WHO is Telling Chappaquiddick Jokes?
Thursday morning, when I saw MSNBC’s morning host Dylan Ratigan fret that the death of Senator Edward Kennedy, the most polarizing politician of the last 40 years,would supposedly lead to even less bi-partisanship, I put it down to the usual rose-colored obit-talk.
When he called Ted Kennedy a “bridge to the other side,” I idly thought, bad choice of words, Dylan buddy, don’t you people go over these things before airtime? Then Dylan repeated his ill-chosen metaphor, ”Who will be that bridge now?”
Are you kidding? I know MSNBC’s ratings are nowheresville, but you don’t even have a staff for show-prep?
But it turns out there was no reason to be careful. Today comes the shocking report from Kennedy biographer Edward Klein that Senator Kennedy was fond of Chappaquiddick jokes.
KLEIN TO WAMU RADIO HOST KATY KAY: I don’t know if you know this or not, but one of his favorite topics of humor was indeed Chappaquiddick itself. And he would ask people, “Have you heard any new jokes about Chappaquiddick?” That is just the most amazing thing. It’s not that he didn’t feel remorse about the death of Mary Jo Kopechne, but that he still always saw the other side of everything and the ridiculous side of things, too.
That’s not troubled youth, checkered past, libertinism or even shamelessness.
That is sociopathic behavior.
But since I hesitate to use Edward Klein as a completely authoritative source: Here’s Senator Kennedy, himself, telling a Chappaquiddick joke on the floor of the Senate.
SENATOR KENNEDY TO ATTORNEY GENERAL NOMINEE MUKASEY: Similar to many of my colleagues and many American citizens, I am deeply troubled by Judge Mukasey’s evasive answers about torture. He has repeatedly refused to acknowledge that waterboarding--the controlled drowning of a prisoner–is torture. Instead, he has said only that torture is unconstitutional without being willing to say whether waterboarding is torture.
As the record makes clear, courts and tribunals have consistently found waterboarding to be an unacceptable act of torture. As Malcolm Nance, a former master instructor and chief of training at the U.S. Navy Survival Evasion, Resistance and Escape School, said of waterboarding: For the uninitiated, it is horrifying to watch and if it goes wrong, it can lead straight to terminal hypoxia. When done right it is controlled death.
What could be a sicker joke than having Mary Jo Kopechne’s chauffeur lecturing a dedicated public servant on the agonies of simulated drowning? How many Americans should be sacrificed to keep Khalid Shaikh Mohammed from having sore sinuses for a day?
As Rush Limbaugh pointed out, comparing waterboarding to what happened at Chappaquiddick is like calling an airplane landing at an airport a “controlled crash.”
But Senator Kennedy was not content with telling Chappaquiddick jokes on this day. No, in order to score points against George W. Bush, he decided that he needed to slander American intelligence agents doing the difficult — and sometimes ugly — work to protect his right to party at his Palm Beach compound:
Waterboarding is an ancient and barbaric technique. In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, interrogators of the Spanish inquisition used it. It was used against slaves in this country. In World War II, it was used against our soldiers by Japan! This is the company the Bush administration embraces when it refuses to renounce waterboarding.
Here’s the reputed “lion of the Senate” lyin’ in the Senate. The Japanese criminals we prosecuted were primarily hanged for mass murder, with water torture a charge included in the bill of particulars. Second, the Japanese water torture involved the pumping of water through a hose into prisoners until their insides burst and they died. The only comparison is that water was involved.
Only one person who is either the subject or the deliverer of the above speech has been involved in killing someone with water.
Macabre jokes aside, Kennedy’s slander was no better than Dick Durbin’s Pol Pot outrage for which he was forced to eventually apologize.
It would have been nice this week on MSNBC, to see even 1% of the sympathy wasted on waterboarded mass murderer Khalid Shaikh Mohammed expressed for Mary Jo Kopechne.
Kennedy cant hide no more now maybe the rest of MA. wake up two more to go in MA. Kerry, Frank there’s my guy Durbin which has been hiding down in the corn here in Illinois these guys are big coward.
Come on…he just killed one young woman!
The Lockerbie bomber did 28 days per murder victim.
I’d say Teddy did his 28 days a long time ago.
