Ted dead!

[Brian Ellis]

Sen. Ted Kennedy, a controversial love/hate person has died at 77. No matter our personal thoughts, RIP

[Brian Ellis]

http://icanhascheezburger.com/2009/0...eh-om-nom-nom/

Hardly appropriate to this thread, especially as he was a supporter of Israel.

[Dr Mordrid]

Sympathy for the family, but even with politics aside I couldn't stomach the SOB after Chappaquiddick. Bastard should have gone to jail for a decade or more, but Massachusetts is a Kennedy company town so.....

[cjolley]

RIP
One brother killed in war and the other two assassinated.
Has anyone else noticed the remarkably high percentage of political figures who get brain tumors? It's not like that in the general population is it? I have only known one personal friend to have one.

[KRSESQ]

Sympathy for the family, but even with politics aside I couldn't stomach the SOB after Chappaquiddick. Bastard should have gone to jail for a decade or more, but Massachusetts is a Kennedy company town so.....

Well, that's all water under the bridge now.

Love him or hate him, it's safe to say he probably had a more far-reaching impact on the country than most of the presidents he served with.

Kevin

[TransformX]

Hardly appropriate to this thread, especially as he was a supporter of Israel.

Sorry, was at work and not entirely focused. Meant as a new thread, not a reply.

[Dr Mordrid]

Well, that's all water under the bridge now.

I disagree.

For the next several months we're going to hear all about "the great man" in an effort to jinn up support for a health care plan in his name that is sinking like a rock with the public. IMO the bill should pass or fail on its merits, not to honor a dishonorable man.

Showing him for what he was, a killer who got away with it, puts things back into perspective.

Killer?

Yes. In many states (other than Massachusetts, of course) he could have gone to jail for murder: causing a death in the commission of a felony, that being drunk driving.

That's the law here in Michigan, and you see it charged all the time. Sometimes murder 1, sometimes murder 2. Depends on the exact circumstances and the prosecutor.

True, a first or second offender will usually be charged with a misdemeanor, but when there is a death our prosecutors will ratchet it up an the offender could go away for life. A third drunk driving charge is an automatic felony regardless.

Ted's circumstances, and his behavior after the wreck extending into sobriety, would have caused them to start building gallows, and we don't even have the death penalty.

BTW: when I formed my opinion of Ted Kennedy I was a Democrat just over a year out from working in Bobby's campaign, and it hasn't changed one whit. He was a slime then and he was right up to today.

[KRSESQ]

I can see either my delivery needs work or someone's pun detector needs batteries. :/

Kevin

[Kruzin]

Unfortunatly, MI has not always been so hard on drunk drivers, especially those married to senators or congressmen. Of course, back then, no state was...

Back in '85, my Uncle was killed on his motorcycle by the wife of an elected official (I can't remember if it was a congressman or senator).
She was drunk. Pulled out in front of of him on his bike (which he had given me a ride on just a few months earlier). Totaled her '84 Olds Cutlass wagon (NOT a small vehicle, nor easily totalled in those days). He flew several hundred feet. He was wearing a helmet. It was found 2 weeks later.

No charges ever filed.

My son is his namesake, and his memory is what keeps me from driving even a little buzzed almost 25 years later....

The whole drunk driving murder thing always made me dislike Teddy K....so I won't miss him....

edit...and Kresq, I got the weak pun...but it was in poor taste for anyone who has lost a loved one to a drunk driver....

[WxDude]

Ok,

Being a Massachusetts resident, here is my take on it.

To Edward M. Kennedy's family:

My condolences on your loss. This is a sad day for your family and I wish you all the best in this time of sorrow and loss.

As a constituent, I am glad he is gone. While he has gone to great lengths in the past to fight for people he represents when they needed help, he didn't care whether or not we agreed with legislation that he was voting on. He has always done things that were supportive of his agenda and not what was in the best interests of the people of Massachusetts.

