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Kennedy to lie in repose in Boston for 2 days

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Obama calls him the greatest senator ever because TK supported Obama over Hillary.

He became a senator only because his brother was the president.

During the Korean war, he was stationed in Paris!

He got a two-month suspended sentence for what we all know was manslaughter.

His legislative achievements, other than the civil rights ones and allowing third worlders in to the USA, were meals on wheels and raising the minimum wage.

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Taka313:

The conservative republicans relish the fact that she's dead. If she wasn't, they wouldn't have their political prop.

Relish? That's libel, Taka. Or perhaps I should point out how the Left doesn't care about life, whether it's an unborn child or a young woman who was a hinderence to one of their dear leaders. And as I said on the thread announcing Kennedy's death: Not a political prop, but a humanity marker. If Sarah Palin, George W. Bush or Ronald Reagan had done that, there would be no forgiveness for them either. It happens to be that it was a hero of the Left who did that. Clearly, the Left can forgive someone when it suits their political agenda, while a Republican would have been driven out of politics by both sides. Why? Because right-wing conservatives have principles and morals, while Leftists have moral relativity and agenda-at-all-costs.

They have no ideas, no morals and are like a boil on the buttocks of America. Small in numbers, smaller in usefulness, but REALLY annoying.

Wow, such vitriol. What have we done to deserve this? I mean, besides reminding you of the FACTS of Kennedy's life. Reminding all of you trying to cannonize him for his stated ideals and goals that he never lived up to them? The inconvenient truth, as it were. Hey Taka, project much?

RomeoRamenII:

Heh, I'll take hypocrisy for $200, Alex.

You'll do better with fraud for $1,000.

Environmentalism? Not in his sailing waters. Soak the rich? Not his family's tax-sheltered wealth. Go after Big Oil? Not the segment the Kennedy family was invested in. And the list goes on and on. Teddy Kennedy wasn't just a mere hypocrite, he was a fraud.

Taka313:

But, the fact is, he plead guilty to every crime he was charged with.

A deal arranged by his father. Otherwise, he would've been charged with DUI, vehicular manslaughter, or obstruction of justice, just like the rest of us non-Kennedys.

Secondly, all of these trolls and twerps only care about Mary Jo Kopechne as a political prop.

So, someone who proves you wrong is a "troll" and a "twerp"? If you've cheated on your taxes and at least once belonged to a militant communist revolutionary group, you're qualified for a position in the Obama administration. Or at least in Pelosi's office.

SuperLib:

But in the end he was given a gift, a choice. He was given the gift of a choice and chose to spend the rest of his life trying to help others. Based off of what I've read from people who knew him and other nations he ended up doing a lot of good with the second chance he unfairly got. Should he have been in prison? Probably. But he did a lot more good out of prison than he could have done in prison

And only Teddy Kennedy could have done that? Somehow, I doubt it.

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It's just an odd situation. The death of a young woman was involved and people don't know what really happened. Not reporting it is something that can't be forgotten. Thinking of that girl sitting in the car overnight without him doing anything at all is just plain creepy. And yeah, his family name did make him "above the law."

Is it fair? No..... But in the end he was given a gift, a choice. He was given the gift of a choice and chose to spend the rest of his life trying to help others. Based off of what I've read from people who knew him and other nations he ended up doing a lot of good with the second chance he unfairly got. Should he have been in prison? Probably. But he did a lot more good out of prison than he could have done in prison. I'm not sure if erasing all of that is the right choice to make in the end, even if it's unfair to her and her family.

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Tigermoth,

I'm not saying that the man was a saint. I'm not saying that what happened to Mary Jo Kopechne wasn't criminal.

Taka

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Liberals and the MSM may try as hard as they like to spin how Ted Kennedy was such a "great American", the fact remains that he should have been made to exchange his pinstripe suit for prison stripes. Or, do they issue orange jumpsuits in Mass.?

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smithinjapan and Taka: I cannot decide on whether to shake my head in shocked disbelief at the both of you, or smile in admiration.

I know that you both think that all attacks on TK are political, and smithinj we've already had a discussion on another article. Actually I grew up in a family where my mother absolutely idolized the Kennedys and named me after John Jr. I'm not a political creature of definition; on some issues I'm liberal, on others conservative. Honestly I don't see how anyone could be otherwise as following party lines is rediculously stupid (well, I suppose if you actually think that way it isn't).

My problem is not that Mr. Kennedy was a Democrat. He could be a Socialist snake handler studying to be an Islamic Rabbi for all I care (wouldn't that be something). While I realize that you look at his political career and marvel at all he accomplished - or at least all that you think he did (I can't say as I've never been interested enough to follow what he did or didn't do - not my bag), since he's being treated as second only to the President and god, I can't help but note the contrary.

I'm certainly not 'relishing' in the fact that she's dead. I don't know her, and while Smith you earlier indicated that I don't care about her, you're wrong in the sense that it's human nature to care when another is wrongly killed, but correct in the sense that I didn't know her and don't sit around moping about her death. She's not the pudding, but rather one of the ingredients that shows the makeup of the man who is. For me it's not a political assasination as I don't care about his politics in this instance, but rather a character assasination. His was quite obvioulsy flawed, as you have admitted.

