So long, old fella. [NYT]
Ted Kennedy Dead At 77
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{ 138 comments }
He got 40 more years than Mary Jo Kopechne did.
Get ready for a barrage of comments like the above from Right-wingers and Fox News guests. They’ll spit on Kennedy’s corpse, even before it is become cold. He is what they despised most: a principled man who truly cared about ordinary people and wanted to help improve their lot.
Bye, Teddy. We’ll miss you.
Bye Teddy. Enjoy seeing your brothers again.
Your headline made me realize that while some Dems may use the late senator’s death and name as a rallying cry and spur to attempt to pass health care reform, the looney fringe, which gets the majority of press coverage, will use his name as an epithet and be even more energized to oppose any reform. Sigh. For a few, brief hours I allowed myself to believe that passage of real reform was more likely than ever. What a fool I was.
Teddy, thank you for the work you did on:
- Civil Rights Act of 1964
- Voting Rights Act of 1965
- 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act
- 1993 Family and Medical Leave Act
You made America a better place. The other side threw a lot at you, but you stayed a statesman.
Bless you, and may God hold you in the palm of his hand. Your brothers, too.
He taught Republicans to spell ‘Kopechne’ correctly, at least. Tribute of a kind from those idiots. Present company excepted, of course.
Of course they are going to spit. They have no Ted Kennedy to be proud of.
Wonketeers can be truly ruthless when, say, a Bob Novak dies. Therefore we should only expect comments such as Anita’s above. That said, Anita, you bitch, go to hell.
And only yesterday we were snarking on Chappaquidick. Oh Denby, why did you let us kill Uncle Ted?
Hey, as I wrote last post:
Today, we are all David Denby.
[re=395109]Serolf Divad[/re]: I’m thinking the on-air “tributes” will be Chappaquidick Revisited.
Today we are all dead.
[re=395114]Terry[/re]: +1
I can’t believe the snarky inappropriateness of this post. Do you people have no decency? And on the day of his death, no less!
Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam.
[re=395108]Anita Cocktail[/re]: Fuck you.
Go back to redstate.
He was a good man, I used to make jokes galore about his drinking and such, but in the end he was a good man, enjoy playing cards with John and Bobby. Oh, and have a drink on me you deserve it.
[re=395124]teebob2000[/re]: Real nice. I’ve been a commenter here — a liberal one, mind you — for years. Go on, check it out.
Teddy Kennedy did a lot of good in his life. But Chappaquiddick was inexcusable. I grew up across the river from Mary Jo Kopechne’s hometown and drive by the cemetery in which she is buried every time I go to visit my aunt. Let’s not have a Nixonesque papering over of who he was in order to aggrandize him. His positive achievements stand on their own without gilding and his failings are what they are, and made him human.
The end of the line of a wealthy family who actually cared about something other than their money and did so much for our country. Patrick has his heart in the right place, but will never be the statesman his father was. RIP Teddy.
Helluva of a guy. Honesty requires that we acknowledge some Grand Prix fuckups, like Chappaquidick and helping get Ronald Raygun elected by splitting the Democrats in 1980. But there has not been a senator since the days of Clay and Webster who did more than Ted Kennedy. I mourn his passing, and I hope that maybe somehow it will get a health care reform bill passed, but I’m not optimistic on that count.
I’ll wager W killed more innocent women in Iraqistan in any given month than Terrible Ted did in his career. USA! Anita, wasn’t your married name “Dick?” Jesse Helms is also taking up the pooper from Satan in hell. Too.
God you people. Can’t you even hold off on the adulation, respect and remembrance until his funeral? Show some respect; let’s at least wait until his burial.
Overall, Teddy did good.
Sad face.
[re=395127]Anita Cocktail[/re]: But your first comment implies that Chappaquiddick & MJK’s death, and only her death, define him. Hence the vitriol, long-time commenter or not.
Jesus, the timing. We all knew he was going to go, but I was really holding out hope that he would at least see Health Care Reform passed. Godspeed Teddy, and thank you.
No snark. We’re a better, kinder country and people because of you.
Godspeed.
