Roger’s Rules

July 19th, 2009 12:48 pm

Chappaquiddick at 40

Scott Johnson at Powerline reminds us that yesterday, July 18, was the fortieth anniversary of the Chappaquiddick incident. Scott quotes a friend about this grisly instance of the triumph of riches and political power over the rule of law:

[A]n inebriated Senator Ted Kennedy marked a reunion of his brother Bobby’s “Boiler Room” girls by driving one to her death off the Dyke Road bridge.

This manslaughter might have been forgiven if Kennedy hadn’t decided to evade responsibility for the accident and cover it up by failing to report it, trying to co-opt one of his aides to cop to being the driver, and then leaving them to try and fix it for him for over seven hours.

Worse, Mary Jo Kopechne, whose drowned body was found in a position trying to eke out the last molecules of air within the submerged car, was left to drown by the self-involved Senator, who chose not to seek immediate help.

As Scott notes, this shameful episode has gone entirely unremarked by the so-called mainstream media.

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15 Comments

1. hubbub:

The Kennedy aura is still with us. It shows in the power of the press and the builders of legends that the Kennedy brothers, Jack, Bobby, and Teddy, will, despite their glaring, human, error-prone characters, with continue to glide along on the wistful mist of celebrity until historians of a later age tear them to shreds.

Unremarked by the press? It shall remain so until this man passes from us. Can you imagine the national scene of mourning when this creature of the press’s imagination dies, and he is feted like the president he so wished to be.

Jul 19, 2009 - 1:46 pm 2. Mrs. Jackson:

Considering the Senator’s late brother edited “Profiles in Courage” I would not describe this episode as “shameful”. That’s much too generous. Dastardly? Perhaps even evil.

What I do consider shameful (perhaps even worse) is what Peggy Noonan wrote about Ted on Inaugural Day:

“Teddy Kennedy is gallant. He attended the swearing-in of the new president on Tuesday in the midst of serious illness, white-haired and frail—in his jaunty fedora he looked like his father, old Joe Kennedy, in 1939, when he first burst on the scene as the new American ambassador to the Court of St. James. The senator smiled as he walked toward his seat, sweetly blowing a kiss to a friend in the stands. Later, at the congressional lunch, he collapsed.
Four years ago it was Chief Justice William Rehnquist, who rose from his sickbed to swear in George W. Bush for a second term, and who died 7½ months later of the cancer from which he’d long suffered. Such personal gallantry has long graced our national life, and in its way makes that life possible. And so it should always be noted, with gratitude, and a tip of the hat. As I write I can hear the ambulance that is taking Sen. Kennedy to the hospital. He is a courteous person, much like the Bushes in being an old-school writer of notes and maker of calls, and one suspects very soon we’ll be hearing that he called the new president to apologize for stepping on his story.
All this did have a somewhat subduing effect on the day…”

Jul 19, 2009 - 4:40 pm 3. bibio44:

‘One had to have a heart of stone, said Oscar Wilde, and not laugh at Dickens’ account of the death of “Little Nell.” Similarly, one has to have a cast iron stomach to withstand …’ Roger Kimball’s depiction of the death of Mary Jo Kopechne. And this from the man who scoffed at Cronkite showing emotion over the death of JFK. Talk about used car salesmen!

Jul 19, 2009 - 5:38 pm 4. John O'Neill:

As an Irish American whose parents came to this country from Northern Ireland, I can remember the pride with which my pious parents greeted the election of an Irish
Catholic to the presidency. They were genuinely elated at the media portrayals of this great Irish American family. In the subsequent years I have matured and realized what a fraud this power hungry and totally amoral family was. I feel sorry that my parents and other hard working poor Irish immigrants had been taken in by the propoganda of the American press. Nowadays in my sixties I have nothing but absolute contempt for the Kennedys and everything they represent. Ted Kennedy is the leading member of this socalled “royal” family and he is no better than a two bit thug and murderer. He lacks any redeeming qualities but seems to personify the Irish union thug with whom I became familiar when I was trying to make a living in these democrat controlled areas of the country and who always showed up to shake a worker down for the almighty dues that oiled the Kennedy political machine. Ted Kennedy got away with murder because of who he was period. Peggy Noonan worships him but then again who is she but a member of the same Irish political mafia. I also resent the vicious attacks made by Kennedy and Noonan against my Faith with their campaign to marginalize the practicing Roman Catholic population in their democrat socialist state.

