Patterico's Pontifications

12/27/2010

Awww: Washington to Be Kennedy-Free For First Time in Sixty-Three years (Update: And Splash Dies)

Filed under: General — Aaron Worthing @ 6:20 am



[Guest post by Aaron Worthing; if you have tips, please send them here.]

Update: And as if the Kennedy family has not faced enough tragedy, Teddy’s dog died.  His name?  “Splash.”  Yep, they are classy people, them Kennedys.

Get out your hankies, this is a sad one:

The Kennedys have held congressional seats, the presidency and the public’s imagination for more than 60 years. That era ends when Patrick Kennedy of Rhode Island vacates his U.S. House seat next month, leaving a city council post in California as Camelot’s sole remaining political holding.

Dontcha just love the way that they have to constantly use the term Camelot, when referring to the Kennedys?

The son of the late Massachusetts Sen. Edward Kennedy said he has no qualms about walking away from politics. His departure marks the first time in 63 years there won’t be a Kennedy serving in elected office in Washington.

“In my family, the legacy was always public service, and that didn’t necessarily mean public office,” Kennedy, 43, said in a recent interview on Capitol Hill with The Associated Press.

He recited a long list of Kennedy family members who have spurned politics and chosen lives as activists promoting issues such as the environment, human rights and women’s issues.

I am sure Mary Jo Kopechne will appreciate it.

(Note: I am being sarcastic, to contrast with those who felt that Kopechne was a justified sacrifice.)

Kennedy plans to continue the tradition by championing a national effort to boost brain research. He hopes to inject the same urgency that his late uncle, President John F. Kennedy, inspired during the 1960s with his challenge to Americans to put a man on the moon.

Yeah, um, good luck with that.  Seriously can’t you go five minutes without invoking the memory of your late, great dead uncle?  Especially seeing that you seem more inclined to mimic dear old dad?

Politics was the family business, the lifeblood of a dynasty that often dominated the public stage with its triumphs, as well as its personal traumas.

The family name has been writ large for decades. Camelot. The New Frontier. Chappaquiddick.

Wow, can you believe the Kennedy worship?  I mean they can’t even be bothered to mention Chap…  wait, whaaaaa?  They mentioned Chappaquiddick?  Really?  Holy crap, I need to check around for goatees, because I suspect I am in an alternate universe.

(“In this universe, we wear goatees and mention the Kennedy family’s flaws.”)

Now it’s Bobby Shriver as the lone holdout in politics, serving as a city councilor in the seaside Los Angeles suburb of Santa Monica.

Shriver, in a brief telephone interview with the AP, said he first got into city politics not because of his family’s legacy, but because of citations he and neighbors received over the height of their hedges.

Yeah, sure, it’s just a coincidence that he happens to a Kennedy.

Politics isn’t the only way to make a difference, Shriver said, recalling his mother, the late Eunice Kennedy Shriver, who founded the Special Olympics.

Notice again they can’t go for five minutes without invoking the family.

Her efforts were inspired by the struggles of her mentally disabled sister, Rosemary, who spent most of her life in an institution after a lobotomy left her permanently incapacitated.

That sister of JFK played a big role changing America’s view of the mentally disabled from that of institutionalized patients to friends, neighbors and athletes.

Am I the only one creeped out by the fact that this family gave a member of that family a lobotomy and then used that lobotomy to explain to the rest of us how badly we treat the disabled?  But I suppose Melissa Lafsky would say it was worth it, though.

Patrick Kennedy … is a leading voice on mental health issues. He championed a landmark bill that Congress passed requiring insurance companies to treat mental health on an equal basis with physical illnesses.

He has often spoken candidly about his personal struggles with depression and substance abuse. Kennedy has been treated for substance abuse since crashing his car outside the Capitol in 2006, and he has struggled with alcoholism and drug addiction for much of his life.

Right.  You know, what we should do with a person like that?  Give him power and a sense of entitlement!  That will cure him!

He recalled that the treatment his father received helped prolong his battle with brain cancer.

“My dad was given an extra year of life because the science was good,” Kennedy said. “Against initial expectations, he had a much longer time, and that was meaningful time, at least in our relationship. So that’s personal.”

Yes, based on innovation that if the liberals had their way would be strangled in the crib.  But remember, it’s the Republicans who are anti-science.

Some Democrats hope Kennedy’s brother Edward Kennedy Jr. will run for Congress. The Connecticut attorney has said he is considering politics but has no immediate plans.

Wait, which Kennedy is this?  Crap, I forgot my handy-dandy Kennedy flow chart to help me keep track of all this.

