Why are the Kennedys so popular in Massachusetts? One reason is government-funded advertising for their family. More than one in five dollars directed toward Massachusetts from the just-passed federal spending package is in someway connected to promoting the Kennedys. After Patches Kennedy's discombobulated car crash, the late Michael Kennedy's affair with a fourteen-year-old babysitter, and Caroline Kennedy's disastrous introduction to politics, the family could use some good publicity. The bill includes $6 million for an Edward M. Kennedy Institute, $22 million for the seashore eyesore JFK Library, and $5 million for the Rose Kennedy Greenway. While Ted Kennedy is at it, why not a few thousand dollars for jersey barriers on the Dike Bridge over Poucha Pond?

This just goes to show how much closer to becoming a banana republic the United States in general and Massachusetts in particular are getting to be.

To such honor a family of reprobate leeches who have feasted at the government trough while doing more harm to this country than helping is an injustice.

This current obscenity was foisted by the other nitwit Senator from the Bay State likely as a down payment for the days after he spends his life screwing things up in the biggest boys club in the world and is then in line for taxpayers’ monetary largesse to honor him.

The worse part of this is how we keep hearing (but never believing) that our government needs more and more of our money lest the country collapse, and then these blatant thieves appropriate our tax dollars for useless and wasteful binge spending.

The majority of our leaders for life have no thinking beyond politicizing and self-aggrandizement about why or how they’re selling the future of this great country down the drain.

Speaking of scummy people, how is it that Bernie Madoff was allowed to cop a plea? Might it not be important to put him on trial and under questioning 'discover' how many more people were involved in his scam and to what extent?

Do I smell some kind of cover up?

Ted Kennedy and the Temple of Booze
Frontiers of Freedom ^ | 6/15/04 | Dustin M. Hawkins

Posted on Sunday, June 20, 2004 6:58:55 PM by Nasty McPhilthy

June 15, 2004

Ted Kennedy and the Temple of Booze Dustin M. Hawkins

Before I really start, I just want to give a heads up to this weeks inspiration. Earlier I received an e-mail from a reader whose letter contained far too many expletives for me to re-produce here. Unbearably upset by past unfavorable references towards this weeks subject, the reader who will remain totally anonymous (Don G. from Pennsylvania), insisted I never speak about Ted Kennedy again. I was going to stop at just one mention of him in this weeks column, but not being one for small-scale productions I just couldn't control myself. So here is to you, Don from Pennsylvania, and to you, Ted. Cheers.

In the 1960's, the Kennedy family had everything going for them. John was President and Robert was Attorney General. Then there was Ted, or as he was known in the 1970's: "the one who wasn't assassinated." Ted Kennedy's documented reputation of integrity and sobriety began as a youth while attending Harvard, from whence he was quickly expelled for cheating. (But don't worry the high standards allowed him to be re-admitted two short years later.) Ushered in for a second time, a "legacy" claim allowed this C-student access to Harvard in the first place. And I know that last part sounds familiar, but at least George W. Bush was able to be an average student on his own.

He would eventually graduate from the Ivy League and head to law school, where he would use his knowledge gained there to make very bad laws in the future. His political career would take off almost a decade later though, when his big brother became president and thus vacated his Massachusetts Senate seat. Nothing would stop Ted from becoming a lifer in the Senate (though he did run for President in 1980 when he realized Jimmy Carter disliked dry vodka martinis.)

But not long before not becoming President, Ted was already given a second pass. By this I refer to the infamous Chappaquiddick accident. According to his own version of events, after flying his car off a bridge and into a pond, he attempted on many occasions to save the other passenger, Mary Kopechne. Though many unsuccessful tries at rescuing her failed, he came to his senses and immediately notified the police... over nine hours later (and after the car had already been reported to and subsequently found by the police). Luckily, half a day was just enough time for Kennedy to 1) try to cover-up the accident and save his political career; 2) try to devise a scheme to blame Mary Kopechne and say she was the driver; 3) convince his friends on many occasions not to call the police and to not report the accident; and 4) sober up for investigators. Or as Kennedy put it, he was in "shock." All this had more than just Bill Janklow asking: "How'd he get off?"

One of Ted's biggest issue is with Republicans positively quoting his brother, JFK. Officially his policy towards Republicans is: if you can't say anything mean, don't say anything at all. For instance, I'm not supposed to mention John F. Kennedy's stances on tax cuts (for the rich?), or foreign policy. JFK's proposed tax cuts made Ronald Reagan's and George W. Bush's look like play-dough. He also was strongly opposed to communism and totalitarianism. Unfortunately he was bad at combating both, later presidents would be much better at combating both.

Be it as it may, a history of drunkenness, manslaughter, and stupidity would not keep Kennedy from being elected year after year by the sensible people of Massachusetts. Reportedly, state-sponsored rehab would have been far more expensive than just paying his salary. And though he hasn't driven any cars off bridges or been publicly intoxicated for quite awhile now, he still manages to make the headlines. Most recently, he called Iraq "Bush's Vietnam." Does that make Vietnam "JFK's Iraq"? But Kennedy's patriotism should not be judged, as we are always told, by comments like that. His patriotism should, however, be judged by comments like this: "We now learn that Saddam's torture chambers reopened under new management: U.S. management." Or as he otherwise phrased it, "I support the troops."