[StBernard] Last Of The Kennedy Dynasty

[Westley Annis]

As Ted Kennedy approaches his date with the Almighty, there is likely to be
an attempt to memorialize this person beyond his actual contributions to
public service.  The following should help filter the impurities that the
media will undoubtedly spew in their attempt to revise history.  

Last Of The Kennedy Dynasty
                             
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 and
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 pled 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, and 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 ass!                                                              

 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 make this jerk a hero -- how quickly the
 American public forgets what his real legacy is.  Let's keep this going   
 for truth, justice and the American way!  
----------------------------------------
As an addition, when John Kerry was running for President and Mitt Romney
was governor of Massachusetts, Kennedy successfully got the State
Legislature to pass a bill that would prohibit the governor of appointing a
successor to Kerry's Senate seat of the far off chance he would win. Now,
Kennedy is hanging on to his seat, trying to get the bill he campaigned for
reversed, since current Govenor Deval Patrick is a Democrat.