Vicki Kennedy, Edward Kennedy’s widow, has been mentioned as a possible challenger in 2012 against Republican Scott Brown, who succeeded her husband.

Right, because the Kennedy entitlement applies even to the people who marry into the name.  But not to one night stands because, well, crap, that is like 50% of Massachusetts women or something like that.

Former Rep. Joe Kennedy balked at running for his uncle’s Senate seat in Massachusetts last year, but he has been mentioned as a possible Brown challenger.

Sure, why not let Chavez mouthpiece be a Senator?

Most recent Kennedy political bids have failed. Kathleen Kennedy Townsend’s 2002 Maryland gubernatorial bid sputtered. Caroline Kennedy fell short in seeking an appointment in New York to fill a Senate seat.

Well, hey, Caroline, if you think you would be so great at the job, you could, you know, try to actually get people to vote for you.  It’s a novel idea, I admit.

Darrell West, vice president and director of governance studies at the Brookings Institution, said it has become more difficult over the years for Kennedy family members to extend their brand of liberalism outside the Northeast.

“As the country has grown more conservative,” West said, “it’s been harder for the Kennedys to win elective office.”

Yeah, seeing what Kennedy liberalism actually means in practice will do that sort of thing.

I suggest we clip and save this one for the next time a liberal whines about the Bush dynasty or something like that.

[Posted and authored by Aaron Worthing.]

50 Responses to “Awww: Washington to Be Kennedy-Free For First Time in Sixty-Three years (Update: And Splash Dies)”

  1. “My dad was given an extra year of life because the science was good,” Kennedy said.

    Nevermind that he would just have received comfort care under ObamaCare, moron.

    daleyrocks (bfdac7)

  2. daley

    assuming the death panels don’t mandate even worse.

    Aaron Worthing (e7d72e)

  3. We might be on thaer, AW, ever stop to think of that.

    narciso (6075d0)

  4. All I can say is Thank God!!!!

    BT (74cbec)

  5. “That era ends when Patrick Kennedy of Rhode Island vacates his U.S. House seat next month.” Asked about his plans, Rep. Kennedy said he intends to take a 28-day break and collect his thoughts in Center City, Minnesota.

    daleyrocks (bfdac7)

  6. “His departure marks the first time in 63 years there won’t be a Kennedy serving in elected office in Washington.”

    Well, that’s one less reason to fumigate the dump.

    Dave Surls (7f3cc4)

  7. Please do not allow the door to strike you upon your fundament when exiting.

    mojo (8096f2)

  8. My in-law, Ahmed, runs a camel-lot in Bahrain. (Lie ;))

    nk (db4a41)

  9. Free at last, free at last,….

    ropelight (0cee45)

  10. Today’s Santa Monica Daily Press profiles the last Kennedy standing [in politics].

    So, has his status as the only Kennedy in the family business caused him to ratchet up his political ambitions? After all, he has considered jumping onto a bigger political stage before, exploring a run for California Attorney General during 2009 but deciding not to join the race for the Democratic nomination.

    “Honestly, no,” he said. “Being the only person in office doesn’t make me think ‘I should run for more offices’ … I’m 100 percent focused on the things I’m trying to do in Santa Monica and in the greater L.A. region, in particular the homelessness and homeless veterans matters.”

    Then, like a true politician, he hedged: “If I saw [an opportunity to run for office] that was creative and could be fun, I’d take a very serious look at it. I would think about it and I hope that I would do a good job at it.”

    Dana (8ba2fb)

  11. Title for this article in the OC Register:

    Kennedy’s Exit Leaves Void

    I’m certain they didn’t intend it to be interpreted this way, but I liken the Kennedy void to a cesspool. And yes, they do need to be filled – just not with more of the same.

    in_awe (44fed5)

  12. WAIT!!! You guys don’t think for a second that a Democratic Politician who needs the
    Death Panels will actually receive the Death Panels, do you?????

    You or I would receive the Death Panels! The “necessary to the functions of society” Democratic Politician will not receive the Death Panels but would be placed on the top of the list to receive the best available care and medicine, because of their “necessity to the functions of society!”

    Ya’ll need to get your shit straight!!!

    reff (b43ea5)

  13. Even us Cajuns from the deep Bayous of South Louisiana know that!!!@!

    reff (b43ea5)

  14. “As the country has grown more conservative,” West said, “it’s been harder for the Kennedys to win elective office.”

    The only member of the clan whose principles align with, or would be acceptable to, today’s “more conservative” electorate would be John Fitzgerald Kennedy!

