded as the next standard-bearer of America’s foremost political family. With the 1972 presidential election approaching, many, including some of President Richard M. Nixon’s advisers, expected the youngest Kennedy brother to make a bid for the White House. As the details of the events at Chappaquiddick slowly emerged, however, they significantly weakened his prospects.

The public learned that the senator had miraculously escaped from his sinking vehicle, failed in his efforts to rescue Kopechne, and neglected to call for emergency assistance until long after the young woman could have been saved. People read reports that there might have been enough air left in the car to keep Kopechne alive until a search and rescue team arrived—but Kennedy waited hours to notify the authorities of her plight. Though many of his constituents wrote letters urging him not to resign from the Senate, many more Americans were deeply unsettled by his conduct.

Looking back on the 1972 election cycle, George McGovern, the eventual Democratic nominee, explained: “Teddy had run into the Chappaquiddick thing and more or less disqualified himself. . . . I decided a week after Chappaquiddick that I had a . . . clear shot at the nomination.”

In this regard, the events of that summer night marked not only a personal tragedy but a turning point in American politics. For years the Kennedys had dominated the national stage. Even after Chappaquiddick, observers as prominent as President Nixon expected Ted Kennedy to attain the Presidency. But the senator could never escape the shadow of his questionable deeds. Though he decried his own actions, describing them as “irrational and indefensible and inexcusable and inexplicable,” this reaction hardly satisfied most Americans.

As years passed, more information about Chappaquiddick came to light, with suggestions emerging that Kennedy had drunk far more that night than he had admitted. Even more disturbingly, one reporter alleged that the senator had considered trying to hide his involvement in the accident by having a relative claim responsibility for the crash. When Kennedy eventually did seek the Presidency, in 1980, challenging Jimmy Carter in the Democratic primaries, he could not reassure the American people that his previous errors were mere aberrations. With Chappaquiddick always in the air, many Americans concluded that he was not the kind of person that should be President.

In the following decades, people have offered a variety of explanations for the events of July 18, 1969. Some have suggested that Kennedy is simply a man without a moral compass, preoccupied, above all, with self-preservation. Others have offered other, more complex reasons for his poor behavior and apparent inability to come to terms with his actions. The late journalist Michael Kelly, among others, found fault in his upbringing, arguing that he was “born and bred to act like the last of the Regency rakes”—to live like an aristocrat to whom the usual rules governing behavior did not apply. Ted Kennedy, the argument goes, didn’t leave behind this devil-may-care attitude when he reached the Senate.

Indeed the culture of the Senate itself may have influenced his behavior. When he first joined that body, in 1962, when he was 30, reporters still protected the private lives of politicians. In the words of the journalist Lou Cannon, it was still “an era when White House photographers by common consent took no waist-down pictures of a crippled president and personal things were written about politicians only if they were in the penitentiary.” A politician like Strom Thurmond could conceal a child born out of wedlock; President Kennedy could cover up extensive marital indiscretions.

Entering the Senate so young, Edward Kennedy learned the trade of politics from an older generation of men accustomed to this earlier brand of politics. He is one of only five members of the 87th Senate still alive, and he’s 12 years younger than his next-youngest former colleague, James B. Pearson. But he reached his political prime amid new, stricter standards for behavior and decreasing tolerance for misconduct. By 1969 it was impossible for someone in his position to conceal events like those at Chappaquiddick, and by the time he ran for President, such a scandal was utterly crippling—and he was still unable to fully explain his actions. As the National Journal’s Michael Barone said: “Maybe Ted Kennedy didn’t realize times have changed.”

In spite of Chappaquiddick, Kennedy has gone on to an extremely successful career as a legislator. According to former Senator Alan Simpson, a Republican from Wyoming, he ultimately achieved his own kind of greatness when he “lifted the curse from himself that Kennedys had to be President.”

Richard Nixon, in the wake of Chappaquiddick, wrote a note to himself saying, “A man is not finished when he’s defeated, he’s finished when he quits.” Thirty-seven years after Chappaquiddick, Kennedy is still not finished. Neither, however, is the specter of his disastrous accident.

—Alexander Burns, an undergraduate at Harvard College, is a frequent contributor to AmericanHeritage.com.

[cryingbluerain]

Pa. woman at center of Kennedy's Chappaquiddick scandal

By Larry King

Inquirer Staff Writer

The darkest scandal in Sen. Edward M. Kennedy's colorful life - one that likely denied him the presidency - is indelibly linked to a young woman from Pennsylvania.

Mary Jo Kopechne, a 28-year-old secretary, was leaving a party with Kennedy on July 18, 1969, when the senator drove his car off the side of a bridge on Chappaquiddick Island in Massachusetts. Kopechne was found dead in the submerged car the next morning. Kennedy, unable to explain how he escaped the vehicle, did not report the incident to police until after Kopechne's body was discovered.

Kennedy pleaded guilty to leaving the scene of an accident, received a suspended sentence, and faced no further charges. But Chappaquiddick haunted him for the rest of his political career.

Kopechne was from Forty Fort, Luzerne County, the only child of an insurance salesman and a homemaker. Joseph Kopechne, 90, died in an East Stroudsburg nursing home in 2003. Gwen Kopechne, 89, died in 2007 at a nursing home in Plains Township.

