Tim wrote:
On Jan 2, 1:46 pm, Boater wrote:
Teddy probably is the best and most respected legislator in the U.S.
Senate, and on both sides, dimwit.
*cough!*
Ted Kennedy has held his Senate seat for more than four decades, 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.
Widely held as the "standard-bearer for liberalism", his legacy is that
his era has been dominated by conservatives (Richard Nixon, Ronald
Reagan, George W. Bush) and moderates (Jimmy Carter, George H.W. Bush,
and Bill Clinton).
Kennedy earned C grades at the private Milton Academy, but was admitted
to Harvard as a "legacy" -- his father and older brothers had attended
there, so the younger and dimmer Kennedy's admission was virtually
assured. While attending, he was expelled twice, once for cheating on a
test, and once for paying a classmate to cheat for him. While expelled,
Kennedy enlisted in the Army, but mistakenly signed up for four years
instead of two. His father, Joseph P. Kennedy, former U.S. Ambassador to
England, 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. Kennedy was assigned to Paris, never advanced beyond the
rank of Private, and returned to Harvard upon being discharged.
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. He passed the bar exam in 1959, and two years later was
appointed an Assistant to the District Attorney in Massachusetts'
Suffolk County.
In 1962, at age 30 (constitutionally, the minimum age to hold a Senate
seat) he ran for the Senate. His timing was perfect -- his brother John
had given up the seat to become President, and Kennedy easily won the
office. He was re-elected eight times to the office.
In 1964, he was seriously injured in a plane crash, and hospitalized for
several months. His sister Kathleen and nephew "John John" were killed
in separate plane crashes.
On 19 July 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. He swam to shore and walked back to the party -- passing
several houses and a fire station -- and two friends 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. 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 pulling strings, 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. In versions not so kind, it is widely assumed Kennedy was drunk,
that he was having an affair with Kopechne, and/or that 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, or worse. 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.
In 1973, at the height of Nixon's Watergate scandal, Kennedy thundered
from the Senate floor, "Do we operate under a system of equal justice
under law? Or is there one system for the average citizen and another
for the high and mighty?"
In 1980, Kennedy challenged Carter, his own party's sitting President,
for the Democratic nomination. Kennedy's bid was hampered by questions
of Chappaquiddick and by an interview with CBS Newsman Roger Mudd, who
asked the straightforward question, "Why do you want to be President?"
Kennedy couldn't come up with a straightforward answer. Carter was
nominated for re-election, but the party's divisions contributed to the
victory won by Reagan.
In a late-1980s media profile, Kennedy was succinctly described as
someone who "grew to manhood without learning to be an adult". He is
rumored to have had several affairs while married to his first wife, and
had often been seen in public while thoroughly tanked and/or behaving
obnoxiously. In 1987 he was caught in flagrante delicto with an
unidentified woman on the floor of a restaurant. His public image since
the early 1990s and during his second marriage has been more
conservative and restrained.
http://www.nndb.com/people/623/000023554/