Ted Kennedy and Mary-Jo Kopechne. What Really Happened at Chappaquiddick?
By Bock May 18th, 2008 | Category: world
Ted Kennedy might die soon.
What happened, Ted?
If you’re asking who the hell Ted Kennedy is, then you probably belong to Generation Meh, as one contributor here describes it, and you deserve no further waste of our attention. If, on the other hand, you remember Ted Kennedy, or know all about him, then you’ll be aware that this man has contributed greatly to the uneasy peace we experience on this island. You’ll also know that he has been what we Irish like to think of as a great friend to this country, in our Catholic-Israeli kind of way.
Ted, what the hell were you thinking?
If, like me, you belong to a generation whose parents believed Ted’s brother, President John F Kennedy, was a fucking saint, then you’ll be transfixed as you watch this last survivor of Camelot enter his final struggle.
What, Ted? What the fuck went on?
I can’t deny it, this guy seems to have batted on our behalf all his life, and yet, because I’m of that generation, every time I see Ted Kennedy on the TV, I want to know the answer to the question that’s bothered me since I was a kid. I want to ask him, Ted, what exactly happened to Mary-Jo Kopechne?
Isn’t it terrible? What kind of Irishman am I who would question this peerless icon of Irish-Americanism, this man who has challenged the war-mongering idiot Bush, who has tirelessly spoken out on behalf of our people? What a churlish, ungrateful Irishman I am.
And yet. No matter what this man has achieved in the course of his life, there’s always Chappaquiddick. I can’t shake it off, no matter how I try. I just want to ask him the questions: Ted, what happened on that bridge? Did the car really go into the water by accident? Did Mary-Jo really drown?
I can’t help it, but then again, I’m a bad man. A bad, ungrateful man.
Ted, did you really try to save Mary-Jo or did you just swim the fuck away? And why, Ted? Why did you just swim away and leave Mary-Jo to drown?
Senator Edward Kennedy has been lionised in Ireland as a great friend of this country, and so he has been. But the question remains: what really happened at Chappaquiddick?
What happened, Ted? Why did you just swim away?
Why does this matter? It just does, all right?
It just does.
The Mary-Jo Kopechne incident is not the only criminal and misogynist doings that Kennedy was guilty of. He may be a great elected official, but as a man, he was cruel to women.
Here he is just another drunk from Boston. Unfortunately he has ridden the coat tails of his family name and influence to remain in the Senate for all these years. Whatever good he has done for Ireland is more than offset by the harm he has caused here by being one of the most socialist members of the Senate we have.
A friend of mine had a bumper sticker that says, “My guns have killed fewer people than Ted Kennedys car”.
Bock, you gotta see the irony, and remember, Americans don’t ‘do’ irony very well, the irony appreciation gene is missing over there.
Kennedy, the swimmer -gets a STROKE’…;-)
Nuts
Rhea: That’s where I’m going with this. Are people able to separate the man’s character from his achievements?
Brian: Exactly. It’s good to take the guns out of Ireland but bad to take them out of America.
Nut: That’s a cruel thing to say. Cruel.
Simple. He swam away, concocting his story, confident that the MSM, or anyone else, could be bullied, bribed, or blackmailed. He was right.
It’s only a sin if one gets caught.
That he held such power for so long is largely attributable to his being the last of that generation of Kennedys, none of whom had any talent for keeping it in their knickers, but were lionized all the same. We just know more about him, in real time, than we knew about the others.
You’re right, Bock.
It does matter.
I don’t reckon he’ll ever give up these answers. The Kennedy brand wouldn’t allow it.
They say Robert was the best of them but maybe he was a threatening old-school MCP as well. Take a while for Joe’s dodgy gangster rum-smuggling gene to thin out.
SeaDreams: I’d still like clarity. Perhaps he used his power wisely despite his past.
Medbh: Yes. However, it’s still an interesting variation on the old ad hominem problem.
ProblemSam: He’ll never give up the information, but people can form their own views on it. The best we can hope for now is a consensus on the balance of probability.
Conan: They’re a very flawed family, which is hardly surprising with old Joe’s genes involved. But, while they might have been ludicrously venerated, they aren’t totally evil either, and that’s what makes them interesting.
They are an interesting family, but the men in particular seem to have that womanizing, alcoholic genetic tendency down pat. They also seem to have that murdering gene down as well (Ted, and the two cousins – the FL one, and the CT one too).
JFK’s family: a great friend to this country, in our Catholic-Israeli kind of way.
You just summed up my father’s attitude perfectly. I wonder what he really thought about the Mary-Jo Kopechne episode. Or even if he cared. Things like that were never mentioned in Catholic-Israeli households when I was a child.
Right: now I feel rather badly, since he has a cancerous brain tumor. But on the other hand, I believe that you do pay for your sins, in this life or the next…..
If it’s true it’s true. Why regret saying it?
I have to admit that I have grown up annoyed at the American press which constantly tells us how much we owe to the Kennedies.
Personally, I never understood why the young woman’s family stopped an autopsy from being performed on their daughter. Or why they weren’t angrier that Ted called lawyers instead of the police to the scene of an accident. That has never made sense to me.