[re=395131]Carrie_Okie[/re]: This is hilarious. I’ve been reading and commenting on wonkette longer than some of the folks telling me to fuck off. Why is no liberal able to mention Chappaquiddick without getting the stinkeye (and worse)? It happened. It ruined his presidential aspirations and with good reason. We can’t be “good liberals” and mention it? Ted Kennedy served admirably in the senate for a long time and did some wonderful things; for example, my daughter will benefit from his championing of Title IX her whole life. But this complete and utter hypocrisy is absurd. Painting a picture of some godlike human who never did wrong doesn’t do justice to the man Kennedy was. He had demons. Lots of them. His demons resulted in a lot of harm to other people of varying degrees. What I respect about him is that despite those demons, he managed to achieve so much good. Isn’t that the real lesson about his life, instead of some bullshit “The Third Kennedy” lionization?
[re=395108]Anita Cocktail[/re]: Maybe you should be posting on Free Republic today and let those of us who appreciated him, in spite of his flaws, shed a tear or two and thank him for all the work he did for working people .
[re=395135]hobospacejunkie[/re]: Point taken. Perhaps my connection to MJK makes me a little quick on the draw to remind the world that a young woman with her whole life ahead of her died because of his actions/inactions. But I think my subsequent comments make clear that I do not view Chapp. as the only thing to say about Ted. A defining moment, perhaps, along w/ many others, but not “the” defining moment.
Both Teddy and W were spoiled children of rich political dynasties who would have been lucky to manage a KFC without their last name. But one actually used the opportunity his charmed life gave him in order to make things better for the majority of Americans. The other worked to flush the nation down the toilet.
[re=395140]Limeylizzie[/re]: No, thanks, I’d rather be here.
[re=395142]Manos: Hands of Fate[/re]: Exactly. And how do any of us know what role Chappaquiddick played in that? Maybe it was the moment when Kennedy had a revelation, woke up said to himself, hey, I can piss my life away or I can get my shit together and do some good in this world. Maybe a desire to atone for Chapp. changed the course of his life. It’s an interesting thought, no?
Or am I not allowed to say that either without being told to fuck off?
On the upside: At least the CIA did not kill Teddy. Good on you, Teddy.
[re=395114]Terry[/re]: Thanks for that. I’m not sure if he sponsored it, but he was instrumental on CHIP as well.
The fight goes on. . .
[re=395108]Anita Cocktail[/re]: Hillaryis44.com might be a better match for your brand of Democrat.
[re=395144]Anita Cocktail[/re]: You should be able to say whatever you want without being told to fuck off. This is a blog. We are opinionated, sarcastic and normally very supportive of one another.
Angels, hide your daughters. The Kennedy boys are back in town.
Enjoy your eternal reward, Teddy — you’ll be missed here on Earth.
[re=395114]Terry[/re]: Good list. Let’s add:
1970 – S1, Catastrophic Health Insurance
Still waiting, of course, but his fight for health care went way back.
at least hee lived too a raep old age
not liek mary tyler potemkin
mi hart bleads 4 her
nevar 4get Chatanoogachoochoo
[re=395140]Limeylizzie[/re]: I just checked out freerepublic, and I don’t think anita cocktail could rise to the level of vitriol and ugliness there. I felt a little dirty after reading it. What the HELL is wrong with those people?!
[re=395148]freakishlystrong[/re]: That said, we only meant fuck off in the nicest, most respectable sense. i.e. would you have buttsecks with us?
It’s the Wonketteer version of flirting.
That said, we never mention on this site:
– Chappaquiddick
– That Johnny boy was married twice, but the first was annulled when Joe Sr. didn’t care for the slut JFK fell in love with
– That Robert got sloppy seconds on Marilin Monroe and was J. Edgars little bitch boy
– That Eunice started Special Olympics because she felt guilty about the family giving her sister Rosemary a pre-frontal lobotomy.
…because it’s all too soon, too soon.
Ted Kennedy for all his flaws was a great American, and will meet his maker having done more good, and helping more people, than most men can dream of.
I am sad today.
[re=395109]Serolf Divad[/re]: What kind of principles? “No windmills in my backyard?” He may not have been the devil that conservatives painted him as, but he certainly wasn’t a saint either.
[re=395154]ella[/re]:
I should have put Title IX on there, too.
