sweasel.com

Was the door stuck shut? If she was awake and breathing, why didn’t she try to get out and swim to the surface?

CIA rogue interrogators killed the same number of terrorists as Kennedy killed secretaries. One is being prosecuted, the other never was. RIP Mary Jo. (I’ve been to Dike Bridge many times, his cover story was complete garbage.) The car was upside-down and the doors were blocked.

Kennedy went back to the party and got a couple of friends and they came back and tried to open the doors, unsuccessfully. How he got out, I don’t know. I understand the pressure of water against the doors of a submerged car is unbelievably hard to open the door against.

Emergency services usually have to break a window to get the doors to shift. Shame nobody called them.

I will not mourn this man but, I’ll mourn the harm he has done to our Republic.

You know, if Mary Jo’s was the only death on Kennedy’s vile, blood-stained hands, it wouldn’t be quite so bad.

If he is, as I hope, at this very moment with Anubis in the Hall of the Assessors, having his heart weighed against a feather, I trust a few innocent Irishmen and women’s untimely despatches will be tilting the scales, too.

Some of the eulogies are sickening, and credit him with far more than he deserves. Even after he killed Miss Kopechne he was a womanising drunk who was probably guilty of sexual assaults, certainly of sexual harassment. Didn’t hear much from the feminists, because he was a socialist. He was horribly partisan, even on the issue of his death, changing the law to prevent Mitt Romney appointing his successor, then trying to change it back when Massachusetts had a Democrat Governor. He didn’t even support health reform when Nixon suggested it but now is the darling of the reformers.

One of the best is Michael Kelly’s GQ article about Teddy. Ace linked it today. Howie Carr has talked about the Ted Kennedy/Chris Dodd “waitress sandwich” in that article for years…

Good post, Weasel. Good post.

oh see, wease….I think you’re being completely generous. I think he pulled his narcisistic ass out of that car and didn’t give a shit whether that poor woman was alive or not. And there’s so much more about ted to despise. How ’bout that it’s known he worked with the KGB to undermine at least 2 presidents (jimmah and Ronald), he engaged in multiple affairs and then had the balls to petition the Pope to annule his marriage to Joan- after ?20 years and ?3 kids, he did a waitress with Chris Dodd in the middle of a Washington restaurant in the middle of the day. I could go on and on…..because unfortunately ted was allowed to go on and on.

hopefully they’ll bury him face down so he can get a good look at where he’s going.

Rot.in.hell.ted.

Great post. You nailed it. He was a bastard.

To really honor the rat bastard the term Obamacare should be changed to ChappaquiddickCare. Seems fitting somehow.
And I second BuckNutty’s comment.

I like this comment, found at IMAO:

“A bill that’s bloated, reckless, forces itself upon unwilling others, and endangers other Americans? Sounds like a fitting bill to name after Teddy-O.”

TEXT OF KGB LETTER ON SENATOR TED KENNEDY
_________________________________________

Special Importance
Committee on State Security of the USSR
14.05. 1983 No. 1029 Ch/OV
Moscow

Regarding Senator Kennedy’s request to the General Secretary of the Communist Party Comrade Y.V. Andropov

Comrade Y.V. Andropov

On 9-10 May of this year, Senator Edward Kennedy’s close friend and trusted confidant J. Tunney was in Moscow. The senator charged Tunney to convey the following message, through confidential contacts, to the General Secretary of the Center Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, Y. Andropov.

Senator Kennedy, like other rational people, is very troubled by the current state of Soviet-American relations. Events are developing such that this relationship coupled with the general state of global affairs will make the situation even more dangerous. The main reason for this is Reagan’s belligerence, and his firm commitment to deploy new American middle range nuclear weapons within Western Europe.

According to Kennedy, the current threat is due to the President’s refusal to engage any modification on his politics. He feels that his domestic standing has been strengthened because of the well publicized improvement of the economy: inflation has been greatly reduced, production levels are increasing as is overall business activity. For these reasons, interest rates will continue to decline. The White House has portrayed this in the media as the “success of Reaganomics.”

Naturally, not everything in the province of economics has gone according to Reagan’s plan. A few well known economists and members of financial circles, particularly from the north-eastern states, foresee certain hidden tendencies that many bring about a new economic crisis in the USA. This could bring about the fall of the presidential campaign of 1984, which would benefit the Democratic party. Nevertheless, there are no secure assurances this will indeed develop.