As an example,

If it has not been reported widely outside of the Boston area, back in 2004 Senator Kennedy pushed the Massachusetts legislature to change the laws on appointing senators when it looked like John Kerry might be elected. Before 2004, the governor would appoint a new senator if the old senator resigned before his term was up. The excuse was that it would be wrong to allow a governor to appoint a replacement. That is should be up to the people to decide. Now, since the governor in 2004 was Republican Mitt Romney, the real story was that it was unacceptable to have him appoint a replacement, as it would most likely be a Republican. We can't have a Republican from Massachusetts, now can we. So the law was changed as Teddy's behest to require a special election within 145-160 days of the resignation.

Fast forward to ~1-2 weeks ago. The Boston Globe (itself a model of balanced reporting...NOT) reported that a letter was delivered to Deval Patrick from Senator Kennedy requesting that the law be change again so that the governor would appoint a new senator. This senator would be required to give a personal promise to not run for re-election when the term was up. It was TOO IMPORTANT for Massachusetts to not have 2 voices in the senate at this critical time. This letter was written in July 2, 2009.

So, 5 years ago, it was unacceptable to allow the governor to appoint a replacement, and now it is unacceptable to allow the people to vote and not have full representation. Didn't matter that during the 2004 election, John Kerry was MIA during almost all of the votes (can't have a recorded vote to go against him), and that Teddy has been MIA for most of the last 16 months. And he could have entered hi resignation in after the inauguration. That would have started to clock running and he would have had 145-160 days to try and get his desired legislation through. And if he did that, we would be having our election now and not in January. We would have our 2 voices in there now. So now, Our governor has said he will gladly sign any legislation that comes to his desk to change the law. And the leader of our state senate has said they will bring it up.

He is such a hypocrite. And I am very glad that he is no longer our senator.

I am sorry if this sounds crass and unsympathetic, but I am not one of those people who bow down and worship the ground that the Kennedys walk on. They all have played games with our government to suit their own needs and not the needs of the people they work for. It is high time for us to have someone else in there who is not a Kennedy. And it is time for the people to have a voice in who we send. If it was good enough for the Dems in 2004 to have us vote, then it is damn well good enough now.

[KRSESQ]

Wow. Tough crowd.

Okay, no jokes.

Kruz, I know what it's like to lose someone to drunk driving. I've lost two cousins and one old friend to drunk driving accidents. Fortunately (if you want to use that word) the only ones they killed were their own dumb asses. In addition, another old friend's 8-year-old son was killed when their pickup was t-boned by a drunk college kid in another pickup who was drag racing a third pickup. That a**wipe got two years, suspended (local college football hero). So go lecture someone else.

I sometimes make jokes to lighten up serious occasions. Sometimes my jokes are a little inappropriate. It's my curse and my burden. You may accept this as a blanket apology for all future transgressions.

You guys act like you were shocked or surprised that Kennedy came out of the Chappaquiddick incident with little more than a slap on the wrist and a slightly tarnished reputation. You act like you lost your innocence. Hell, even in 1969, at the tender age of 11, I was savvy enough to know that there are two tiers to the American justice system: one for the wealthy and powerful and privilaged, and one for everyone else. It was no surprise to me at all. In fact, I remember thinking at the time that it was a perfectly natural state of affairs. The wealthy ALWAYS walked in those days.

(Of course, for someone who worked on Bobby Kennedy's campaign, I can see how Teddy's actions that night would have been disappointing at the very least. Quite the squandering of a legacy, that.)

Things ARE getting better. Remember the Janklow incident? He wasn't drunk. His defence was that he was hypoglycemic at the time of the accident, but the truth is he was a reckless speed demon. He was at least forced to resign his congressional seat. He also got 100 days in jail.

So Ted Kennedy never paid for Chappaquiddick. Look on the bright side: he never became President. If Chappaquiddick proved anything, it was that his first instinct and first reaction in a major crisis was to panic and cover his own ass.

And now he's dead. The End.

Kevin