[re=395139]Anita Cocktail[/re]: Regardless of what happened at Chappaquiddick, I think the more important point is that Kennedy killed Michael Jackson, and on that we can all agree.
Ted = a net plus. Backing Barry last year took some guts. Manos: Hands of Fate got it right.
[re=395168]facehead[/re]: +1. Of course, I like to think that Teddy was more responsible for Robert Novak shuffling off this mortal coil. Hey, I can dream.
[re=395156]justshocking[/re]: It is amazing to me that they drop the name of God after nearly all of those repulsive comments, they are sick, frightened and repellent.
[re=395148]freakishlystrong[/re]: Agreed, this is the best response to Anitacocktail’s post that upset some of us.
What does Rep. Peter King have to say?
[re=395165]Terry[/re]: He did so much over the years. I remember the catastrophic health insurance partly because my mother read his book, In Critical Condition (1972), until she nearly wore it out. He was really ahead of the curve on this issue.
I don’t think he ever claimed to be a saint.
Anita, I think part of the reaction may have been because yours was the first comment. Forty years ago, he did a stupid, selfish, cowardly thing and killed a young woman and then used his power to escape the consequences. In the forty years since then, he’s worked hard for this country and used his power to do a great deal of good. To focus on a decades-old horrible mistake as the first thing to bring up on the announcement of his death is a disservice to him. For those of us who respected him and are grateful to him, ignoring his legacy just as we find out he’s died touches a nerve, just as driving past that cemetery touches a nerve in you.
He did so much good, made such a difference in so many people’s lives because of what he fought for. Whatever else he did, I’ll remember him for that.
A drunk young girl drowned riding in a car that ran off a narrow bridge with no guard rails in the middle of the night with a drunken, irresponsible man-child a half a century ago, who tried to save her, only to delay in summoning the police because he was frightened. Anita, I have managed to get past this, and I think the rest of us have, too. MJK snark = FAIL.
[re=395131]Carrie_Okie[/re]: Are you sure about that? The Kennedy clan was rather cozy with the IRA, as I recall.
[re=395168]facehead[/re]: And I’m kinda suspious about his role in Farrah’s death too.
I’m not going anywhere near Hyannis today.
I know this shouldn’t shock me, but I’m still taken aback by how fast the nytimes had a seven-page article up talking about him in the past tense. Had this one on file, much?
[re=395141]Anita Cocktail[/re]: But I think my subsequent comments make clear that I do not view Chapp. as the only thing to say about Ted.
Oh I dunno. You seemed to think it was sufficient until people called you on being so classy a broad. And it certainly was a well-laid turd in the punch bowl. I think you’d have got away with it if you’d had a sense of humor, or evinced any aspect of liberality. But you didn’t, and thus the shit-rain from your betters. Get used to it.
He perfected the fine and dying art of noblesse oblige.
And we’re all better off for it.
Oh, and if there is a heaven, then Mary Jo’s waiting for Ted there with her 60s sex kitten up-do and tight sweater, dry martini in hand. And she’ll slyly croon: “It’s ok, Teddy, you’re forgiven…it’s all water under that bridge now.”
And then she’ll wink, and laugh and say: “Get a sense of humor, you guilty Catholic SOB. You did good down there, a helluvalotta good. Plus, I just luv, luv, luv being famous.”
And the Angels shall sing. And Sammy, Frank, and Dean will go doo-wop, doo-wop.
Here’s to hoping he willed his balls to either Harry Reid or Max Baucus.
The McCain ladies simply do not care for this Wonkett sense of humor at a time like this.
And thus begins the months-long Wailing of the Boomers, complete with a flurry of tell-all books, made-for-TV movies, special-issue magazines, commemorative Liberian coins and tabloid sightings with Elvis.
Oh, such Blingees you will see…
fuck you all you people who say fuck you.
Anybody wanna start a pool on how many spelling variations on “Chappaquiddick” will appear on town hall posters in the next 10 days?
I’ve already got 32.
Ask any intelligent and honest Senator (good luck finding many) or Hill staffer or competent political reporter who the best legislator, in either party, is or has been for the last 20 plus years, and they’ll unfailingly say, “Ted Kennedy.” He began his career born on third base, as they say, but over time mastered the art of parliamentary tactics, learning the rules backwards and forwards to enable him to achieve enactment of a myriad of significant progressive legislation. The only one better was Lyndon Johnson.