The only real threats to Reagan are problems of war and peace and Soviet-American relations. These issues, according to the senator, will without a doubt become the most important of the election campaign. The movement advocating a freeze on nuclear arsenals of both countries continues to gain strength in the United States. The movement is also willing to accept preparations, particularly from Kennedy, for its continued growth. In political and influential circles of the country, including within Congress, the resistence to growing military expenditures is gaining strength.

However, according to Kennedy, the opposition to Reagan is still very weak. Reagan’s adversaries are divided and the presentations they make are not fully effective. Meanwhile, Reagan has the capabilities to effectively counter any propaganda. In order to neutralize criticism that the talks between the USA and the USSR are non-constructive, Reagan will grandiose, but subjectively propagandistic. At the same time, Soviet officials who speak about disarmament will be quoted out of context, silenced or groundlessly and whimsically discounted. Although arguments and statements by officials of the USSR do appear in the press, it is important to note the majority of Americans do not read serious newspapers or periodicals.

Kennedy believes that, given the current state of affairs, and in the interest of peace, it would be prudent and timely to undertake the following steps to counter the militaristic politics of Reagan and his campaign to psychologically burden the American people. In this regard, he offers the following proposals to the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union Y.V. Andropov:

1. Kennedy asks Y.V. Andropov to consider inviting the senator to Moscow for a personal meeting in July of this year. The main purpose of the meeting, according to the senator, would be to arm Soviet officials with explanations regarding problems of nuclear disarmament so they may be better prepared and more convincing during appearances in the USA. He would also like to inform you that he has planned a trip through Western Europe, where he anticipates meeting England’s Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and French President Mitterand in which he will exchange similar ideas regarding the same issues.

If his proposals would be accepted in principle, Kennedy would send his representative to Moscow to resolve questions regarding organizing such a visit.

Kennedy thinks the benefits of a meeting with Y.V.Andropov will be enhanced if he could also invite one of the well known Republican senators, for example, Mark Hatfield. Such a meeting will have a strong impact on American and political circles in the USA (In March of 1982, Hatfield and Kennedy proposed a project to freeze the nuclear arsenals of the USA and USSR and pblished a book on the theme as well.)

2. Kennedy believes that in order to influence Americans it would be important to organize in August-September of this year, televised interviews with Y.V. Andropov in the USA. A direct appeal by the General Secretary to the American people will, without a doubt, attact a great deal of attention and interest in the country. The senator is convinced this would receive the maximum resonance in so far as television is the most effective method of mass media and information.

If the proposal is recognized as worthy, then Kennedy and his friends will bring about suitable steps to have representatives of the largest television companies in the USA contact Y.V. Andropov for an invitation to Moscow for the interview. Specifically, the president of the board of directors of ABC, Elton Raul and television columnists Walter Cronkite or Barbara Walters could visit Moscow. The senator underlined the importance that this initiative should be seen as coming from the American side.

Furthermore, with the same purpose in mind, a series of televised interviews in the USA with lower level Soviet officials, particularly from the military would be organized. They would also have an opportunity to appeal directly to the American people about the peaceful intentions of the USSR, with their own arguments about maintaining a true balance of power between the USSR and the USA in military term. This issue is quickly being distorted by Reagan’s administration.

Kennedy asked to convey that this appeal to the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union is his effort to contribute a strong proposal that would root out the threat of nuclear war, and to improve Soviet-American relations, so that they define the safety of the world. Kennedy is very impressed with the activities of Y.V. Andropov and other Soviet leaders, who expressed their commitment to heal international affairs, and improve mutal understandings between peoples.

The senator underscored that he eagerly awaits a reply to his appeal, the answer to which may be delivered through Tunney.

Having conveyed Kennedy’s appeal to the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, Tunney also explained that Senator Kennedy has in the last few years actively made appearances to reduce the threat of war. Because he formally refused to partake in the election campaign of 1984, his speeches would be taken without prejudice as they are not tied to any campaign promises. Tunney remarked that the senator wants to run for president in 1988. At that time, he will be 56 and his personal problems, which could hinder his standing, will be resolved (Kennedy has just completed a divorce and plans to remarry in the near future). Taken together, Kennedy does not discount that during the 1984 campaign, the Democratic Party may officially turn to him to lead the fight against the Republicans and elect their candidate president. This would explain why he is convinced that none of the candidates today have a real chance at defeating Reagan.

We await instructions.