Your reasoning seems to be 'why bring this up; it's not the time nor place - unless you're politically motivated (as an evil conservative). The relevance lies in the nature of the great lamenting of his passing. The Kennedys notoriously have had great trouble with monogamy. Not my business except in character extrapolation. Ted's relationship with Mary Jo is suspect - who really knows? But the facts are that he drove off a bridge and into a pond, left her there to drown and went home, not informing the cops until the next day. He was 37 years old - not some mixed up college kid worried what dad might think. We can throw out being tossed out of Harvard once for cheating; he was young and we all make mistakes.

And that's where my admiration comes in. Apparently the both of you are perfectly willing to put aside the night of July 18, 1969 as if it never happened. Taka you even state as much:

The constant references to Mary Jo Kopechne need to stop.

So while you accuse everyone else of dredging it up in a 'right wing conspiracy' sort of thing, you believe his merits as Senator outweigh his earlier mistakes. I'm as forgiving as many, not forgiving as some quite obviously, but given how 'great' he is touted as having been now that he's gone, I cannot help but call that into question. A person with few morals, fewer regrets and weak nobility of character can accomplish great things, but does that make them great? My mind says no, but yours obviously says yes, so I suppose you are better people than I for being able to look past the obvious faults.

But even though you'll disagree with me and and likely label me as 'moral-less conservative scum' I can't be convinced of a person's greatness who conducted himself in such a cowardly way. I guess we just have different ideas of what constitutes the truly great.

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Romeo, I couldn't have stated that better.

He was an emperor who often ran around with no clothes (and had to pause to remember what day of the week it was). hic

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sf, Kennedy was an opportunist who harmed minorities and women. His sexual exploitation of the latter always seems to go unnoticed by feminists and those left of center.

sf, when was Kennedy 'leader of the Senate'? Help a bud out.

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When Gerald Ford pardoned Richard Nixon for his role in Watergate, Kennedy said:

“Do we operate under a system of equal justice under law? Or is there one system for the average citizen and another for the high and mighty?”

Heh, I'll take hypocrisy for $200, Alex.

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When Norman Mineta, a first Japanese-American elected Mayor of major city, San Jose, (currently 10th largest city in U.S.), was running for a Congressmen in 1974, Senator Kennedy flew to California to endorce his nomination without asking anything from Mr. Mineta. He was a leader is civil rights issues for minorities. His life had plenty of difficulties, but I respect what he did as a leader of the Senate.

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Seiji, isn't it fair that the victim receives more sympathy than the criminal?

-Her screamin' for him to help her and ultimately dyin' a horrific death, while he was simultaneously plannin' on how he was gonna get out of another Kennedy mess...

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I was really,really saddened to see that on GoogleTrends AND on twitter "Mary Jo Kopechne" outranked Ted Kennedy. It is SO not fair.

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The only "punishment" Kennedy received for leaving Mary Jo to drown in his car was the suspension of his driver's license for 12 months; meaning he was sentenced to be driven around in a limo for a year.

Heh, a true "Man of the People".

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Yeah, it's not really necessary to remind everyone of what a degenerate the distinguished senator from Chappaquiddick was, so let's all stop with the Mary Jo references. Sure, she could have been saved if he had reported the crash, but let's let bygones be bygones.

He was arrested four times for reckless driving including once going 90 mph with his lights off in a residential neighborhood. This was just during his time at the University of Virginia.

He spent two years in the army (in Paris! Meanwhile, the war raged in Korea) and remained a private throughout. No preferential treatment for him!

He was caught cheating at Harvard. Later, he paid another student to cheat for him. Front page of the Boston Globe:

http://www.boston.com/news/specials/kennedy/day2_ted_cheats/

Obama calls him, "The best senator in U.S. history." His accomplishments over 40 years are scant. Raising minimum wage, meals on wheels ...??? So what!

Let's be happy that he won't be able to harm the republic any longer with his garbage legislation. Read how he opened the floodgate for immigrants from third world countries: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immigra...ty_Act_of_1965

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Smitty,

No. The constant references to Mary Jo Kopechne need to stop.

The conservative republicans relish the fact that she's dead. If she wasn't, they wouldn't have their political prop. They don't care about the Kennedy family or the Kopechne family.

They care about political props. And that's the reason they are losers (See: 2006 2008 election cycles).

They have no ideas, no morals and are like a boil on the buttocks of America. Small in numbers, smaller in usefulness, but REALLY annoying.

Taka

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The man made some horrible decisions in his life, and also made some great choices that benefitted the nation. The former I hope haunted him his whole life, and they certainly kept him from achieving higher office, but it's a major shame those who can only use a poor woman's death to further their own political agenda (well, by keyboard anyway) cannot recognize the good that the man did as well. Hell, most of their own parties, including a former hero Ronnie Raygun, got along well and his wife Nancy and Mr. Kennedy agreed on a lot after Ronnie's death as well.

Since it needs to be spelled out for the brainwashed on here: NO THE BAD SHOULD NOT BE FORGOTTEN OR OVERLOOKED, but nor should the good that this man did. There are no current politicians who can reach across the divide like this man could, and he also made some amazing accomplishments with civil rights, etc.

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Isn't Edward M. Kennedy the guy who drove a car off a bridge into a pond around midnight, swam back to shore, leaving a young woman to die, went back to his hotel a couple of hours later, and finally made a statement to the police at 10:00 the following morning after he'd sobered up?

Checking...

Yeah, he was!

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A great American has passed.......I just hope that the fanatics will have some respect for him and his family.

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