August 28, 2009
Teddy Boy
I was going to take a pass on visiting the Ted Kennedy Death Dervish Extravaganza, but, as Oscar Wilde said, I can resist everything but temptation.
I saw what Ted Kennedy did to Robert Bork. I saw what he did to Kopechne. There was not a noble bone in that savage's body. Any political position he took was calculated to garner him power. No more, no less. Which I suppose one could say about most politicians, absent the body in the Olds and scalps in the closet. Kennedy did not inspire: he merely counted coup.
The closest I ever came to the creature was existential: In July of 1976 I sailed into Edgartown harbor aboard a 44-foot Luder-class sailboat with three fellow Coast Guard Academy cadets. We were closely followed by three other boats likewise manned by our classmates. We were spending two summer weeks sailing the Newport-New Bedford-Nantucket-Martha's Vineyard boneyards, honing our skills.
As we were racing the other boats we of course did not fraternize with our other classmates. They were the enemy. My two black boatmates decided to try their luck at the discoteques, while Bruce and I determined to explore the island on foot with what little light we had remaining. (Aside: there was no luck involved with Congress and Darryl: two handsome black men with military ID's could score at will on Martha's Vineyard, especially if not accompanied by their two pimply white buddies. We took the hint, and bade them fair hunting).
Bruce and I wended our way toward Chappaquiddick, mostly on my macabre insistence. We encountered two nice girls, locals of course, who led us directly to the old wooden bridge. I was a closet weed smoker in those days, and was able to produce a reasonable facsimile of a joint, and we sat on the edge of that bridge and looked into the murky but shallow water that was so infamous.
The girls treated it as a local notorious thing they just had to deal with, like having people trample your backyard because your neighbor had claimed to see the Bigfoot in the woods behind your house. My friend Bruce was studiously apolitical, and found nothing but trouble in my persistent queries. Never fucking get laid with this cracker pothead around, he was no doubt thinking.
I just remember being quite stoned, and staring into that little pissant pond of water, and thinking: how do you get out of a car, and shut the fucking door, and swim away, when there's somebody else in the car? That's all I kept thinking: he had to have shut the door on her, because she asphyxiated. At any rate, I never explored the details. I suppose he could have enticed her to roll a window up behind him. In an upside down car.
Ted is how I'll always look at liberals: you can walk down the halls of the Senate with a goddamned severed head in hand, but if your politics are correct the entire fucking universe of the left will surround you, and protect you, and nurture you. Because only the game matters. No rules, no decency, no pride, no law. Just the fucking game. And winning.
Here's a little remembrance of the ultimate shitfuck loser coddled frat boy:
An American success story really. Poor white irish trash made it big on his daddies illegal whiskey money, his older brother had his command sunk under him, slept with a Nazi spy and got his brains blown out. Other brother shot up too and died on a slimy hotel kitchen floor and you are a hopeless drunk who leaves young girls to drown and you still have the people elect you over and over again.
Heck we are no better than a 3rd rate African country.
After reading this, I count my blessings, for I was never that close to the tumor.
Posted by: dick at August 28, 2009 9:59 PMDamn, dragline, you put a hella spin on that one.
Me, I shook a politican's hand once, but I sanded the skin off where I touched him. Hasn't happened since, and I hope it never does again.
Posted by: og at August 28, 2009 10:31 PMI'm a beginner @ the Crawford inspirational theatre. Not sure yet of the kind of inspiration but maybe with time I will lable it.
The quote, "I can resist everything but temptation" IS ME, however, I am learning
Man is least himself when he talks in his own, give him a mask and he will tell the truth.
I will continue the journey - with the goal of understanding the Velociman.
Today, on a whim, I did a little reading on the Kennedy dynasty. I had never really been that interested before, but Teddy's death marks the end of their real influence in politics.
Old man Joe ... I always knew he was a criminal and a commie sympathizer. But how positively evil does a person have to be to have his own 23-year-old daughter lobotomized because she is moody and rebellious? And then the family told everyone she was committed because she was retarded. Rose Marie Kennedy lived to the ripe old age of 87 and spent 64 years of her life in an institution, unable to speak or dress herself. At least they didn't Schiavo her.
Mother Kennedy lived to be 105, in spite of the stress of this and the early deaths of four of her nine children. Obviously she was made of durable material.
Posted by: PeggyU at August 29, 2009 2:52 AMI've always had more evil-doing in mind when I think of the sad way in which Ms. Kopechne died.
I mean, today, would he still get by with it?
The whole "I was taking her to the ferry" story when he went in the opposite direction and when she left her personal belongings behind? When she didn't say "goodbye" to any of her cronies? Would the investigation be conducted differently if the same were to happen today? Or, would it only be managed differently were it a Republican who walked away from the scene?
I think far more happened than what we even know and I take comfort in knowing that even in God's forgiveness, we must pay for our sins in some measure. In fact, as a Baptist, that's one of the elements of Catholicism that I hardily agree with.
I expect Teddy-Boy to spend a considerable amount of time in purgatory.
Posted by: jmflynny at August 29, 2009 11:29 PMOne of the things that struck me was all the people that knew Teddy say that he was incredibly charming and witty, of COURSE he was. Psychopaths have to do that, if they didn't have that mask to hide behind they would be unable to trap their victims, that would be you and me.
I once worked for a small company and the President of it was one of these, with the same unseemly appetites and total lack of regard for anybody but himself. It took me awhile to figure it out, but he wasn't as smooth as Teddy was apparently. Once I figured out what kind of scumbag he was we didn't get along very well after that.
Peggy - OlManJoe was a major league Nazi sympathizer. That doesn't necessarily preclude previous or subsequent pro Communist sympathies.
Posted by: Cappy at August 30, 2009 3:58 PMYeah, I'm a little weary of all this canonization of St. Ted shit. They had the services on our TV's at work -- listening to all the eulogies about what a swell fellow he was, the only thing that kept running through my head was ..."this m-er f-er left a girl to drown in his car while his drunk ass swam off ... how in the fuck does he get to stay on & spend the next 40 years in the Senate & then get canonized to boot?" There are no possible amends for that kind of behavior. I truely don't understand. Yes, a considerable amount of time in purgatory!!
Posted by: Marianne at August 31, 2009 12:11 AMIn August to date there were 138 US soldiers killed and 542 wounded. This got little attention from the media. They were more interested in a booze slurping rake.
Posted by: Hermit at August 31, 2009 10:20 AMI apologize for the wrong numbers. The US casualties for Iraq are here.
globalsecurity.org
There once was a Senator named Teddy,
Whose hand on the wheel wasn't steady,
His hopes were all dashed
When his Oldsmobile crashed
While getting some Mary Jo head-ee.
You wrote: "I saw what Ted Kennedy did to Robert Bork. I saw what he did to Kopechne. There was not a noble bone in that savage's body."
All true except that nothing I've seen about that waste of skin shows that there was a DECENT bone in it's body.
Enjoy Hell, Teddy Boy.
Gerry N.
Posted by: Gerry N. at August 31, 2009 4:27 PMSo, Hermit, are you saying we should focus on Mr. Obama's War more seriously? I couldn't agree more.
Posted by: Velociman at August 31, 2009 7:18 PM