President of the committee
V. Chebrikov

Lest we forget…….. 🙁

http: //sweetness-light.com/archive/kgb-letter-details-kennedy-offer-to-ussr

http://img359.imageshack.us/img359/3867/tedkennedymemoirs1.jpg

I’m not saying Kennedy was any less a monster for what he did or that it wasn’t horrible but if she was conscious, she could have gotten out of the car. They demonstrated on Mythbusters that it isn’t really all that hard to open a door on a submerged car (especially when its mostly full of water as in this case) but even if that wasn’t true, Teddy got out, which strongly suggests there was an opening somewhere. Why didn’t she try to swim for it? The only reason I can think of is that she wasn’t conscious, or if she woke up, she panicked and died in confusion and terror. Which honestly doesn’t make it any better really.

When they found the space shuttle Challenger remains, the crew cabin was intact. I figured it got blown to bits, but it was on the bottom of the ocean, intact and air tight. Which made it so much more horrible to me.

Chris, thats IF YOU KNOW WHAT TO DO. Remember, when Adam Savage acted like a normal person paniking at the thought of drowning, he had to go for the emergency air regulator every time………..

She didn’t have one.

No, I doubt Kennedy left knowing she was trapped alive. But I don’t see any evidence that he was particularly troubled by the idea, then or ever.

And that is what bothers me about the ‘liberal’ or ‘commie’ or Nazi, ideology. It is the ‘don’t give a fuck’, no conscience, no empathy, empty-hearted, cruelness, they give others, especially the unborn and now, as they are coming out ever more clearer, the elderly, the sick, the disabled – though that one was always evident, those who get in the way.

It is all about their pleasure and who can do what for them. Get in our way, we will destroy you. It’s a pathology.

Why didn’t she try to swim for it?

Why didn’t he grab her hand and pull her with him? You don’t weigh as much in water. Or once he got his bearings above, why didn’t he go back down?

porknbean, the reason he didn’t try to save her is mathematical.
RAT + SINKING SHIP
He was a coward thru and thru. All bullies are.

Amen, Sweasel. The fact that this piece of garbage was thereafter elected to Senate again, and again, and again, etc. is testament to the complete unabashed idiocy of the voters of Massachusetts and should be a surviving indicator of all that is wrong with the ilk and supporters thereof. Indeed, allow me to share the ‘karma’ of stating: “Goodbye you self-righteous monstrous prig. May your ass roast for eternity.”

Oh, this just TAKES THE CAKE. What’s beyond disgusted revolted?

Uncle Badger raises a very important point: even if he’d gone into full-on Aquaman mode and pulled poor Mary Jo out of the car and given her mouth-to-mouth on the bank and all that was left of the incident was, “hey, do you remember how President Ted Kennedy hit an oil patch while Neil Armstrong was halfway to the moon and skidded off a bridge and saved that poor girl that he was driving back to the YWCA?”, he’d still be a repellent Fenian scumbag enabler of remorseless terrorist killers. There was nothing romantic about the IRA, or any of the sundry variants of psychopaths that danced in the bog-trotters’ circus in the 70’s and 80’s. And you can go back a lot further than that if you want, and see de Valera in one strand of Hibernofascism with the grotesquely over-rated Michael Collins in another.

Lest ye accuse me of having a hate on for the Micks, let me tell you: I am one (I mean, I’m British but I’m Irish too, in one of those complex quirks of ancestry that make everything so dreadfully nuanced).

Holy shit, Felix! I did the man the favor of assuming he just never, ever talked about it again. But he freaking collected Chappaquiddick jokes? Oh. Ohhhhhhh.

Kennedy and two friends went back that night and tried to get the doors open but couldn’t, Christopher. In addition to the diver, the coroner (or the ME. I forget) thought she’d been alive and conscious for some time. So I don’t know if the car settled in the silt in a way that kept the doors from opening, or the frame was sprung, or what. Remember, this was a big ol’ late 60s Oldsmobile Delmont 88, not one of our modern pussy cars.

For all your Ted Kennedy hatin’ needs, I recommend Howie Carr’s site, Fatboy.CC.

I believe, in the words of the old shape note hymn, that at the end of life we “go to meet the deeds we’ve done”.

I doubt that it’s going to be wet and cold for Teddy in the hereafter. He did some good things; he did a whole lot of very bad things, and he better pack an asbestos suit.

Kennedy and two friends went back that night and tried to get the doors open but couldn’t, Christopher.

That’s what they testified as doing, but we know he lied several times in that trial. Who knows what the facts were?