I remember seeing Ted Kennedy in 1966 or 1967 in Madison, Wisconsin, during my student days (yeah, I’m that old), when he was giving a speech. It was my baptism into what is now being practiced with a vengeance at town halls: several students heckled Kennedy because he was still supporting the administration in Viet Nam, and the anti-war movement was just getting started. It was still early enough that there wasn’t too much sympathy for the hecklers, even in Madison. That all changed in short order though.
Ted was a very talented and principled guy. IMHO his endorsement of Barack Obama was the real death knell for Hillary’s campaign. Good for him, one last time.
[re=395108]Anita Cocktail[/re]: Keep it classy.
[re=395195]doxastic[/re]: I second that, but since Teddy had such a colossal pair, giving them one each would probably be sufficient.
I’m going to scratch a backwards ‘T’ on my cheek in his honor today.
[re=395194]JSDC007[/re]: It’s a testament to your snark abilities that I am not the least bit offended by that. Awesome.
[re=395157]WIDTAP[/re]: That second thing, really? He was married before Jackie? I had never heard that. TrukNutz back at ‘cha! Also.
[re=395141]Anita Cocktail[/re]: There’s absolutely no evidence that Mary Jo Kopechne would not have grown into a horrible person over the last 40 years. There’s ample evidence that Ted Kennedy did not.
Even Hitler was a nice guy when he was 20.
[re=395190]qaf[/re]: [re=395108]Anita Cocktail[/re]: qaf: exactly.
Anita, the problem is that you went right to the freeper playbook on the first go. The very first comment on this thread was this decontextualized, mean-spirited bullshit. Most people here, despite their commenting style, are grownups, and know that Kennedy was (as today’s headline in the NYT suggests) “flawed.” But you needn’t drop this turd of a comment on us very first thing (look at me! I’m first!), nor can you express surprise when others take offense. This is particularly true when crazed mobs show up to town halls and howl about death squads. TK tried to use the legislative process and the art of compromise to get us health care reform. He died before it come to fruition–and the reform may die because of chowderheads like the teabaggers and their ilk. I don’t think it matters whether you’re a liberal or not–you didn’t sound even slightly balanced when you shared your comment. So, based only on what you said, being told to fuck off was both necessary and appropriate.
Meanwhile, there’s a lot of kids, in this country and overseas, who will get sixty or eighty years less than a lot of the criminals in Congress and the former executive branch who authorized an illegal war against a country that did not attack us. You might have mentioned that. Yes, C’quiddick was awful and TK handled it poorly–maybe criminally–but your comment reduces his achievements to that of some third-rate party hack. And that’s not right.
when you add it all up…he was good man….will be missed…wish there were more like him. a real human being. happy trails ted.
[re=395181]Guppy06[/re]: You recall wrong. In his early days, he had a typical Irish-American sentimental view of the IRA, but their bombing campaigns of the 1970s caused him to re-think and he ended up coming out quite strongly against Sinn Féin/IRA.
I was going to eat Senator Kennedy’s brain to gain totemic powers from it, but cancer makes me gag.
[re=395184]wenchphanny[/re]: yes, they had it on file: http://dying.about.com/od/rememberingthedead/f/news_obit.htm SOP
[re=395108]Anita Cocktail[/re]: Here’s the thing. People like you are sick. You REVEL in that woman’s death. I’d bet dollars to doughnuts that you had an actual SMIRK on your stupid face when you typed that. You’re glad she’s dead because now you have this perfect “dig” on an otherwise good man who, unlike you, has amassed great accomplishments. Way to go asshole – you reminded us of something of which we are ALL fully aware. However, unlike you, we are saddened that it happened, not GLEEFUL that we have fodder to throw at every chance. Eat shit, Anita.
[re=395178]theotherjenny[/re]: well said.
[re=395108]Anita Cocktail[/re]: Hearty congrats on your unnumbered centuries of librulizm. How fantastically older-than-time Wonkettie you are! Yr still a pisser.
What an epidemic of bunched panties around here. Ted Kennedy was a politician, his family’s ill-gotten riches were used in a neverending cycle of attempts to acquire power and use it to their own ends. Forgive me if I fail to shed a tear for him.
