Ted Kennedy RIP
The nation rightly mourns the passing of Senator Kennedy, the last American politician for whom idealism was a standard.
I first met the Senator as a teenager visiting Washington with my mother. My mom is a talkative person, far from shy, and when she saw him coming down the Senate stairs one afternoon at the Capitol, she buttonholed him and introduced me. He was off work, but he spent 30 minutes talking to us--even though we were from Ohio. Then he got into his car--I don't remember what kind it was, but it was several years old, I think a Chevy Nova, pretty crappy--and drove off. Meanwhile, Bob Dole's chauffeur was waiting for him in a sleek black limo. There, I thought at the time, is the difference between the parties. Or was.
I worked on his 1980 presidential campaign.
Years later, I also had the honor of winning the RFK Journalism Award, and met him at the award ceremony. Like all good politicians, the Senator loved people, talking to me at length (with Arthur Schlesinger!) about the fall of Hitler's Germany. I totally dorked out, being a huge WWII fanatic.
Kennedy's personal and political weaknesses are well known and therefore not needed to be discussed here. All I can say is that he is the last of a race of giants. America will not see his like again. And, if I may interject some dime-store psychology, I doubt that a person of lesser appetites could be as important in other respects.
I first met the Senator as a teenager visiting Washington with my mother. My mom is a talkative person, far from shy, and when she saw him coming down the Senate stairs one afternoon at the Capitol, she buttonholed him and introduced me. He was off work, but he spent 30 minutes talking to us--even though we were from Ohio. Then he got into his car--I don't remember what kind it was, but it was several years old, I think a Chevy Nova, pretty crappy--and drove off. Meanwhile, Bob Dole's chauffeur was waiting for him in a sleek black limo. There, I thought at the time, is the difference between the parties. Or was.
I worked on his 1980 presidential campaign.
Years later, I also had the honor of winning the RFK Journalism Award, and met him at the award ceremony. Like all good politicians, the Senator loved people, talking to me at length (with Arthur Schlesinger!) about the fall of Hitler's Germany. I totally dorked out, being a huge WWII fanatic.
Kennedy's personal and political weaknesses are well known and therefore not needed to be discussed here. All I can say is that he is the last of a race of giants. America will not see his like again. And, if I may interject some dime-store psychology, I doubt that a person of lesser appetites could be as important in other respects.
posted by Ted Rall at
9:51 AM
38 Comments:
Rest in Peace.
I hope Obama and the Dems don't ruin his dreams by passing weak and shitty healthcare "reform."
My only point of disagreement with you is on your statement, "the last American politician for whom idealism was a standard." I have to say that this describes Dennis Kucinich, too.
Ted,
I'm disappointed by your respectful eulogy of the late senator from Massachusetts.
I'd suggest re-running the cartoon you made after Michael Jackson's death. The child molesters could be replaced by drunks in jail for vehicular manslaughter complaining about they need better publicists.
I think I'm too young to remember anything except the insane ranting of right wing bigots throughout the 1990s. It's all typical and worn out, no need to hash through it. I am of a generation that has seen far lesser political leaders, or maybe simply not idolized any of them.
I'm sure Obama and Co. will make a total mockery of health care "reform," ensuring generations of continued fighting over ideology rather than empirical solutions.
Forgive me, Ted, but I'm going to ignore all the fanfare over this. Our supposed 'best and brightest' simply fail to even conceptualize the problems accurately.
Your "dime-store psychology" is spot-on. It's the people with the raging appetites and questionable car accident etiquette who are driven (sorry) to get things done. Compare Mr. Kennedy to a milquetoast empty suit like Uh-bama (crack-smoking and dick-sucking allegations notwithstanding)and mourn not only for an old geezer with a funny accent, but for the last of the good politicians who actually weren't afraid to accomplish something in their careers, beyond winning the next election.
RIP Democratic Party, is more like it.
I think it's funny he had a dog named Splash
The question I keep asking myself is how do we get HR3200 scrapped while at the same time getting HR676 pushed to the forefront of the discussion and ultimately passed? Convincing the "Obama = socialist" crowd is a lost cause but the Obama Fan Base isn't much help either because to them, whatever Obama proposes must be (a patented) "good thing." There do not seem to be any rational thinkers left.
I'll miss him.
I hardly think Mr. Kennedy meant to hurt that poor girl that he had in the car with him forty years ago, let alone kill her.
You people need to get a grip.
Susan Stark: I don't remember any of us people here saying he meant to do anything. What he did was display a staggering (pun not noticed till I typed it) lack of judgment which ended in someone's death. If you can't admit that, maybe it's you person who needs to get a grip.