The Kennedy name and money gained him access into places the rest of us peasants could only dream of. I seriously doubt the Great Judge is going to give a rat’s ass about all that. It’ll be the one place he can’t buy entrance.

I saw that book in a tourist’s shop in D.C. and I thought then -Why would anyone buy a children’s book written by a murderer?

The irony is his dog Splash would have tried to save Mary Jo.

This is in response to Mr Taylor above –

She did not die at once, get knocked unconscious, or panic. She was found braced so that her head was in the air pocket, as she was probably knocked into the back seat by the crash as the car flipped entirely over.

In the Mythbusters Episode, Adam was able to get out after the car sank and all air pockets bubbled out. The water isnt that deep, and possibly the pressure never equalized at all. In any event, a daylight escape from a gently lowered car is far different than a pitch black, inverted, watery coffin.

And Adam ‘drowned’ in his first attempt. Mary Jo didn’t get an chance to try it again.

Kennedy says he dived down to rescue her, like every word he has said about the event I assume it is a lie. His handler took him back there from the party and he tried to get into the car while Ted did nothing. By then it was surely too late for Mary Jo.

If Kennedy had run to the nearest house which had its light on, possibly she could have been saved. And if Ted had trusted his handlers more, he could have gone there and brazened out it all, succeed or fail in rescuing her. If they could cover what he actually did, they could have covered up him acting responsibly after the accident.

There is reason to think Teddy didn’t even know Kopechne was in the car. Another woman’s purse was in the car. The best guess is that Kopechne was passed out drunk in the back seat when Teddy and the other woman drove off for a tryst on the beach – both too drunk to notice her. The car went in the drink. Teddy and the other woman escaped, then staggered back to the house – relieved that they hadn’t been hurt. Teddy’s crew went into crash overdrive to cover up this embarrassment, but didn’t worry about the wrecked car. Several hours later, someone said, “Hey, where’s Mary Jo?” … and the shit really hit the fan.

Much as I despised Kennedy, I don’t think he would have knowingly left a woman to drown or suffocate – if only because of the political fallout.

One other point: he did immense harm in his Senate career, but he also did a lot to enact deregulation of trucking and airlines.

The problem I have with all the alternate stories, Rich, is that ALL of them are less damaging to Ted than the one he allowed us all to believe. Why concoct an elaborate cover story that makes you look like a sociopathic monster?

[…] up, Miz Weasel: For once in my miserable life, I wasn’t going to go there. Though there are so very many things […]

Wow, Rich, thats great. So to cover the embarrassment of not knowing Mary Jo was in the car, Ted and his date and every one else at the party decides to let him go down in history as a callous murderer.

I hope he gave his political advisors raises after that.

“When they found the space shuttle Challenger remains, the crew cabin was intact.”

Chris, that cabin may have been “intact”; however, I can guarantee that the crew was turned into chunky salsa instantly on impact from 100,000 feet plus with no chute. They didn’t die nearly as slowly as Mary Jo.

Stoaty: What story did he “allow us to believe”? The “official” story was that he immediately tried to rescue Kopechne, then went for help as soon as possible – both halves fairly implausible. But not as discreditable as a) going off to to have adulterous sex, b) being so drunk that he didn’t notice Kopechne was in the car, and c) being so obsessed with covering up a) and b) that no rescue was attempted until too late.

He did not admit to being a murderer; if it looked that way to some people, that was suspicion, but not conviction. His acknowledged responsibility for the death was negligent driving, which can happen to anyone: vide Laura Bush, or former governor Janklow of South Dakota. (Janklow did 100 days in jail and resigned his U.S. House seat; but then he wasn’t a Kennedy in Massachusetts).

If he had admitted to the true circumstances, it would have finished him. Drunkenness and casual adultery leading to a death through negligence – plus explicitly admitting to an attempted cover-up. Remember, this wasn’t the 1990s – it was 1969.

Late night, he was tired, there was a woman napping in the back of the car. He drove off, didn’t know she was there. Not a fantastically believable story, but I would have accepted that explanation before the one he gave.

It’s more plausible than “I tried to rescue her, then I went back to my hotel and went to sleep without notifying the authorities.” That’s a light-bendingly stupid story.

Well, he’s dead now. He no longer has to face our opprobriums and judgement.

No, he’ll have to face Judgement. If you believe not in God’s Judgement, then the Judgement of history. And that is all any of us can hope for, I should say, either way.