Imagine yourself, if you can, a student in our
modern-day public school system and you are presented with what is claimed to be,
by your teacher, an accurate portrayal of the late Sen. Edward ‘Teddy’
Kennedy. Now what do the think the odds
might be, that you, the young and impressionable student, would be presented
with what would be the actual truth regarding this most despicable example of American
politicians and not with some fictional account of he who was recently referred
to as "the greatest senator of all time," by Sen. Ed Markey, a
Democrat. But then, maybe the better
question to ask would be, unless being taught about how far to the left today’s
Democrat Party now finds itself, why is it that anyone would be taught anything
about the infamous Ted Kennedy, or, for that matter, any member of the blatantly
corrupt Kennedy clan? Other than the one
who connived his way into the White House.
But be that as it may, it was on the recent occasion
of the opening of something called the "Edward M. Kennedy Institute"
in Boston, which was paid for in large part by the U.S. taxpayer, that Scott
Pelley, a news anchor for the "Communist Broadcasting System (CBS) Evening
News", simply oozed, "Another New England superstar was honored
today. Politics was his game, and we'll have his story next." There was not a single disparaging word, not
even the word "liberal", to be heard when describing the man who was arguably
the single most leftwing senator of all time.
At least until Barry “Almighty” made his way onto the scene. And oddly enough when President George W.
Bush dedicated his library, it was CBS reporter Jim Axelrod who insisted that
"this library is an intellectual fortress defending one of the most
controversial modern presidents, whose time in office saw the (9/11) attack on
the U.S., two wars and the worst financial crisis since the Great
Depression."
The whitewash of Teddy was so complete that even
"Fox News Sunday" host Chris Wallace, who becomes more like the
leftwing kook that his father was, barked up the carnival: "Up next, our
Power Player of the Week: Vicki Kennedy, on her husband's vision to inspire new
generations about the U.S. Senate." Wallace noted that Teddy was fiercely
partisan, to which the second Mrs. Kennedy replied, "He was the proudest
Democrat that there was, but the great thing about Teddy was that he always
listened to the other side and worked so well with the other side." Really?
I can only guess that she doesn’t recall Teddy’s vicious "Robert
Bork's America" speech in 1987, when Teddy stated, "Robert Bork's
America is a land in which women would be forced into back-alley abortions,
blacks would sit at segregated lunch counters, rogue police could break down
citizens' doors in midnight raids, schoolchildren could not be taught about
evolution, writers and artists would be censored at the whim of
government."
And it was NBC that brought on Teddy’s loser of a
son, Patrick Kennedy, who proclaimed, "My dad was always an optimist. I
mean, having overcome so many of his own personal challenges and political
challenges — I mean, this was a guy that everyone loved. Why? Because he
persevered." Patrick, himself, has
been known to dabble in any number of controlled substances, such as cocaine,
which he may have been under the influence of during this interview. The former eight-term Rhode Island Democrat
is also a big advocate for the legalization of marijuana, saying that pot is no
worse than alcohol and that those who claim otherwise base those claims on
anecdotal evidence, not science. It
should come as no surprise that Teddy's politician son to spin things this way,
but it doesn't mean the hyperbole should go unchallenged by a discerning press.
"A guy that everyone loved?" It’s
in that regard that I’m pretty sure that the 1970s, 80s and 90s would beg to
differ.
It was in none of these "superstar"
tributes that there was any talk of Teddy’s drunkenness, or his womanizing,
before and after the senator got divorced from Joan Kennedy in 1982. Gearing up for Kennedy's presidential run in
1979, Time magazine ran a piece titled "Sex and the Senior
Senator." They wrote, "The
mere mention of Edward Kennedy's social life is enough to make an editor's head
throb." They lamented out loud about how to handle the topic, concluding
with a D.C. dinner party where "14 talented and interesting men and women
talked of nothing but (Kennedy's) sexual activities." But it would appear there are those who seem
to remember a very different Teddy, with one of those being RINO John McCain. It was McCain who announced on "Face the
Nation" on CBS that Kennedy was a man of his word (and his vows?):
"Ted always kept his word. The only times I saw him angry was when
somebody didn't keep their word to him." Really?
And then it was at the opening ceremonies of this
‘institute’ that bears his name, that Barry shamelessly asked those in
attendance, "What if we carried ourselves more like Ted Kennedy? What if
we worked to follow his example a little bit harder?" But I would ask, does that also involve his
driving habits? Oh, that. And this very obvious double standard also
happened to appear in many newspapers. With Bush in 2013, New York Times
reporter Peter Baker gave Bush-bashers their due, writing, "While critics have
fumed about what they called the whitewashing of his record in the media blitz
leading up to the library dedication, many Americans have been reminded about
aspects of Bush they once liked."
But today the Times published two gush-filled articles on Teddy, without
a single mention of a Kennedy critic. Reporter Carl Hulse wrote, "Members
of the (Kennedy) institute's staff said it was not too late for younger
Americans to learn how to tolerate an opposing point of view."
Thus what we have here is yet another very clear
example of how it is that Democrats feel compelled to build those whom they
view as being progressive heroes into what are nothing more than caricatures of
legendary stature. You know, men like
LBJ, Robert ‘KKK’ Byrd, Mario Cuomo and even ‘Slick Willie’ Clinton to name
just a few. Look at the myth that they
have managed to build FDR into. And now
the very same is being done with Teddy.
We hear how his defenders, of which there are many, argue how it was that
he redeemed himself with his "progressive" agenda, up to and including
the debacle that is, to this day, referred to as health care
"reform." But when a man is
capable of doing what Ted Kennedy did that night in 1969 and in the weeks
afterward, what else is he capable of? I
find it rather ironic that it was once said that Teddy’s passing marked
"the end of civility in the U.S. Congress."
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