I have to admit its hard to get passed the image of a young woman waiting in vain as the air is used up in the sunken car.
As far as having the murder gene, the nephew in CT. was trough marrage (Ethels bros son),
and the one in Fl. was a rapest.
Ted Kennedy was and is nothing but a spoiled brat brought up by drunks and moonshine peddlers who believed that his kind are something special, something above all others. Of course when you believe this garbage you’re going to get into trouble.
Well, the man is 76 years of age and unless you’re 77 or more, you’re not really in a position to call him a brat, spoiled or otherwise.
If you are 77, I congratulate you on continuing to keep up with events via the internet.
Hey bolted nut that was hilarious…… and I am an American.
Kennedy got a lot of bad press over the above incident. But he got the ultimate bad press on our beloved Wikipedia last week when they reported that he was actually dead, kicked the bucket, bereft of life as John Cleese said in the Parrot sketch. Trouble was, he wasn’t dead…maybe he was just pining for the Fjords – the Gerald Fjords anyone? It has since been “edited” on Wikipedia – a mere technical point.This isn’t the first time that Wikipedia reported that someone had slipped off this mortal coil only to have to retract when the fucker showed up alive and kicking. Eventually of course Wikipedia will be right – a stopped clock is correct twice a day after all – as Kennedy will die. But he didn’t die last Wednesday Wikipedia, we hold this truth to be self evident.
What are you getting at Bock?
The man is a true statesman, you’ll be hinting at him having JFK bumped off next.
What am I getting at? I’m asking Ted to say what happened. He never explained his actions.
Ted Kennedy is a MURDERER. Imagine GWBush, or any Republican, driving a car, with a pretty, single, PREGNANT staffer, off a bridge after an late night drinking party. Then abandoning the pregnant girl to DROWN while Teddy swims away to construct an elaborate OBSTRUCTION OF JUSTICE scheme to deny culpability in the MURDER of an innocent girl left to DROWN slowly in a car submerged in less than 10 feet of water. If a Republican were even part of the cover-up, they would be jailed for LIFE.
Here is more data: There was an occupied house less than 200 yards from the bridge and over TWO hours elapsed from the car hitting the water to MJC’ s death. Rescue services, with diving equipment, could have been on the scene in less than 30 min. (small island, remember?) This leaves 90 minutes of TERROR, TORTURE, and DEATH at the feet of the WORST FAT FUCK to ever hold elective office in this country!!! Not to even mention he is also integrally responsible for the evisceration of our borders, assault on our health care, and any other way he can fuck this country of his birth. God must be punishing us to allow this disease masquerading as a human to continue to afflict us. Why won’t he just die, slowly and silently??
Great to see that a Kennedy is still stinging the wasps after all these years
Indeed. There’s a lot of vitriol in Tedhai’s comment.
Stinging wasps? I am Panamanian. Vitriol? Let’s go back to the MURDER of an innocent woman. You know, the violent, involuntary extinction of life. But, maybe Mr. Abdul and Mr. Bock you are both so enlightened you can overlook a such a small thing as murder, combined with an elaborate conspiracy to obstruct justice. Maybe it’s a moveon.org thing, we’ll just overlook this little peccadillo about killing, lies, and conspiracy, because he votes democrat. I don’t know what moral universe you exist within, but in mine, committing murder makes you a murderer, regardless of how you vote or where you worship. Teddy is sure a historic guy. With the exception of John Kerry, I know of no other elected national representative, house or senate, in the 19th, 20th, or 21st century guilty of murder.
Tedhai — You didn’t read this post at all, did you?
Panamanian, yeah right, and the Pope is playing central midfield for Glasgow Rangers.
Everyone at the party took LSD.
Mary-Jo “freeked out” and Ted was driving her home. He was tripping is socks off !
Thats why alot of this isn’t really talked about.
If Ted was tripping, they should say so. It’s the least sinister of all the theories I’ve heard yet, and plausible too. I wouldn’t dismiss it.
Imagine how LSD, or whatever his/her initials were, must have felt, and he/she being taken by everyone at the party, an all – there’s no future in nostalgia folks.
There sure ain’t.
The kennedys are almost all complete slimeballs and ted is a murderer. This sort of power in politics makes me sick to my stomach.
Ted Kennedy’s performance that awful night bespeaks of panic. Premeditated murder over a pregnancy was always possible, but I think negligent homicide the more appropriate charge.There is no doubt in my mind whatsoever that Clinton was in on the cocaine money train during his governorship, that he covered up the truth of the Murrah building bombing, and was probably fingerable for the deaths of Ron Brown and Vince Foster. Bush et al are certainly guilty of the events on 9/11. The evidence is too voluminous to recount, and is available to us all through the internet. To be blind to this evidence is to exhibit an overweaning addiction to mythological structures. In other words, if you were told your dad was an adulterer, you wouldn’t believe it. If you actually caught your dad in the act, you still wouldn’t believe it. Your need for a mythologically constructed life wouldn’t allow you to believe your own eyes. Kennedy got a pass on the unrighteous death of one innocent person. Bush so far has gotten a pass on the murder of thousands, even though the evidence hides on the internet in pictorial and anecdotal form, in plain sight.