Why is Let's Remember the Kennedys posted in a Canadian forum in the first place? We are here to get away from American politics and topics.
From: Chas Compilation: Saturday, August 29, 2009
Does the Truth about Ted Kennedy matter?
We aren't supposed to speak ill of the dead, or so some people say. Yet many people are speaking ill of the living, about those who don't think Ted Kennedy was such a good man. sympathy for his passing) A good enough Christian? A good enough man in the end? Not to judge by the vitriol on Twitter ... [...]
There are a whole bunch of people who want to ignore many things Kennedy did in his life, just white-wash it away like it never happened. Those who don't go along with that, are being targeted as unkind and mean spirited at best; as bitter, judgmental, unfeeling Monsters at worst.
But what about the plain facts?
In the comments section of the above article, someone posts the inconvenient facts that the Left wants to whitewash:
As soon as his cancer was detected, I noticed the immediate attempt at the "canonization" of old Teddy Kennedy by the mainstream media. They are saying what a "great American" he is. I say, let's get a couple things clear & not twist the facts to change the real history.
1. He was caught cheating at Harvard when he attended it. He was expelled twice, once for cheating on a test, and once for paying a classmate to cheat for him.
2. While expelled, Kennedy enlisted in the Army, but mistakenly signed up for four years instead of two. Oops! The man can't count to four! His father, Joseph P. Kennedy, former U.S. Ambassador to England (a step up from bootlegging liquor into the US from Canada during prohibition), pulled the necessary strings to have his enlistment shortened to two years, and to ensure that he served in Europe, not Korea, where a war was raging. No preferential treatment for him! (like he charged that President Bush received).
3. Kennedy was assigned to Paris, never advanced beyond the rank of private, and returned to Harvard upon being discharged. Imagine a person of his "education" NEVER advancing past the rank of Private!
4. While attending law school at the University of Virginia, he was cited for reckless driving four times, including once when he was clocked driving 90 miles per hour in a residential neighborhood with his headlights off after dark.. Yet his Virginia driver's license was never revoked. Coincidentally, he passed the bar exam in 1959. Amazing!
5. In 1964, he was seriously injured in a plane crash and hospitalized for several months. Test results done by the hospital at the time he was admitted had shown he was legally intoxicated. The results of those tests remained a "state secret" until in the 1980's when the report was unsealed. Didn't hear about that from the unbiased media, did we?
6. On July 19, 1969, Kennedy attended a party on Chappaquiddick Island in Massachusetts . At about 11:00 PM, he borrowed his chauffeur's keys to his Oldsmobile limousine and offered to give a ride home to Mary Jo Kopechne, a campaign worker. Leaving the island via an unlit bridge with no guard rail, Kennedy steered the car off the bridge, flipped, and into Poucha Pond.
7. He swam to shore and walked back to the party passing several houses and a fire station. Two friends then returned with him to the scene of the accident. According to their later testimony, they told him what he already knew - that he was required by law to immediately report the accident to the authorities. Instead Kennedy made his way to his hotel, called his lawyer, and went to sleep. Kennedy called the police the next morning and by then the wreck had already been discovered. Before dying Kopechne had scratched at the upholstered floor above her head in the upside-down car.
The Kennedy family began "calling in favors", ensuring that any inquiry would be contained. Her corpse was whisked out-of-state to her family before an autopsy could be conducted.
Further details are uncertain, but after the accident Kennedy says he repeatedly dove under the water trying to rescue Kopechne and he didn't call police because he was in a state of shock. It is widely assumed Kennedy was drunk, and he held off calling police in hopes that his family could fix the problem overnight. Since the accident Kennedy's "political enemies" have referred to him as the distinguished Senator from Chappaquiddick. He pleaded guilty to leaving the scene of an accident, and was given a SUSPENDED SENTENCE OF TWO MONTHS.
Kopechne's family received a small payout from the Kennedy's insurance policy and never sued. There was later an effort to have her body exhumed and autopsied, but her family successfully fought against this in court, and Kennedy's family paid their attorney's bills.... A "token of friendship"?
8. Kennedy has held his Senate seat for more than forty years, but considering his longevity, his accomplishments seem scant. He authored or argued for legislation that ensured a variety of civil rights, increased the minimum wage in 1981, made access to health care easier for the indigent, funded Meals on Wheels for fixed-income seniors, and is widely held as the "standard-bearer for liberalism".. In his very first Senate roll he was the floor manager for the bill that turned U.S. Immigration policy upside down and opened the floodgate for immigrants from third world countries.
9. Since that time, he has been the prime instigator and author of every expansion of an increase in immigration up to and including the latest attempt to grant amnesty to illegal aliens. Not to mention the pious grilling he gave the last two Supreme Court nominees, as if he was the standard bearer for the nation in matters of "what's right". What a pompous a**!
10. He is known around Washington as a public drunk, loud, boisterous, and very disrespectful to ladies. JERK is a better description than "great American".. "A blonde in every pond" is his motto.
Let's not allow the spin doctors to make this jerk a hero -- how quickly the American public forgets what his real legacy is.
If Ted Kennedy did some good things in his life, fine. But the truth is the whole story, not just the cherry-picked good parts. No one is perfect, we are all flawed, yet some people's lives lean more in one direction than the other. The Kennedy fans want us to forget or not speak about his flaws, so they can stack the good side of the scale in his favor.
I don't particularly enjoy speaking ill of the dead. I just happen to care about what the facts are, what the truth is. The Left is now pissing in the soup, and trying to vilify those of us who won't drink it.
I say, no way, no white-wash. The truth is what it is. Deal with it.
If that makes me mean-spirited in some people's eyes, so be it. I can only say that, leaving Mary Jo to suffocate to death, clawing at the floor in his upside down submerged car, while he phoned his lawyer and then went to bed, could be interpreted as far more "mean" than anything anyone could say about him now.
It's a travesty that Kennedy was ever allowed to serve as a senator after what he had done was known. If the majority of people in this country now think he was a great man, they are either ignorant of the facts, or we, as a nation, are in big trouble