Edward "Ted" Kennedy

Ted Kennedy is dead. Now we will have all kinds of pundits and politicians lining up to share memories and make statements. .

I have a memory or two of my own about Senator Kennedy.

I remember Chappaquiddick.

"In 1969 Mary Jo Kopechne, a former campaign worker for U. S, Senator Robert F Kennedy of New York. Kopechne's dead body was discovered inside an overturned car belonging to Senator Edward "Ted" Kennedy of Massachusetts under water in a tidal channel on Chappaquiddick Island. Massachusetts.

"After the body was found, Kennedy gave a statement to police saying that on the previous night he had taken a wrong turn and accidentally driven his car off a bridge into the water. He pleaded guilty to a charge of leaving the scene of an accident after causing injury, and received a suspended sentence."
Chappaquiddick

Ted may or may not have been having an affair with Mary Jo Kopchne. It really doesn't matter. He did have his share of extramarital affairs. No one knows if Mary Jo Kopchne was among them. We do know a few things about what happened that night.

That night after a party for campaign workers, Ted Kennedy was driving her home. He had been drinking.. Was he drunk? No one will ever know. He drove off a bridge into the lake. He escaped the car leaving her in it to die. Could he have saved her? No one will ever know because instead of going immediately for help, he swam and walked past four houses with telephones back to his hotel. Once there he did not call the police and report the accident. He said he fell asleep. He did confer with his political advisors. It wasn't until late the next morning that he notified the police about the accident. He left her in the car. He didn't stop at their first house or the second house or the third house or even the fourth house to call for help. He didn't call the police when he got back to his hotel. Could Mary Jo have been saved? Because of the cowardly "me first" actions of Ted Kennedy, we will never know.

If these were the actions of me or you, we we would have gone to jail for manslaughter and should have. Ted got a suspended sentence. Money talks. Powerful names help.

This was once again proven in 1991 when Ted Kennedy and his nephew, William Kennedy Smith, had a drunken shindig on Easter weekend of that year that turned sour.

"Patrick Kennedy and Smith returned (to the place where they and Ted were staying) . . . with , Michelle Cassone and Patricia Bowman. Cassone said that Ted Kennedy subsequently walked in on her and Patrick, dressed only in a nightshirt and with a weird look on his face. Smith and Bowman went out on the beach, where they had sex that he said was consensual and she said was rape. The local police made a delayed investigation; soon Kennedy sources were feeding the press with negative information about Bowman's background and several mainstream newspapers broke a taboo by publishing her name."

This ended up in court. William Kennedy Smith was acquitted. Ted Kennedy had to take the stand and testify in a rape case.

His personal life was a mess of women and booze. He is not a role model.

These are not the only memories I have of Ted Kennedy. I remember how his slanderous speech about Robert Bork destroyed a good man and his family. Ted lied about Bork for political reasons only. He said that Bork would deny people their civil rights, a lie that is red meat to liberals. . If a liberal disagrees with anyone, the standard trick is to accuse the person with whom he disagrees of being a racist, and the rest of the liberals will howl and screech and throw dust in the air. Ted was a good liberal.

Have you ever wondered why anyone who is nominated to the Supreme Court has to engage in all out war? Thank Ted. His slanderous behavior toward Bork changed everything about how nominations are handled

"The tone of the Bork battle changed the way Washington worked - with controversial nominees or candidates now experiencing all-out war waged against them - and the ramifications of it were still being felt two decades later."

I remember his hate filled attitude toward President Bush. I remember his accusations that our military were as bad as nazis. Ted Kennedy was a good liberal, but he was not a good man. He was not good for our nation.

I wouldn't wish cancer on any human being at all. I am not happy he is dead, but I am not unhappy he is no longer in the Senate. I would rather Ted lived many more years to enjoy his family as long as he wasn't in the Senate.

I don't see Ted as a hero. I have a different view of him completely.