    AD-RtR/OS! (4fe32b)

  15. this is the end of an error….

    redc1c4 (fb8750)

  16. AD

    JFK is too conservative for the modern democratic party. as demonstrated by the generally unfunny “an american carol”

    Aaron Worthing (e7d72e)

  17. In a related development, the DC and Capitol Police Departments have reduced the number of drunk driving patrols by 33%.

    JVW (4463d3)

  18. JVW

    But the police in RI have increased them 300%.

    Aaron Worthing (e7d72e)

  19. Dontcha just love the way that they have to constantly use the term Camelot, when referring to the Kennedys?

    I always wondered who would be the bastard child born from an incestuous liaison to bring down Camelot.

    malclave (1db6c5)

  20. I always wondered who would be the bastard child born from an incestuous liaison to bring down Camelot.

    I think it was P.J. O’Rourke who made the joke that if the Kennedys were Camelot, then Patrick was Mordred.

    JVW (4463d3)

  21. Like so many wealthy families recently, the Kennedys have bred a farrow of losers and druggies instead of the old traditions where the son and grandson followed in the family career. Even the remaining politico, Shriver, doesn’t say anything about preventing eminent domain abuse or keeping the internet free of politicians. No, he is worried about homelessness. It reminds me of my favorite movie “Hero,” where the guy who is getting a big reward explains his list of causes. If you haven’t seen it, it is one of the funniest movies in years.

    Mike K (568408)

  22. Has IBM created a playable nanoviolin yet?

    Blacque Jacques Shellacque (e09322)

  23. When you look objectively at the Kennedy family’s lust for power, women and preferential treatment, Camelot is not the picture it paints.

    Joe Kennedy was a bright, wealthy Irish kid who owned a bank when he was an undergraduate at Harvard. The Brahman in Boston refused to accept him socially and he did not get a bid to an elite dining club – a slight he resented for the rest of his life. At that point he decided to enter politics and wanted to be president.

    After Harvard, he opened a brokerage and he and his friends would do stock pooling – buying a worthless stock, it talking up to his clients to inflate the price, and selling it off leaving his customers out to dry. Interestingly, there was another major scammer in Bean Town at the same time – Carlo Ponzi. They must have known each other.

    Joe married Rose Fitzgerald, the daughter of “Honey Fitz” Fitzgerald who ran the corrupt Boston democrat machine. In 1932, Kennedy supported FDR’s campaign and is said to have been instrumental in raising money and delivering Massachusetts. In return, when FDR created the Securities and Exchange Commission he appointed Joe Chairman, saying, “It takes across to catch a crook.”

    Like all the Kennedy boys, Joe had a zipper problem. After Rose had four stair step children, she left complaining to her dad that her husband was seeing Gloria Swanson’s brains out. Her Catholic father sent her back, reminding her it had been her choice to marry Kennedy, not his.

    During the early years of WWII, Joe was ambassador to the Court of St. James, until the Brits discovered that he was pro-Nazi. That little faux pas cost him any chance at the presidency, so he groomed his eldest son, Joseph Kennedy Jr. for the job.

    Arch (24f4f2)

  24. arch

    > her husband was seeing Gloria Swanson’s brains out.

    a funny use of a euphamism.

    Aaron Worthing (e7d72e)

  25. That was clearly a typo, however, the path of the Kennedy’s seems to follow O’Sullivan’s laws, the Lodges, the Rockefellers, the Pews of SunOil, the Hearsts, the Fords, all seem to turn to liberalism
    in turn

    narciso (6075d0)

  26. Wait, I’m confused.

    If Patrick is Modred, does that mean that Ginnie Bennett was Morgan Le Fay?

    mojo (8096f2)

  27. A blight upon our country for the most part – but I still think the worst off was John Jr., who was severely dissuaded from what he really wanted to do in his life by his mother. He wanted to be an actor, and he got good reviews in some short appearances on soaps back in the day – but his mom wouldn’t hear of it, saying that a Kennedy “just doesn’t do that kind of thing.” Riiiiight, Jackie – being a skirt – chasing douchebag who doubles as a receptacle for Vicodin is a much better option. Funny, I always thought that Jackie really despised most of that family. So the legacy still warps the family for generations to come.

    Dmac (498ece)

  28. Like all the Kennedys, Joe Jr and Jack were in a constant state of competition in sports, academics and with women.

    JFK First

    When we entered the war, Jack signed up for PT Boat duty and was assigned to Panama. He got that changed to join a squadron in the Solomon Islands to get in the war. I do not want to assign motive in either case, because even though they were both Kennedys, they were American, too.