Teddy did good things in the Senate, more good than I will ever hope to do. He was not some kind of secular saint and certainly isn’t above snark. Not here, of all places.
[re=395108]Anita Cocktail[/re]: I’m gonna be serious here (RUN!!!).
I think a bunch of people here have forgotten what Wonkette is about.
The ONLY real objection against what Anita said is this: it was not even an attempt to be funny. There was just no attempt. We can forgive people for not being funny, but when you don’t even try … you’ve gone astray (yes, we’re all guilty of this, including myself (right now!)).
Those of you who responded to her serious comment with even more seriousity only compounded the error. Those who said she should leave… I wag my penis of shame at you.
Wonkette is about the shits AND the giggles people, let’s not forget. If I wanted real political commentary I’d watch Glenn Beck fuck his wife.
DangerousLiberal: +1
Your cogent response makes me think of a quote I’ve sent friends in the intervening decades of wingnut hokem that has been perpetrated on public discourse. Though spoken by JFK (in 1960), it is a fitting epitaph for the standard TK lived by in his public service. It is also a reminder that the crusade to hamstring progressive policies by devaluing how we name ourselves has been going on a long time. Apologies for the long quote.
“What do our opponents mean when they apply to us the label ‘Liberal?’ If by ‘Liberal’ they mean, as they want people to believe, someone who is soft in his policies abroad, who is against local government, and who is unconcerned with the taxpayer’s dollar, then the record of this party and its members demonstrate that we are not that kind of ‘Liberal.’ But if by a ‘Liberal’ they mean someone who looks ahead and not behind, someone who welcomes new ideas without rigid reactions, someone who cares about the welfare of the people — their health, their housing, their schools, their jobs, their civil rights, and their civil liberties — someone who believes we can break through the stalemate and suspicions that grip us in our policies abroad, if that is what they mean by a ‘Liberal,’ then I’m proud to say I’m a ‘Liberal.’ “
Ah, yes. It’s going to be a bumpy flight for the next few days. There’s already shining examples of the 24/7 grand mal seizures and foam flecked rants that the loony wingnut hate-crowd and concern trolls are going to be putting everyone through.
R.I.P Teddy.
I don’t know what makes me sadder – TK’s death or Grassley’s breath.
All in all , Ted was one of the best senators we’ve ever had. It is truly the end of an era.
Now, I’ll put my jackass hat back on, and snarkle on.
[re=395237]Tybalt[/re]: next time one of our Editor Overlords goes on a serious rant, you can be the one to shout ‘SNARK FAIL !’
watch out for that banhammer, though.
Cliche, I know, but…
Good night, sweet prince…
[re=395213]freakishlystrong[/re]: Well, according to Seymour Hersh anyway. But when has Hersh ever gotten his facts straight?
His last words were “Mary . . . Jo . . . has . . . my . . . wallet.”
What does that mean? Get a reporter on it immediately!
(No, wait, I misread something. He said “Rosebud.” Never mind.(
[re=395239]facehead[/re]: FTW. Sir, you may wag your penis of shame at ME anyday.
[re=395139]Anita Cocktail[/re]: Anita: If I may presume to offer a bit of advice: Trying things such as “logic,” “reason,” or “historical fact” on some of the posters in here is like trying to teach a pig to fly: It’s pointless, and just annoys the pig.
Although, defenestrating said pig – and by implication, said posters – might be amusing.
Or driving both off a bridge while drunk.
Just be sure not to leave your wallet in the back seat.
It’s started:
http://pajamasmedia.com/rogerkimball/2009/08/26/some-important-lessons-from-ted-kennedy/
RIP Senator
My parents (or complete strangers for that matter) don’t have to go by MY grave marker due to TITLE IX.
Thanks and RIP, EMK.
We can agree to disagree on this one. I am glad that some of you can “get past” the needless death of a young woman at the hands of a 37-year-old (37!) “man-child” who left her to drown in a car because he didn’t have the guts to face the music and call the cops. I’m sure that her family has a much harder time doing so. But I call bullshit on all of you. I can’t think of Nixon without thinking of Watergate, I can’t think of Reagan without thinking of.. well, a whole bunch of crappy things, and I cannot think of Ted Kennedy without remembering his cowardly and selfish actions that caused another’s death. Apart from the window into his 37-year-old character, it is important historically if for no other reason than it effectively made it impossible for him to be elected president in what, 1972? Think about how history would have changed if that were not the case.
