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The Ted Kennedy I Knew
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Jim Bourg / Reuters
The MSNBC host says a new biography reveals what made Kennedy the greatest US senator of modern times—and why he never dropped the torch.
In June 1946, Jack Kennedy was approaching his first big political win. His father’s polls showed him with a commanding lead in the Democratic primary for Congress. Given the party’s big registration edge in Cambridge and other towns in the 11th District of Massachusetts, he had a November victory in the bag.
With electoral success imminent, members of the Kennedy family sat around the table in Hyannis Port. Each took a turn to toast the candidate’s 29th birthday. Finally, the daunting Joseph P. Kennedy called on his youngest son, Teddy.
The night before Joseph P. Kennedy’s funeral, Ted dragged a sleeping bag into the room where his father’s body lay and spent the night underneath the casket.
“I would like to drink a toast to the brother who isn’t here,” he said.
Mark Dalton, who was managing Jack’s winning ’46 campaign, was the only one present outside of the family. He would recall that moment for the rest of his life, this rare peek into the world of the tight-knit Kennedys.
Here was this little boy reminding his older siblings and his father of the oldest son, Joseph, who had been killed in a dangerous WW II bombing mission. “It took several minutes for the room to recover,” Dalton recalled in sharing this story with me many years ago.
Just 13, Teddy Kennedy was displaying the twin imperatives of being born into that incredible family: a loyalty that lasts beyond the grave and a born duty to grab the torch that tragedy passes from brother to brother.
The youngest brother would display it again when his beloved father died in 1970. Thanks to an intriguing new biography, we learn that the night before Joseph P. Kennedy’s funeral, Ted dragged a sleeping bag into the room where his father’s body lay and spent the night underneath the casket.
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Paul Schrodt is a writer living in New York City. He has contributed to New York magazine, Radar, and Esquire.com.
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Banjo1
That tingle that runs up Matthew's leg whenever a liberal opens his mouth must reach the genitals when he considers Teddy. This loud-mouth alcoholic and coward -- Ted not Chris, though the similarity is eerie -- has been one of the most reliable votes for big government, high taxation and open borders during his career. Otherwise, he would be known only for swimming away from Mary Jo and letting her drown. Speaking of reliable, the brown-nosing Matthews can always be counted on to praise anyone on the left side of the aisle. It comes from having been an errand boy for Tip O'Neill.
jackee
Mary Jo Kopechne sure felt a tingle that cool summer night in 1969. All thanks to Ted!
dphendri
I totally agree. Teddy was an enemy to objectivism; like most Kennedys. A functional government and the burden on the top 1% that standards bring, encouraging huddled masses to enter a land of opportunity... BOO!
I'm white and more for THEM means less for me. It has to mean that because there is no other way to envision the world outside of a zero-sum game; it's impossible!
Charlemagne712
I didnt really read this article fully, but i did go through looking for key terms and 1 thing in particular stood out to me...
How can you write an argument for the "Greatest Modern Senator" without making 1 reference to Strom Thurmond. SURE he was also an ancient senator, but it wasnt too long ago when he was still walking through congress. He is arguably one of the most important South Carolinians in history and stands alone for the past 50 years. Not that Lindsey Graham isnt an excellent senator, but here in SC we compare him (with great respect for both men) to Strom and we all have our fingers crossed that he becomes "Strom Jr".
Now im not trying to say that Ted isnt going to go into the record of as one of the greatest ever but atleast use strom as a reference point. credit where credit's due
Ankhorite
To the end of his days, Strom Thurmond never acknowledged his own black child, the daughter he begot on a teenage maid in his parents' home.
Even after he supposedly cleaned up his racist views, he never stepped up and said "this is my daughter."
jblum8156
Ted Kennedy is one of a very few senators who is actually Senatorial.
jackee
Don't judge all of the orchard by its worst apple. C'mon now. Be open-minded.
xbainx
What Banjo1 means to say is:
Waaaaah I'm Republican. Waaaaaah nobody listens to my ideas about letting sick mexicans die in the street.
tankertodd
I wasn't aware that Chris Matthews was so expert in the ways of fellatio, but apparently he REALLY likes Ted Kennedy.