Jul 19, 2009 - 5:50 pm 5. John Bonaccorsi:

If Wikipedia may be credited, Kopechne spent a year teaching, in Alabama, in some sort of participation in the Civil Rights movement. Many white parents whose daughters have been destroyed by violent black men whom that movement liberated have suffered at least as much as hers did. Faulty driving isn’t the only way to kill.

Jul 19, 2009 - 6:17 pm 6. Donna V.:

bibio: is that account of Mary Jo Kopechne’s death Kimball inaccurate? In what way?

Face it – you don’t contest the facts (because you can’t), you just hate that the incident is mentioned. Like the good little liberal sheeple that you are, you’ve consigned Chappaquiddick to the memory hole, because you want to have only good thoughts about the Sainted Kennedys. That others refuse to forget angers you.

Jul 19, 2009 - 9:13 pm 7. Marilena:

What is most amusing is that, in his policies and speeches, St.John Kennedy was a flag-waving nationalist and freedom-crazy capitalist by the standards of the New! Improved! Democrat Party. Ooooooh! Tax cuts no less!
But for the left, it’s all about their ‘narrative.’ Whatever serves the Movement. So weak, randy John is a leftist saint and Teddy is a self-sacrificing sage. (Needless to say, Mary Jo is irrelevant.)

Jul 19, 2009 - 9:58 pm 8. Galen:

One should not speak ill of the dying. I do think burial at sea would be appropriate.

Jul 20, 2009 - 6:18 am 9. Jimbo:

Fun Fact: Locals on Martha’s Vineyard still refer to the spot as “The Kennedy Carwash.”

Jul 20, 2009 - 8:26 pm 10. Paul Rothwell:

If common sense isn’t enough to convince someone that Hate Crime Laws and Open Borders are a bad idea then maybe knowing that Ted Kennedy is a big supporter of both will do the trick.

I fear that what gave birth years ago to the Me Decade has now led us to the Psychopath Century. Hope I’m wrong.

Jul 20, 2009 - 10:46 pm 11. CJ:

Thank God his dreadful niece Carolyn Schlossberg was not successful in her attempt to purchase Hillary Clinton’s senate seat. Crooks and rotters, the whole lot of the Kennedy tribe.

Jul 21, 2009 - 2:43 am 12. Uncle Jefe:

John Bonaccorsi, I can’t imagine you’d be anything other than a Moby…

Jul 21, 2009 - 1:14 pm 13. Lee:

John Bonaccorsi is of course a Moby.

Telling lies about one’s ideological adversaries, attempting to put words in their mouth, and engaging in other false flag tactics only demonstrates your own intellectual bankruptcy. If you have to lie to make yourself look right and your opponents wrong, then it can only be because you are wrong.

Jul 21, 2009 - 3:39 pm 14. Gilbert Jacobi:

In what way is Mr. Bonaccorsi lying? He starts by acknowledging that Wikkipedia may be wrong on the facts re Kopechne, and then offers an insight as to an effect of the Civil Rights movement, i.e. an opinion, not a matter of truth or falsehood. My experience of more than fifty years in an all black neighborhood has led me to the same conclusion, and it is heartening to learn I have company in this.

Jul 21, 2009 - 8:53 pm 15. Gaffe Prices:

I wish the first catholic elected president had been Al Smith

Jul 22, 2009 - 8:10 pm