I hated when they glossed over Nixon’s flaws to talk endlessly about opening up China, I loathed when Reagan became a demi-god, and I think it’s obscene that mentioning Mary Jo Kopechne reflects some moral failing on MY part.
Those of you who have personally attacked me can suck my big black dick, to quote Trudy from Reno-911. I do not feel one ounce of insecurity holding my life up to Ted’s. I didn’t start out the privileged, pampered child of a bazillionaire, but I got a Phi Beta Kappa education that I paid for myself, put myself thru a top-5 law school that I got into because of my own merits rather than my family name, I’ve practiced law, written 2 books, started my own business and am raising 3 kids.
All without ever leaving anyone to die in my car because I didn’t have the balls to call the cops.
Now I’m done with this discussion.
[re=395239]facehead[/re]:
“I’d watch Glenn Beck fuck his wife”
Thanks, now the rest of the day I will have THAT image in my head…
[re=395239]facehead[/re]: well said
wow Anita…..we’re sorry to lose you. How will we cope?
Anita: The details of your personal life are about as interesting as Neilist’s daily foray into which gun barrel he’s sodomized himself with.
[re=395139]Anita Cocktail[/re]: ‘Cause it wasn’t funny.
Teddy fucked up, but he did not murder her. He was guilty of leaving the scene of an accident.
If he had called the police, she still would have been dead. If he couldn’t save her, no one could.
This needless death shit is stoopid. All deaths in auto-accidents are needless. Duh.
Even if he was drunk, that means she was dumb enough to get in a car with a drunk driver.
So yeah like fuck off Anita.
[re=395239]facehead[/re]: I generally agree with you. If she had posted something half-funny, or half-evenhanded, or the [re=395302]morally complex and thoughtful reply at 11:22am[/re] to begin with there might have been some grumbling but much less spanking. If she’s still grieving for Ms Kopechne I’m not going to mock that; if she’s grieving for the ongoing whitewashing of history I’m in agreement. What gets on people’s nerves is an attempt to shut discussion down ab initio, not to expand it to include feet (or other body parts) of clay or moral calculus.
On the other hand, for all anybody here knows I’m a bunch of cells in a vat deep below Cheney’s new undisclosed location, so adjust your credulity accordingly.
[re=395328]zenferret[/re]: That reminds me, did you know that the U.S. has the best health care in the whole wide world?*
Why does Nobama want to steal that glory away from ‘Murka??
*If you omit deaths due to violent crime and car accidents.
[re=395322]norbizness[/re]: Win
[re=395302]Anita Cocktail[/re]: Another reason I hate the Mary Jo trope is it’s the first thing righties brought up to discredit any idea espoused by Ted Kennedy. “I am safer:
(a) among a bunch of drunk gun toting rednecks,
(b) being uninsured with pancreatic cancer in America,
(c) driving down a rocky road at 90 mph in a ’63 Corvair,
than I am in Ted Kennedy’s car. There’s a statute of limitations on blame and shame, and Ted Kennedy well and truly earned his way past his. He was that rarest of things: a nobleman who is truly noble. He deserved to be supported in life and well-remembered in death. So, yeah, fuck you and your heroic life story.
All without ever leaving anyone to die in my car because I didn’t have the balls to call the cops.
Perhaps if you weren’t such a dull-witted rageaholic, you could see how stupid this sentence fragment is. Hint: She drowned.
[re=395139]Anita Cocktail[/re]: Ummm. wait, what? Ted was no god. Buttt then I’m an atheist. He did a lot of wrong things I am sure. I guess it is just so predictable that no one can talk about Teddy without CHAppawHATZIT coming up. Heck I’m glad no other Kennedys have been in the Whitehouse.
Still who could hold their liquor better? Bush or Kennedy?
Also you really should change your last name to BAGODIX. You know, just for fun. I have IRA meeting to go to otherwise I’d ‘splain it.