    In June 1942, the US Navy had destroyed the Japanese carriers at Midway and killed many of their experienced pilots. Without air, the Japanese ground forces were trapped on isolated islands with serious logistical problems. In the Solomons, Japanese destroyers made high speed resupply runs at night, dumping rafts passing Imperial Army bases.

    Motor Torpedo Boat Squadron 5 were green reservists. Their mission was to ambush these ships in the narrow channels between islands. Wooden diesel PT boats could operate in shoals, channels and estuaries darting out to launch torpedo and rake enemy ships with 20 MM and 50 cal. Tactically unsound. Mines would have been far more effective, but where’s the élan and the danger?

    Dashing young Lieutenant Junior Grade Kennedy, three months into his tour, was on a night partol idling south on one engine in Blackett Strait. The Amigiri, was retiring north at high speed on a collision course. Kennedy mistook the destroyer for a PT boat, turned across the ship’s bow and collided with a 150° heading crossing angle without firing a shot.

    Two of his crew of thirteen were killed; Kennedy and several others, injured. The survivors made it ashore and hid for several days before natives reported them to a Aussie channel observer. When rescuers arrived, Kennedy left his men and returned to base, a decision I find very troubling.

    Technically, this mishap was not hostile fire so the Purple Heart should not have been awarded, but I would have given them that. Jack Kennedy was awarded the Navy Cross for getting his vessel run over. He should have refused that decoration. This is a man who is reckless. It’s one thing to be unfaithful to your wife, but quite another to risk and lose the lives of your men.

    http://www.history.navy.mil/faqs/faq60-11.htm

    When JFK was President, he took another major risk in October 1963, threatening an invasion of Cuba and taking us to the brink of thermonuclear war with the Soviet Union. Most Americans do not know how close we came. At the time, I was a plebe at the US Naval Academy.

    AW, the “seeing her brains out” reference was one of my favorite lines from the film “Enigma” about the code breakers at Bletchley Park. You would en

    Arch (24f4f2)

  29. _______________________________________

    Riiiiight, Jackie – being a skirt – chasing douchebag who doubles as a receptacle for Vicodin is a much better option.

    I’ve sometimes wondered what it would have been like if a well-known Kennedy — say JFK Jr — were of the right, aligned with the Republican Party, and no less interested in public life as most of his (or her) “progressive” kin have been. That would have been a hoot.

    But in such an alternative universe, I can imagine someone like Jackie saying “hell, no, you don’t have to be a politician!! Stick with acting and Hollywood!! Or become a plumber instead of a senator!! I can’t stand the thought of anyone in this family being a turncoat to the righteous, beautiful cause of liberalism and of the wonderful, noble, humane Democrat Party!!”

    I wonder if anyone with more than an ounce of common sense has ever managed to spend a Christmas or Thanksgiving with the Kennedy family and not had to grit his (or her) teeth and roll his eyes?

    Mark (411533)

  30. Yelverton idolized Ted Chappquiddick Kennedy.

    JD (07faa1)

  31. The whole “Camelot” meme came about because the hit play and movie were out around the time of JFK’s ascension to power.

    It’s the Democratic equivalent of Reagan’s invoking the image of “the Shining City on a Hill,” except instead of honoring the promise of America it celebrated the cult of personality.

    But, then, they were only Democrats – what could we expect of them?

    Estragon (ec6a4b)

  32. JFK Jr also seemed to have inherited the womanizing and reckless endangerment genes, which, combined with private piloting, proved to be deadly.

    Picture yourself, spouse and sister in law leaving NYC late in the afternoon for the airport on Long Island to attend a celebration in Hyannis Port. You have a Piper Saratoga but no instrument ticket. It’s getting dark. The prudent course of action would be to say, “Let’s get a couple of rooms, get up early tomorrow and takeoff at seven. Ted will have passed out already by now anyway.”

    Unfortunately, he did the manly thing and took off VFR flying northwest at night over water without a clear, visible horizon. He looked down for a few seconds and the aircraft rolled slightly. His altitude began to decrease so he added back pressure thinking he was level. At 9:39 PM, the aircraft spiraled into the ocean.

    Arch (24f4f2)

  33. Do I have to be the Kennedy defender on this thread,
    me with the relative who fought at the Bay of Pigs.

    narciso (6075d0)

  34. Joe Jr. went to Navy pilot training and flew convoy escort and anti-submarine warfare missions in a PB4Y. When Jack was awarded the Navy Cross, Joe went to his room and cried! Lots of tears were shed during WWII, but not many by fighting men whose younger brothers earned a medal second only to the Congressional Medal of Honor. Joe could not accept being bested. Enter the reckless endangerment gene.