I don't think Kennedy is to blame for what happened at Chappaquiddick, I believe it was an accident. People also forget Laura Bush got into a fatal accident also a few years before Kennedy's.
Ted, I don't always see eye to eye on you, though I do have to apologize, you were right, Obama's a chickenshit.
You get accused of being a rotten, mean-spirited jerk sometimes. So do I.
It warms my heart to see you have kind words for Ted Kennedy. Thank you.
-another Ted
R.I.P Ted Kennedy
You know what, I was also raised in the '90's. And after what we have seen, ladies and gents, we do have a right to be cynical. There are times though, when that attitude must be put to a side for a moment.
Thank you Ted, for that wonderful eulogy to Mr Kennedy. I feel really bad for the abuse he and his family had to face whilst he was still alive.
Many people will shed crocodile tears for Mr Kennedy. many won't even have that much decency.
It is tragic that men have to die before they are shown a modicm of respect.
Rest In Peace Sir.
Did he mean to kill Mary Jo? I'm sure he didn't, other then the fact that he was drunk. It was his cowardly acts afterward.
"More people have died from Ted Kennedy's car then from my gun"
Wow, I hope none of you are gagging too hard as you fellate Kennedy.
"Then he got into his car--I don't remember what kind it was, but it was several years old, I think a Chevy Nova, pretty crappy"
SOMEONE has to say it - His GOOD car was probably at the bottom of some local body of water with a young woman inside...
"All I can say is that he is the last of a race of giants."
Please tell me this is not a Kennedy worship/Camelot thing. Not mere days after such a great rebuttal of Baby Boomer worship.
I'm not denying that Kennedy was able to go on to achieve some great things after getting the second/third/nth chances that ONLY a name like Kennedy could manage (he certainly did much better with his second chances than Dubya did with his).
But there have been and will be much better.
Kennedy gave us the HMO. How's that working for you?
I agree with Anon 9:59 PM, I also owe Ted his due; Obama is a chickenshit....though I am still glad to have voted for him and so very very glad that he won that election. That he's a loser president in the grand scheme of things is, I think, irrelevant. We were going to have a loser president regardless. Until we have a substantive choice, it's all about how we feel, and I feel a lot better with an articulate loser president than an inarticulate loser president.
With all that fanfare about Ted Kennedy,in my humble opinion, he was not a friend of the working class.
He was instrumental in pushing through, trucking and airlines deregulation during Carter time, and telecommunications deregulation during Clinton time.
These laws was powerful blows to unions and union membership and their bargaining power.
He supported "free trade" and NAFTA and WTO which accelerated the outsourcing of jobs and the continuous errosion of the middle class.
In the current health care "reform" debacle, right from the start he said he is against single payer because ,with it, no law will be passed in congress??!!
Yes, he championed increasing the minimum wage which is a small potatoe compared to his above record.
Li, in the second comment, is right. That line should have read "the last American politician Ted Rall likes". Dennis Kucinich, Ron Paul, Ralph Nader are all far more idealist than Kennedy. He might have been personable, jovial etc but, hey, so is Bill Clinton. And both are egomaniac, power-driven monsters. Some Anon was right, this Kennedy/Camelot worship silliness is one of the more stupid traits of the Boomers you caim to deplore. I'd rather you saved the slobbering flattery for the likes of Carter. And, if I may ask so, what was Kennedy's record on the Patriot Act and Afghanistan War?
Though hopefully it will be a good number of years in the future, I look forward to reading Ted's eulogy of Mikhail Gorbachev (much more of a giant than the horrid Kennedy - any one of'em! ) and compare with this sad piece.
Turns out Teddy liked to tell Chappaquiddick jokes, and never apologized to the mother of Mary jo for killing her daughter. What a gutless,drunk, fat coward.
Turns out Teddy liked to tell Chappaquiddick jokes [...] What a gutless,drunk, fat coward. [sic]
Huh? Is this poster referring to what Ed Klein said?
Klein said that one of Teddy's "favorite topics of humor was indeed Chappaquiddick itself. And he would ask people, 'have you heard any new jokes about Chappaquiddick?'" Klein also said, "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."
Americans generally enjoy only the most obvious, retarded humor. Irony and gallows humor is often lost. Chappaquiddick cost Kennedy dearly (though not as much as Kopechne and her family), and what I see in this quote is that Kennedy used a sense of humor to confront what was seemingly the most glaring failure of his life. You either laugh or cry. It's the same release. Can Mary Jo understand this? Or is she so creatively stunted that such a perspective is unimaginable?