This generation really does not have (m)any statesmen like Kennedy (and his family) who believe, among other things, that it is their responsibility to use the privilege given to them by fate or circumstance to improve the lot of their fellow human beings. Sure, it smacks a bit of paternalism, but it also reminds me that there was a time in this country when wanting to help your fellow man was not condemned as anti-American (socialist, etc.). We have lost a little bit of the best of ourselves.
God speed.
I never agree to disagree. It makes no sense to me, whatsoever.
[re=395143]Anita Cocktail[/re]: So he crashed a car and someone got killed. Big fucking whoop. Happens every day, 30,000 times a year. I pass the graves of thousands of people who died in car crashes every fucking day, I don’t obsess over thems, define myself by their proximity to me, nurture some pathological, obsessive, righteous, self-satisfied moral condemnation over their deaths for 50 fucking years.
What, you want to make it a crime for a dude to tie one on and try to get some strange on a back lane every now and then? Jeeze, this country has gone to the moral scolds.
[re=395302]Anita Cocktail[/re]: Whatever. It’s all about you, isn’t it?
Thanks for starting my day with your self-indulgent bitch-slap.
[re=395302]Anita Cocktail[/re]: I was born the daughter of a mill worker. I pulled myself up by my stiletto straps and slept my way through a little-known, overpriced private college and then a well-known very overpriced grad school to earn my teaching degree. I am raising a puppy all by myself and have written literally *dozens* of hawt Walnuts/Snowbilly fanfictions. Also, I never committed vehicular manslaughter. Do I win too???
[re=395364]slithytoves[/re]: Agreeing to disagree is a PC way of judging the recent discourse, nullifying the current context, and changing the subject. Or in a word, of passive-aggressively saying effyoo, I’m going home to mommy. Wonder if that’s how her books read too.
Sadly, methinks Ms. Cocktail to be a raging puma-sad cougar wannabe: self-identifying with MJK, but secretly wanting to act and behave like TK. Dame Peggy, is that you?
So if Anita Cocktail has a big, black dick (don’t know what blackness has to do with anything or who Trudy is and Reno whatever) I must have been wrong in reading the name as Ineeda Cock. Or maybe not.
Perhaps s/he’ll return as Chip Awnmaisholder.
[re=395139]Anita Cocktail[/re]: Longtime commented though you may be (I’ve never seen your posts till now) starting the thread demanding justice for Chappaquidick was crass and makes me wish you’d shut the fuck up. Feel free to do what your conscience guides you to do, oh wise one.
I have a good friend who teaches special ed and he explained to me what a difference TMK’s work made in the lives of his students. When people actually give a shit about doing the right thing, it’s amazing what can be done with power.
He, like any Kennedy, was a flawed man, but a good man.
And say what you will, all four Kennedy brothers gave their lives in public service. Sarah Palin couldn’t make it through one term.
[re=395156]justshocking[/re]: They’re based in Fresno, California – that’s what’s wrong with them. Of all the places I visited in California during my Overseas, Fresno by far the worst.
[re=395127]Anita Cocktail[/re]: The man just died. This is a time to celebrate his life. Chappaquiddick was not the defining event of his life, and to bring it up now in this manner is inappropriate.
[re=395287]S.Luggo[/re]: Thanks, Sluggo. I sent the special FTD bag of dicks to this Roger guy.
When it comes to accidental manslaughter, Ted and Laura Bush are even; one each.
If Laura passed today, would the first comment be about her driving?
[re=395141]Anita Cocktail[/re]: You started it.
[re=395510]bamaboy[/re]: I’m not going to get into the slug fest, but I will mention Laura was sober & at fault if I believe. (Heaven forbid anyone ever bring that up!)
I find it somewhat creepy that all the morning shows today had historical retrospectives of Ted Kennedy all ready to be broadcast as soon as he kicked, which of course sadly he did late last night. Matt Lauer on the Today Show for example did the voiceover on one that was almost five minutes long. Like Fuzzboy actually got up at two this morning to record it.
[re=395322]norbizness[/re]: HA! Thanks, I enjoyed that with a hearty chuckle.
[re=395141]Anita Cocktail[/re]: You’re pretty ridiculous with this crap. You know, Laura Bush killed someone via car when she was young; we don’t hear much about that. No one’s arguing Teddy was perfect, but one should consider the ENTIRETY of a person’s life, which you completely fail to do.