    Kennedy volunteered for “Operation Aphrodite” an Air Corps plan to attack German V1 and V2 launch sites on the French coast. They were to drone bombers (B17s and B24s) fill them with high explosives and man them with only pilot and copilot who had the Mohammed Atta mission, takeoff, fly but don’t land here. Kennedy joined the US Navy component Special Air Unit 1 to fly a converted B24. Aphrodite was perhaps 35% of a good idea.

    The plan was to have the crew takeoff at a remote airfield, climb to 2,000 feet, arm the weapon, engage the remote control system relinquishing control to another aircraft and bail out over Southern England. The escort and drone would cross the Channel, point the weapon at the target and detonate it on impact.

    Joe successfully took off and shortly after reaching level off altitude the weapon detonated over Southern England. No one knows exactly what happened except that, in typical Kennedy fashion, Lt Joseph Kennedy Jr was killed along with his CoPilot, Lt Wilford J. Willy, and won the Navy Cross posthumously. Also typically, the records were sealed for over 50 years.

    Of the thirteen Aphrodite missions, none were successful.

    Arch (24f4f2)

  35. Narcisco:

    Ask him if he knew Tito Reyes, Mario and Jorge de Silva. They were cadets with me at Culver in the 1950s.

    Arch (24f4f2)

  36. He passed on quite some years ago. Arch,

    narciso (6075d0)

  37. Narcisco:

    Sorry. My fellow cadets were also in the invasion. Jorge was executed when he was 21.

    Arch (24f4f2)

  38. Arch

    JFK Jr. failed the bar exam something like four times. Ironically the question he kept missing was this:

    “Is it negligent for a pilot untrained in nightime navigation to fly at night?”

    (no, not really.)

    Aaron Worthing (e7d72e)

  39. An friend of mine rented a Greenwich Village apartment that had been previously occupied by JFK Jr….. and she found his porn stash. True story.

    Kman (d30fc3)

  40. Kman

    jfk Jr. needed porn? really?

    um, okay.

    btw, i rented an apartment once and found Jon Edwards’ porn stash. It consisted solely of a mirror.

    Aaron Worthing (e7d72e)

  41. I rented a New York apartment previously occupied by Kman and found his porn stash. It consisted entirely of National Geographic and Modern Farmer.

    daleyrocks (bfdac7)

  42. AW – when kmart says “true story” it is almost guaranteed to not be. It is as likely to be true as Yelverton is to be a man.

    JD (85b089)

  43. AW:

    Technically, you do not need an instrument rating to fly at night. However, that assumes you have a good view of the horizon. In the summer over the sea, as night falls low clouds form reducing visibility and obscuring the horizon.

    At the risk of sounding like Bill Clinton, It is absolutely essential that a pilot know where “up” is.

    Arch (24f4f2)

  44. Arch – Minor correction, didn’t John John leave from Teterboro?

    daleyrocks (bfdac7)

  45. jd

    who knows or cares if it is true. i can’t even find significance in the story.

    but i do find it implausible regardless of the source.

    Aaron Worthing (e7d72e)

  46. I always had the impression that JFK Jr. was not the worst of the bunch and was trying to get his life straightened out and a useful career in publishing when he crashed that plane.

    However, the corrosive nature of the family and its effects on politics in the NE are happily ended.

    SPQR (26be8b)

  47. Dalyrocks:

    I was mistaken about Long Island, he left from Essex County Airport in Fairfield, NJ.

    Thanks for the correction.

    Arch (24f4f2)

  48. Jack, Joe and Bobby died for their country, politics and drunk driving had nothing whatsoever to do with their sacrifice.

    Ted is another story, left to be told and it wont be pretty and it shouldnt be

    EricPWJohnson (ebfa93)

  49. Happy New Year from Athens everyone!

    EricPWJohnson (ebfa93)

  50. Arch

    According to your link:

    The 109 had started to turn to starboard preparatory to firing torpedoes. However, when PT 109 had scarcely turned 30, the destroyer rammed the PT, striking it forward of the forward starboard tube and shearing off the starboard side of the boat aft, including the starboard engine. The destroyer traveling at an estimated speed of 40 knots neither slowed nor fired as she split the PT, leaving part of the PT on one side and the other on the other. Scarcely 10 seconds elapsed between time of sighting and the crash

    EricPWJohnson (ebfa93)


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