Ed Klein, being interviewed on the Diane Rhem show, said that Kennedy privately often asked if anyone had heard any new Chappaquiddick jokes.

I don’t know if you know this or not, but one of his favorite topics of humor was indeed Chappaquiddick itself. And he would ask people, “have you heard any new jokes about Chappaquiddick?” That is just the most amazing thing. It’s not that he didn’t feel remorse about the death of Mary Jo Kopechne, but that he still always saw the other side of everything and the ridiculous side of things, too.

If this passes for balance by the left, please excuse my nausea. It would be one thing for him to have come to peace with himself over her death, but should it have been “one of his favorite topics”?
I’m sure it was a defense mechanism and indicates to me one of two things: Kennedy never did come to terms with his actions leading to and following the accident, or his conscience was so seared, either prior to or after the accident, as to be rendered mute.
You can listen to it here:
http://hotair.com/archives/2009/08/28/one-of-his-favorite-topics-of-humor-was-indeed-chappaquiddick-itself/

The act of conking out does not by itself expunge a lifetime of
$%#@%!!-ness.

If there’s one form of hypocrisy I can’t tolerate it’s sentimental regard for the dead, simply because they are dead. To hear some people talk at a funeral – or in the news on this occasion – one would suppose dying was limited to the chosen few.

By the synthesized account, Kennedy called some friends over after he swam to safety. He told them that he tried to swim back and get her, but couldn’t.

(That’s cowardice. At the time, he thought nothing but saving his own life, and then when he tried to swim back, the damn car was on the bottom of the lake, and Kennedy said ‘F that, I’m not risking my life for some dead girl’)

He then said good bye to his friends, and his friends told him to call the police and thought he had. Until they called on him in the morning and found out he hadn’t called the police, after he told them that he would. (Dishonorable wretch. A man is worth nothing if he breaks his word, especially on things like this)

Cowardice, dishonorable conduct, the list goes on.

For such a weak man with so many skeletons in his closet, he could have been destroyed easily in the public’s eye, assuming one could survive the Kennedy clan’s retribution although that could be a secondary consideration if one hates enough.

But nobody in politics wanted it badly enough. They didn’t hate him enough. They were his peers and equals. He didn’t treat them badly. Just those with less power than Senators and Presidents. Those he treated badly and the rest of our “Congress” said and did nothing about it. A slave master owns his slave and it is his business how he treats those lesser than him.

All Bork had to do to defend himself was to tell Kennedy in a publicized Senate hearing that ‘he wouldn’t have callously left a girl to die for his own personal enjoyment and safety’.

But no, Republicans aren’t mean. They aren’t ruthless. They’re just prey. And I despise prey.

Power is what matters. Who has it, how it is distributed and obtained, and how it is maintained. Democracy does not matter. Elections do not matter. The matter of power matters. The matter of how leaders are selected to wield that power matters. The functionality of how power is used, does not matter compared to the functionality of how power is gained and maintained.

That is what the Kennedies and the Demoncrats taught me. And I thank them for that knowledge, as I thank terrorists for teaching me the value of violence, killing, and faith. I thank them because it has made me more capable of terminating them than I would have been, had I not learned a thing, had I continued to live in a sheltered and ignorant world of Hollywood culture and Academic lethargy.

I have nothing against learning from others. Serial killers, con-artists, criminals in prison, gangsters, terrorists, Osama, Obama, Ted Kennedy, Clinton, anyone and anything. So long as it makes me closer to reality, to the truth of what is important and what is not important. And of course, I dare to say that I wish to become better, if only theoretically, than my instructors. A student must eventually use what they have learned to surpass their masters, after all. That’s human nature or at least human history.

The second dream says “If you have wealth, you can get power, and if you have wealth and power, you can do anything you want and receive no major punishment”.

You, the person sitting in a chair reading this, are more or less invested in the first dream. That’s why your life has been increasingly controlled by those that have invested in the second.

If I want to destroy evil, or at least set back entropy a bit, I must acquire power and wealth or at least access to them. The question is always, do you want to destroy evil enough? Do you hate their servants enough? Do you just dislike Ted Kennedy and his works or do you hate the very idea of his existence and its effects on others?

Those that sip tea and talk about these issues of politics as anything other than issues of life and death, don’t have the will to do anything even if you gave them the opportunity to do so. THey don’t have the guts, the fortitude, the smarts, the strength to do anything.

Link

There’s your new Lord Ruler. He is dead, yes. But you’ll have another one, to join the endless parade of them in DC.

This enemy never sleeps. You cannot defeat it with guns, violence, or words. It cannot be defeated at the ballot box. It cannot be defeated by intellect or physical hardiness. This enemy never sleeps, you can only push it back until some odd generation later, it awakes from its slumber and arises anew.

Power is required to push it back into the sea, before its monstrous form arises anew over a future non-vigilant generation, assuming the current one survives. Wealth is required to buy propaganda to convince the masses. Wealth is required to provide arms for security and infrastructure for prosperity.