A moment of silence for Ted Kennedy.
The “lion of the Senate” may have passed on, but the dream shall never die.
[re=395144]Anita Cocktail[/re]:
Because the dude just died, and he was one of a dying breed of liberal politicians that we sorely need to see more of. He’s on our team, so have a modicum of respect.
It’s easy to snark on Chappaquiddick, but frankly, it’s low-hanging fruit and as such breaks two unspoken Wonkette rules:
1. Not creative
2. Not funny
Go ahead and post whatever you want, but don’t get all pissy if people call it lame when it is lame.
Incidentally, there are few people that have been a reader / commenter here as long as I have, and let me tell you something: Being a longtime Wonkette commenter might get you a cup of coffee, but only if you’re at a Starbucks and you have the $4.50. You don’t even get little gold stars for it; mostly the only thing it says about someone is that they slack off at work a lot. And your poutrage over us “getting over” Ms. Kopechne’s death is a cheap shot- it’s assigning a moral position to your comment which it simply didn’t have. Oh, and please, don’t tell me how I feel about something- last time I checked I’m the only person who gets to do that.
Have a nice day, though.
My favorite kind of human – fatally flawed, hard-working, handsome, hard-drinking, smart, manipulative, excellent legislator, visionary and I for one will miss his smile. RIP
[re=395723]MOG[/re]: Correct: that broad smile made even through grief and frictions one can only imagine. Character much? The dude lived one hell of a life, and still did good. Wise to heed all those Irish daemons on the loose. Hope the President’s close proximity means he’s picking up a few of those right now too.
Blah Blah Blah, where’s the jokes????
[re=395108]Anita Cocktail[/re]: All of us have our views shaped by our experiences and culture – there’s no such thing as objectivity. Apparently this is yours, and here’s mine: Viva Kennedy!
[re=395154]ella[/re]: I’d like to add Title 9 to Teddy’s good deed list. My niece got a 100% free ride through Northwestern University thanks to the funding of women’s sports that a certain Senator from MA quarterbacked through Congress. Our whole family thanks Teddy for being our rich uncle, too. Maybe we can try to remember, as[re=395362]Crazybroad[/re]: said, “there was a time in this country when wanting to help your fellow man was not condemned as anti-American.”
[re=395302]Anita Cocktail[/re]: Yes, and you’re “an expert” about what happened that night because MK lived in the town “up the river” from you, and you pass by the cemetery “every time you visit your aunt.” Just like Snowqueen Palin’s an expert on Russian-U.S. relations because of what she can see. That must’ve been one hell of a law school you graduated from.
Pretty much the last of his kind, should be judged by his entire life which accomplished so much domestic good compared to typical republicrats … goodbye Teddy p.s. I for one don’t think you split the Dems in 1980 because Carter by then was barely different from Reagan, but wtf do I know
[re=395995]bebergebberson[/re]: You simple sentimental maroon … getting all weepy-eyed over a cold-warrioring, patriot-acting, no-child-left-behinding liberal?
Why, yes, you knucklehead … bad as all that other shit is, and it is pretty bad, Teddy’s social policy deeds truly carry the day. I’ve lived many political seasons in Massachusetts and now in New Jersey and hey! NJ pols, Ted Kennedy was a friend of mine and you are none of you Ted Kennedy. Nothing that good politically ever came out of the garden state or most other states. For all the unappreciative creeps at this hour, as the sacred cod might say, I hope light dawns on Marblehead …
[re=395174]Limeylizzie[/re]: Ms CockTail shits on square one and then screams victim when people bitch that they have to step over her sick? Really?
Ted’s hopes live on in all liberal’s. She or he who has not sinned: Cast the first…oh nevermind, Cocktail lives in the next zip code to some long-dead accident victim.
[re=395139]Anita Cocktail: folks telling me to fuck off[/re] I said “fuck you,” not fuck off.
Now fuck off.
[re=395302]Anita Cocktail[/re]: You supposedly went to a top five law school yet lacked the common sense to realise that your troll off the bat response was out of line?
[re=395723]MOG[/re]: Just add “Irish,” and you’d get my criteria.
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