Actually, the Lockerbie bomber did 11 and 1/2 days per victim.
What great encouragement to all the little bombers in training!
He’ll probably be teaching a class in Libya on just how it’s done.
As for Ted, he may have only personally killed one, but his great work in promoting abortion rights outdoes the L. Bomber by a longshot.
America lost a legendary Irish-Catholic icon this week. RIP Dominick Dunne.
{one of his favorite topics of humor was indeed Chappaquiddick itself. And he would ask people, “Have you heard any new jokes about Chappaquiddick?â€}
Hmmm, I find it interesting, sad really that this was treated so lightly by the commentators (Klein/Kay) were any Republican to joke about their past misdeeds every MSM would run it as breaking news…but I am more troubled to think that Sen. Kennedy could joke about Chappaquiddick and get a “pass” from any of his colleagues, esp Republicans…since this is the first I’ve heard about it.
I like a good joke, this isn’t one
My husband and I (67 and 68) lived through the Chappaquidick incident. As the truth began to emerge that he had let Mary Jo die in that car and nothing was done for many hours – can we say “cover up”? We were both democrats (the old kind that really cared about people), so there is no political prejudice. Others can say why they think Kennedy will be remembered…..all we remember is the coward who let a young woman die in the waters near a bridge so long ago.
I think Democratic politicians who admire and even revere Ted Kennedy have every good reason to do so. Amongst these politicians is to be found such an abnormally high proportion of hypocrites, liars, drunkards, check bouncers, adulterers, thieves, and rapists as to put any other group of citizens out on parole to shame. And yet even amongst this elite, there is one who has always stood out, above them all, the Shyster of shysters, in the stark isolation of his self-made pinnacle: Ted Kennedy, King of “the Hill,” had always stood in a class by himself, head and shoulders above his closest rival. As not merely the only senator amongst 1oo, as not merely the only legislator amongst our Federal 535, but as perhaps the only legislator in all of US history who could justifiably lay claim to – not just 2 or 3 — but virtually EVERY SINGLE ONE of the above coveted character flaws, Senator Kennedy stood above his peers as a giant tapeworm stands above its surrounding microscopic intestinal parasites. And as if that were not enough to justify his elevation to the peak of political professionalism, he is perhaps the only legislator in memory (if not in US history) who can also lay claim to PERSONALLY causing another person’s death directly through his own actions. Who amongst us has the temerity to dispute this great politician’s standing in his Party? Who amongst us would dare to deny for a minute that in all our nation’s history NO politician has come closer than he to achieving the purified essence of the idealized political scumbag? His party could not have selected a more suitable recipient of their highest encomiums than the disHonorable Senator Kennedy, the only man amongst those elected to our nation’s highest offices of trust who had been able to rise above the level of mere drunkard, liar, cheater, adulterer, and hypocrite, and to attain the unheard of status of actually having done murder and gotten away with it 100% scott free. His almost super-human achievements in character depravity must of necessity be the envy of every Democratic politician worth his salt. Indeed, it would be surprising if his peers did NOT stand in awe of Senator Kennedy’s Olympian political skills. But the Great Politician has now passed on to the great beyond, where few can doubt that he will be VERY warmly received. His personal legacy is one that many politicians of future generations will undoubtedly seek to emulate, but which few if any will ever have a hope of matching. As a final eulogy to this Great Politician, let us never forget his unstinting support of socialized health care for America, and particularly his ceaseless striving to curtail the wasteful funding of medical research & progress so as to make investment in the growth of congressional salaries a permanent reality — a goal that was always so close to his heart, and which he felt so deeply in his wallet. So while Republicans, libertarians, and so many others who opposed him may continue, selfishly, to yearn for the day when medical science might finally find the road to human immortality, let us give a boisterous thanks that Senator Kennedy has now been permanently spared that prospect.
I agree Morry! Its amazing he got a pass from his comrads or comrats and they take this Chapp. joke lightly. Presently, T. Kennedy probably would be happy if he was just passing gas now – because he most likely is in a horrible place. I wish he wasn’t-but he did it to himself.
Great, witty remark.
Great comment, Beverly. Thanks for sharing and please share more soon.
Thanks buddy. I just noticed your response. Keep up the good work.