This is much like Charis and the decision Nimue Alban made. The funny thing about reading all those science fiction histories and alternative histories is the association that this was the past and it would most likely never happen to the world I know, the First World of Western Civilization. That was due to ignorance, because it had already happened. Most people didn’t notice and so weren’t talking about it on tv or in books. But history told the truth to me; it told me what I needed to know in order to recognize what was happening today.

but one of the most accomplished Americans ever to serve our democracy.

Make no mistake, citizens of America. Kennedy never served you anything except lies. You served him. As a waitress or waiter. As a debt-servant and slave. As a vessel for his entertainment. As a canvas for his artistry and manipulations.

You were his servant, not the other way around. He said that he’d give his servants, you, the right to the same quality healthcare as his own personal privilege and wealth had bought. He thinks it is his right, by inheritance, that you should have the same right. Enjoy that lie, for in a socialized healthcare system, the elites like Kennedy will still get the best, but this time you won’t be able to pay for it cause the service itself won’t be available for any price. You won’t have enough friends in high places to give you that access, and the price to buy that influence will be larger than what you could make in your entire life.

This was the case under Absolute Monarchs. And we are returning to it, for we have had decades of it already, on top of everything else. And why hasn’t America fallen already? Because of the US Constitution. It was designed to control greed and megalomaniacs. Keep them in their place. Prevent somebody like Kennedy from becoming President. But now it is weakening. It is weak enough to let an Obama become President.

The Constitution is not strong enough to keep these leeches in check. The fail safes must be activated soon.

I’m about to turn my radio off — the lies that are being spewed about Ted Kennedy (respectful, never personally attacking, etc.) just make me retch.

Not wasting a moment of time …. the ‘opportunist’ found the time to community organize while grieving. What a guy!

Michelle and I were heartbroken to learn this morning of the death of our dear friend, Senator Ted Kennedy.

For nearly five decades, virtually every major piece of legislation to advance the civil rights, health and economic well-being of the American people bore his name and resulted from his efforts.

His ideas and ideals are stamped on scores of laws and reflected in millions of lives — in seniors who know new dignity; in families that know new opportunity; in children who know education’s promise; and in all who can pursue their dream in an America that is more equal and more just, including me.

In the United States Senate, I can think of no one who engendered greater respect or affection from members of both sides of the aisle. His seriousness of purpose was perpetually matched by humility, warmth and good cheer. He battled passionately on the Senate floor for the causes that he held dear, and yet still maintained warm friendships across party lines. And that’s one reason he became not only one of the greatest senators of our time, but one of the most accomplished Americans ever to serve our democracy.

I personally valued his wise counsel in the Senate, where, regardless of the swirl of events, he always had time for a new colleague. I cherished his confidence and momentous support in my race for the Presidency. And even as he waged a valiant struggle with a mortal illness, I’ve benefited as President from his encouragement and wisdom.

His fight gave us the opportunity we were denied when his brothers John and Robert were taken from us: the blessing of time to say thank you and goodbye. The outpouring of love, gratitude and fond memories to which we’ve all borne witness is a testament to the way this singular figure in American history touched so many lives.

For America, he was a defender of a dream. For his family, he was a guardian. Our hearts and prayers go out to them today — to his wonderful wife, Vicki, his children Ted Jr., Patrick and Kara, his grandchildren and his extended family.

Today, our country mourns. We say goodbye to a friend and a true leader who challenged us all to live out our noblest values. And we give thanks for his memory, which inspires us still.

Sincerely,

President Barack Obama

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.

Ahh…the visuals. Lulu you framed it perfectly.

JFK was packaged and promoted at the onset of the television age. The package included the ‘Hollywood’ link as well – MM singing Happy Birthday, Mr. President, Frank Sinatra and the Rat Pack as part of the entourage. Add to the mix, the Mafia/ Cuba connection, the appointment of RFK as AG all topped off with Ted and the drowning of Mary Jo Kopechne, who was the ‘only’ child. My heart broke for her parents.

It was a surreal mix of (packaged) Camelot meets The Sopranos.

But I do think we’re at the point where the Daniel Hannan speech denouncing Gordon Brown has exactly the right tone. It is forceful and passionate without a hint of a rant. The atmosphere is right.

> Conservatives seem to have all these rules about what to engage and when to engage. [...] Thus the conservatives stay within the law and the rules, and lose. The Left stays within the law and stays outside the rules, because they know when to break and bend the rules, and win.

I think Ymar is spot on.

Conservatives “Oh, no, we mustn’t say that! Or speak that way! Don’t be angry! Be nice! Smile a lot! Happy happy happy happy!”

Then we find that the politicians only pay attention when the people show up and they’re up in arms. They’re yelling, waving their arms in the air, accusing… they’re angry. Or more to the point: They Are Passionate

In all the Republican rules in the rule book, the one thing a conservative must NEVER NEVER NEVER do is to be passionate. To express passion. Be calm! Be calm! Be calm!

We must stop it. The time for calmness has passed. Let’s get passionate. Hey, folks, it is time to ROCK AND ROLL IT. Let’s go. Stop the smiles and the calm, detached mildness.