A graduate of Caldwell College for Women in New Jersey, Mary Jo Kopechne worked as a secretary in Washington, where her employers had included Sen. Robert Kennedy. The night of her death, she had attended a party with several other women who had worked for the Kennedys. Edward Kennedy, who attended the party, had offered to drive Kopechne back to her motel on Martha's Vineyard.

In a 1994 interview, Joseph and Gwen Kopechne said they had never received a direct apology from him, though other Kennedy family members had written them letters.

After their daughter's death, the Kopechnes received a $141,000 settlement from Kennedy's insurance company and moved to a new home in Swiftwater, Pa. They denied using Kennedy's money to build the home.

And when Gwen Kopechne died in 2007, there was no mention at her funeral of the Massachusetts senator.

http://www.philly.com/inquirer/world_us/20090827_Pa__woman_at_center_of_Kennedy_s_Chappaquiddick_scandal.html

[SteveAJones]

Wonderful eulogies given by his two sons and President Obama. The mass is ending and rain is falling.

[SteveAJones]

Leave it to Jesse Jackson to comment on the weather in this way: "...he sailed in the rain, the homeless are in the rain, those without health care are in the rain..."

[59LesPaul]

Does anybody really take Jesse seriously!?

[TypeO]

Leave it to Jesse Jackson to comment on the weather in this way: "...he sailed in the rain, the homeless are in the rain, those without health care are in the rain..."

What you fail to realize, Steve, is Jesse is ahhh... employifying a techniquification called ahhh... subtleosity whereby you don't even notice the ahhh... sublimified message he has incorporated into his ahhh... otherwise eloquatious eulogization.

[SteveAJones]

What you fail to realize, Steve, is Jesse is ahhh... employifying a techniquification called ahhh... subtleosity whereby you don't even notice the ahhh... sublimified message he has incorporated into his ahhh... otherwise eloquatious eulogization.

Jesse could have calibrated his words differently.

[Evster2012]

I know I'm gonna take shit for this but....this is a man's death announcement thread. It's just my opinion, but anyone can start a "Hated the f**ker" thread. But bashing the man in a thread like this is like attending the funeral and pissing on the casket in front of the attendees. I know. Free forum and all that. Same thing happened in the Michael Jackson thread. Anyway, can't the fat bastard have a few days before we weigh his soul? Just sayin.

[Evster2012]

What you fail to realize, Steve, is Jesse is ahhh... employifying a techniquification called ahhh... subtleosity whereby you don't even notice the ahhh... sublimified message he has incorporated into his ahhh... otherwise eloquatious eulogization.

Five Stars Type-O!!

[Uncle Bill]

I know I'm gonna take shit for this but....this is a man's death announcement thread. It's just my opinion, but anyone can start a "Hated the f**ker" thread. But bashing the man in a thread like this is like attending the funeral and pissing on the casket in front of the attendees. I know. Free forum and all that. Same thing happened in the Michael Jackson thread. Anyway, can't the fat bastard have a few days before we weigh his soul? Just sayin.

Not a bad idea Ev but I think it's unworkable. I seem to recall someone starting a different thread after similar complaints in the MJ thread and then the same people who said to "start your own thread" taking over that thread as well. So what's the point I guess? Might as well keep it all in one place.

[Evster2012]

Not a bad idea Ev but I think it's unworkable. I seem to recall someone starting a different thread after similar complaints in the MJ thread and then the same people who said to "start your own thread" taking over that thread as well. So what's the point I guess? Might as well keep it all in one place.

Yeah, I know you're right. I just cringe when someone posts an obit and people shout "Good". I mean, nobody was bitching about him before, so why start raking him over the coals after he's dead? I guess I would feel differently if it were Ahmadinejad. So yeah, I'm being hypocritical! C'est la vie!

And Del my friend, if you read this, I know where you stand, and I don't stand against you. I respect your personal reasons.

[Uncle Bill]

I mean, nobody was bitching about him before, so why start raking him over the coals after he's dead?

I think it's because nobody was singing his praises before either. If they had been, it would have elicited the same responses.

[Evster2012]

I guess that's what I'm trying to say. Forgive me if I can't quite put it into words. I guess what I mean is that if a person's actions don't warrant discussion in life, why drag them out after they're dead? Why shit on him after he's gone? Shit on 'em while they're alive and can smell it if you hate the bastard. Know what I'm saying?

Let man judge the living. Let god judge the dead.

I don't know. I'm remembering the anniversary of a dead friend, so I guess I'm a little fucked up about death this time of year.

Off topic, but here's why my head's a little off today. I hope that it clears up why I'm slightly mental today:

I'd hate to have my life defined by my mistakes. One drunk night in 1987, I got in an argument with a despodent friend (my keyboard player). I insisted I'd been through as much hell as he had, and that I knew true pain. He jumped on my chest and was ready to put his fist through my face. Instead he walked to his room, got out his gun, and shot himself in the head in front of us. His last words were "Love you guys. Don't look." That has left a scar I can't even describe. It doesn't matter how many people say he was obviously messed up in the head. I pushed him over the edge. I was the one who said the wrong thing at the wrong moment, and he's been dead 22 years the day after tomorrow.

Sorry Karl. I miss you brother.