Wow, I hope none of you are gagging too hard as you fellate Kennedy.
Well, Ted Kennedy is part of the ruling class, and he had hookers and all sort of assorted women to do that for him.
But I'd like to take this opportunity to remind people that the right wing has given Bush/Cheney a steady blowjob for eight years, and what did they get in return for it? At least Ted gave us something in return for his "good time".
I mean, George Bush Senior is mad because John Kennedy had Marilyn Monroe and he didn't. Kennedys' always got the good chicks.
Seriously, look at Barbara Bush.
Seriously, look at Barbara Bush.
Susan,
That's possibly the most shallow comment I've seen posted here. Never had you pegged for a deep thinker. Thanks for proving me right.
aggie,
Howard Dean just said that we won't get euro-style healthcare until we are destroyed by fascism.
So, I guess, Obama is the best president we could have hoped for.
That's possibly the most shallow comment I've seen posted here.
Well if you only read that part of the comments I've left here, and not the other parts, then I would appear shallow.
But to me, harping on the unfortunate death of that girl 40 years ago is quite shallow. What Ted Kennedy experienced was PANIC and EXHAUSTION, and it happens to the best of us in a situation like that. This is the statement that Kennedy gave to the police:
On July 18, 1969, at approximately 11:15 p.m. in Chappaquiddick, Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts, I was driving my car on Main Street on my way to get the ferry back to Edgartown. I was unfamiliar with the road and turned right onto Dike Road, instead of bearing hard left on Main Street. After proceeding for approximately one-half mile on Dike Road I descended a hill and came upon a narrow bridge. The car went off the side of the bridge. There was one passenger with me, one Miss Mary [Kopechne],[17] a former secretary of my brother Sen. Robert Kennedy. The car turned over and sank into the water and landed with the roof resting on the bottom. I attempted to open the door and the window of the car but have no recollection of how I got out of the car. I came to the surface and then repeatedly dove down to the car in an attempt to see if the passenger was still in the car. I was unsuccessful in the attempt. I was exhausted and in a state of shock. I recall walking back to where my friends were eating. There was a car parked in front of the cottage and I climbed into the backseat. I then asked for someone to bring me back to Edgartown. I remember walking around for a period and then going back to my hotel room. When I fully realized what had happened this morning, I immediately contacted the police.
-----------
The incident is a failure on Kennedy's part for not immediately contacting the police, but he and his friends did try to rescue the girl. For you to say that Kennedy told jokes about Kopechne is shallow indeed.
Haha. Imagine what sort of "life" someone must have to create a whole new account named "Mary Jo" in order to make a bunch of Beavis & Butthead jokes.
Maybe next life you'll get all the beautiful girls, and someone can hate you for it.
Said Susan:
Seriously, look at Barbara Bush.
True dat, but, in that respect, Clinton seems to be more of a Bush-ite than a Kennedyista. How's that for shallowness, Mary Jo?
On a more serious note, I doubt every single line of that report, and a good thing it is it doesn't mention booze. Frnakly, I cannot understand why non-Boomers lefties bow down at the Kennedys' altar, and not see them for what they were: creatures of privilege, unbridled ambition and political expediency, which some confuse with idealism.
Ummm EJK, I didn't have to create an account. If you're not sure how to use blogger, RTFM.
Susan,
Are you aware that Mary jo did not drown. She suffocated. She was trapped in an air bubble inside the car and died hours later waiting for that fat blubbering drunk coward to come back and rescue her. Instead, he slunk home and slept and finally called the police 10 hours later. With all due respect, I've read all of your postings, and corrected you many times on your factual inaccuracy's (none of which you had the guts to admit you were wrong).
Someone should correct Anonymous' grammatical "inaccuracy's."
Grouchy,
It's "inaccuracy's". not "inaccuracy's."
Nope. You're wrong. In American usage, my placement of the quotation mark is standard. Go look it up.
And you should have capitalized the word "not," you ignorant moron.
Nope. You're wrong. In American usage, my placement of the quotation mark is standard. Go look it up.
I'm not in America.
Nope is not a complete sentence in any country.
I doesn't matter where you're at, you dolt. Ted's blog is based in America. American usage by an American writer is proper.
In the context of a conversational exchange, "nope" is an acceptable retort. It would be cumbersome, wrong and moronic to write "I say nope." (There. I did it again. I used the quotation mark properly.)
• "Nope," used alone, is a sentence.
• Anonymous: find one -- one -- example in the New York Times of punctuation used outside of quotation marks.
• Kennedy backed NAFTA. Hagiographies are not justified.
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