I never said that it shouldn't be mentioned. But neither should his entire life be summoned up by the name "Kopechne".

If everything had otherwise been equal, then why not? Leaving the scene was the only illegal thing he did. The actual driving off the bridge was an accident; it could have happened to anybody. We can not know what was going through his head afterwards. Concussion, panic, fear, guilt, horror... these all can make you do things you wouldn't otherwise. We all do things that we later regret. No one is immune, not even US Senators. He reacted like a Human; how horrible of him. But all these irresponsible actions were after the accident. Even if he had done everything correctly and properly, Mary Jo Kopechne would still be dead.

I did not, and I still do not agree that making light of Helms’s death was ok. I can not give Kevy a pass just because others made light of it.

Agreed.

My God, that's just incredibly awful. :D

On a news report I was watching last evening, someone (and I can't remember who) recalled that one of his best memories was hanging with Ted Kennedy until the wee hours belting out show tunes. Who knew he was a showtune queen? Of course, he sure as hell was not a sweet Irish Tenor based on Mousepod's youtube link. :D Somehow imagining Ted Kennedy belting out tunes from Wicked or Spamalot makes me smile a little more.

I agree. I disagree that anybody did so.

Though I will admit to an urge to throw dirt a bit. But I always feel that way when our society is in one of its paroxysms of posthumous fellatio.

Regardless of how good a person the fellatee is. And Kennedy was a good politician, I have no strong reaction either way to his death.

Everything couldn't be equal, she wasn't a Kennedy. Like I said, obviously you disagree and we can never know who's right. Though I am.


You didn't make light of it, but you hardly showed any respect to him or his family and did express your happiness that he was dead and hoped he was enjoying his first night in hell. It doesn't strike me as such an extension to assume that those actually harmed by the deceased (if you believe there was harm) might have a similar feeling.

(Though I find it as pointless to suppose their reaction as it is for you to assume insult to Kennedy and his family.)

Now everybody get back to the posthumous fellatio! As a collective nation, it is what we do best.

In terms of making light, I suppose this would be a really bad time to break out the Ted Kennedy Volkswagen commercial?

??

A classic National Lampoon parody ad. They were sued by VW and razored it out of almost every copy of the book.


BTW, Alex. I think "paroxysms of posthumous fellatio" would be a great name for a band.

Well, since you ask (should have said ad not commercial).

From an early '70s issue of National Lampoon (I won't actually embed the picture since I'm sure it will upset some)

My favorite memory of Ted Kennedy was nothing he said...it was something said by Robert Byrd, I believe. There was a picture on the tabloids of Ted on his Yacht in the Atlantic surrounded by several bikini clad females. Upon seeing it, Byrd said "I thought Kennedy was against off shore drillin'. ".

Edited to add: OK, I was wrong....there's the exact quote, and it wasn't Byrd, it was Alabama Senator Howell Heflin.

"Well it does appear that the good Senator from Massachusetts has reversed his position on off-shore drillin'!"

That is a hilarious story. Admitting my ignorance, I had to go look up the good Senator from Alabama and wiki provided this funny anecdote:

Oh, okay, I do remember seeing this somewhere.