He lost me when we referred to Mary Jo Kopechne - "may have cost a young woman her life." What's this? She ISN'T dead? What terrific news - surely Chris Matthews, being a journalist, could investigate for us? Or perhaps Mary Jo is in hiding all these years in a futile attempt to ruin Teddy's political aspirations?
GREGORYABUTLER
Three words
Mary
Jo
Kopechne
He left his mistress to drown in the cold Atlantic Ocean because it might be mildly personally inconvenient to be caught in the same car with her.
Teddy Kennedy is scum - and the whole wretched Kennedy "Dynasty" are nothing more than bootleggers gone respectable!
To hell with Camelot!
whatchutalkinbout
If any of the naysayers above had ever actually met the "Senatah" they would eat their words. I have on many occasions and let me tell you - he's the real deal. Alcoholism can make people do some really stupid things - but there is no doubt that Teddy, and for that matter the Kennedys as a whole, have more than paid their debt to society. They were raised on the concept of "Noblesse Oblige." They have ALWAYS been for the underdog and the "least among us." It's not posturing like the "compassionate conservatism" that we've seen out of the likes of Bush etal. They put their money and their time where their mouth is. Look up Special Olympics, Best Buddies, the Peace Corp....the list goes on and on of good deeds that have been born of their dining room table. Judging his life deeds, his good exponentially outweighs the bad - something that could never be said for Strom Thurmond and his ilk. I love Teddy - and more importantly Teddy loves you!
Nancyismyname
Not to be hateful, but the man DID kill a young woman and never took responsibility. I cannot find where he ever even said, "I'm sorry." How do we revere a man like this when those who have done the same things (albeit without his millions) are imprisoned? He may have voted for things I believe in, he may have done some good for his country, but he has never ever paid the cost of the life he took.
Ankhorite
Watch TV. The news channels are reviewing his life constantly, and most of them broadcast the 1969 speech in which he looked right at the camera and said how sorry he was. You don't believe it was murder -- it was clearly an accident -- and you can say "never" but most of us believe in redemption, particularly for accidents.
Nancyismyname
I wonder how many of us wish Ted had been the man he could have been. While many of us don't live up to our potential, he surely had a great many advantages in life. I have a hard time getting past the fact he killed a young woman, ok being honest, I cannot get past it. He has done good things in his job, and made mistakes like many others - but I think he has tried. But he should have been in prison all this time, not in Congress.
Ankhorite
The average sentence served for murder is seven years. This wasn't murder, and it happened in 1969, forty years ago.
Banjo1
I favor getting sick Mexicans off the streets, if that's where they are, and treating them in Mexican hospitals.
jackee
But will they have UNIVERSAL health care? Maybe we can name the Mexican health care system after Teddy.
TotalRecall9
"Greatest U.S. Senator of modern times."
You've got to be kidding me. He's the one who wanted the "Big Dig", didn't he?
I said it before. The problem with Chris Matthews is that he LOVES politicians. It doesn't matter which party they are. Most of the time, he plays SOFTBALL with senators and congressman because they were elected to public office and he wasn't.
Regardless of Ted's past, he should resign now. The dems need that vote so they won't have to keep bribing 3 republican senators to get legislation through. I sympathize with his illness, but the country needs a BIG change and the republicans are unwilling to change!
Tango121
He left a woman to die in the back of his car, and then lied about it. This will be his legacy, not his work in the senate. This is as it should be. Of course to Mr. Matthew's sense of what is right and wrong it will be the reverse. What's a young woman life compared to what Mr. Kennedy done with the rest of his life?
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n--Y--Cooper727sonofloud
Ted Kennedy "the greatest senator of modern times" ??? LOL
Thanks Chris for making me spit coffee all over my keyboard.
Spasticula
I love how Republicans are always telling Dems to let go of things like Bush"s election theft from Gore, because "it's ancient news"... but they can't let go of much older things like Jane Fonda in a tank, Ted Kennedy and Chapaquiddick, Bill Clintons BJ. Liberals should work very hard to insure that crap that should be in the forefront of peoples minds in 50 years is still there; namely the evil and incompetence of two oil industry cronies who brought the nation they profess to love, (and the world at large) to the toppling point, so they could forget their tiny penises and admire their bank balances.
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