News Heading of the Week
From this article, about halfway down: Some Never Forgave Kennedy for Chappaquiddick. What? Who would those ignoramuses be? Forgive and forget–we're talking about one girl here, jeez.
I liked the following question posed by Ted Kennedy biographer Edward Klein: "How could he be one of most trusted members of Senate–and they trusted his word as good as gold–be an out of control frat boy most of his life?" Then he answers his question: "Life is complicated and people aren't as simple as we'd like them to be."
After that night, the word Chappaquiddick became synonymous with deception and abuse of power, and for decades until this day, each anniversary was dredged up in newspapers around the country.
But oddly, the darkest moment in Kennedy's career also sealed his fate as a work-horse senator and ultimately transformed him into one of the most highly regarded politicians in Congress.
Yeah, "highly regarded" because no one could win an election against him. With the Kennedy machine behind him, the guy could do whatever he wanted.
Well that's that. Wanted to make sure I had the word "chappaquiddick" on the blog for some hits.
I didn't realize he was one of the primary architects, if not THE primary architect, of "No Child Left Behind". In light of chappaquiddick, that's an interesting name for his pet legislation, to say the least.
ReplyDeleteI told my 22-year-old daughter about Chappaquiddick tonight. She was stunned.
ReplyDeleteThe stunning thing to me is that our media/schools/take-your-pick are so lame that this story regarding The Greatest Senator Of Our Time would not be common cultural knowledge to a bright 22 year old college graduate.