The Reason Ted Kennedy Can't Run For National Office

I don't like to use lengthy emails but, for some time, I've been asking myself about the Senators from Massachusetts, and how it is they both get themselves re-elected over and over. Isn't Massachusetts one of the cradles of intellectual civilization in this Country? How is it that educated people continue to select as their respresentive a Vietnam Vet who, while still in the Reserves and without endorsement of his government, traveled to France to meet with the leaders of his Country's enemy? I don't understand why there is/was outrage directed at Jane Fonda and not at John Kerry, a member of the Reserves when he participated in more serious antics than did the movie star/spoiled child/activist citizen? Is there a statute of limitations for treason??? Why does no one ask this question? And then, there's Teddy. Now I'm sure as I write this, there will be those who feel that the record doesn't support these facts. And that's possibly true since I'm not sure what part of the official record remains recorded today. My belief is that the Kennedy money and influence have erased most of what was recorded and silenced (with pay-off money and/or threats) individuals who were directly involved. I was old enough to follow the story when it happened. And, make no mistake, it did happen. My concern is that too many people today have absolutely no knowledge about what happened to poor Mary Jo Kopechne. And, they certainly should. Ted Kennedy may very well have to live in his own private Hell about that night and the many other "nights" discussed below for which he should shoulder shame and blame. Still, just living in a personal Hell doesn't free him from public responsibility for his past. Today he, at the absolute least, should curtail throwing "character" stones at anybody, and he should stop making major speeches about anyone else's judgment. Teddy--and for my money John Kerry-- live in a very fragile glass houses. They both have earned the priviledge of being presented to their peers for consideration as candidates willing to repay society for their past actions by serving appropriate time in jail. So here's the email and the name of the originator of it. It's a walk down memory lane for some of us and, for those under 40, a chance to learn something new and important. You decide if this stuff is outrageous, yet actionable behavior, or not.

Subject: Mary Jo Kopechne.

Hello My name is Mary Jo Kopechne.

I would have been 65 years of age this year.
Read about me and my killer below.

When Sen. Ted Kennedy was merely just another Democrat bloating on
Capitol Hill on behalf of liberal causes, it was perhaps excusable to
ignore his deplorable past.

But now that he's become Sen. John Kerry's leading campaign attack
dog, positioning himself as Washington's leading arbiter of truth and
integrity, the days for such indulgence are now over. It's time for the
GOP to stand up and remind America why Sen. Kerry's chief spokesman had to abandon his own presidential bid in 1980 - time to say the words Mary Jo Kopechne out loud.

As is often the case, Republicans have deluded themselves into thinking
that most Americans already know the story of how this "Conscience of the Democratic Party" left Miss Kopechne behind to die in the waters
underneath the Edgartown Bridge in July 1969, after a night of drinking
and partying with the young blonde campaign worker. But most Americans under 40 have never heard that story, or details of how Kennedy swam to safety, when tried to get his cousin Joe Garghan to say he was behind the wheel.

Those young voters don't know how Miss Kopechne, trapped inside Kennedy's Oldsmobile, gasped for air until she finally died, while the Democrats' leading Iraq war critic rushed back to his compound to formulate the best alibi he could think of.

Neither does Generation X know how Kennedy was thrown out of Harvard on his ear 15 years earlier -- for paying a fellow student to take his Spanish final. Or why the US Army denied him a commission because he cheated on tests.

As they listen to the Democrats' "Liberal Lion" accuse President Bush of
"telling lie after lie after lie" to get America to go to war in Iraq,
young voters don't know about that notorious 1991 Easter weekend in Palm Beach, when Uncle Teddy rounded up his nephews for a night on the town, an evening that ended with one of them credibly accused of rape.

It's time for Republicans to state unabashedly that they will no longer
"go along with the gag" when it comes to Uncle Ted's rants about deception and moral turpitude inside the Bush White House.
And if the Republicans don't, let's do it ourselves by passing this
forgotten disgrace around the Internet to wake up memories of what a fraud and fake Teddy really is. The Democratic Party, not to mention
Sen. John Kerry, should be ashamed to have the national disgrace from
Massachusetts as their spokesman. And the GOP needs to say so out loud. I remember all of this and I'm sure most of you do, too. -- Robert Lindley
--- klindley@earthlink.net