Ted Kennedy's Terrible Legacy

Senator Ted Kennedy died on Tuesday. He was truly one of the worst figures in American public life.

A Conservative Reflection on Ted Kennedy

Kennedy was a reprobate in his personal life. He was kicked out of Harvard for paying another student to take a test for him. He was a lifelong drunk. He mistreated women through his entire life.

“He was my baby,” mother Rose remembered, “and I tried to keep him my baby.” When he was a man, this showed. He cheated his way out of Harvard. He led police on drunken high-speed chases while at law school in Charlottesville, Va. He bedded the most available women. When he finally settled down with Joan Bennett, his virgin bride surmised that he did so mainly because she refused to give him what so many of his girlfriends had “The only reason he wanted to marry me,” Joan reflected, “was because he couldn’t get me any other way.” The tone of the marriage was set when, upon watching the commemorative film of her wedding, Joan heard John Kennedy -- momentarily unaware that he was miked up for the wedding motion picture -- tell his youngest brother that being married didn’t mean he had to stop sleeping with other women. After a lifetime observing the brazen adultery of his father, and hearing stories of his grandfather’s liaisons derailing his reelection as mayor of Boston, the advice probably seemed redundant.

Kennedy's drinking and mistreatment of women came together when a drunken Kennedy drove his Oldsmobile off a bridge near Chappaquiddick Bay. He escaped from the car, leaving behind his passenger Mary Jo Kopechne. Kopechne didn't die right away. She was trapped in the car, surviving for hours on the air bubble until she slowly suffocated to death. Kennedy could have saved her life by just calling 911, but instead he tried to concoct an alibi to cover up his responsibility for the crash. He chose to let her die.

But at least he felt sorry about it later, right?



Nor was this his only crime, though it was the only one for which he was convicted (he got a slap on the wrist). Kennedy was a long-time supporter of imprisoning citizens who want to protect their lives against criminals (aka gun control). But he flouted federal gun laws by having machine gun toting guards protect a convicted criminal.

Kennedy was also a traitor. Yes, a giving aid and comfort to the enemies of America traitor.

Ted Kennedy's Soviet Gambit
Remembering Teddy’s KGB Connection
This is Treason

He secretly contacted the Soviet KGB to attempt to undermine America's defenses against the Soviet Union. This began even under pansy Jimmy Carter. But Kennedy's efforts to undermine America really got going under Ronald Reagan. He attempted to arrange a propaganda tour for Soviet dictator Yuri Andropov.

"On 9-10 May of this year," the May 14 memorandum explained, "Sen. Edward Kennedy's close friend and trusted confidant [John] Tunney was in Moscow." (Tunney was Kennedy's law school roommate and a former Democratic senator from California.) "The senator charged Tunney to convey the following message, through confidential contacts, to the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, Y. Andropov."

Kennedy's message was simple. He proposed an unabashed quid pro quo. Kennedy would lend Andropov a hand in dealing with President Reagan. In return, the Soviet leader would lend the Democratic Party a hand in challenging Reagan in the 1984 presidential election. "The only real potential threats to Reagan are problems of war and peace and Soviet-American relations," the memorandum stated. "These issues, according to the senator, will without a doubt become the most important of the election campaign."

Andropov wasn't even your average Soviet dictator. He was a longtime head of the KGB. He was "the leader of the Soviet Union, a former director of the KGB and a principal mover in both the crushing of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution and the suppression of the 1968 Prague Spring". Andropov authorized the assassination attempt against Pope John Paul II, the leader of the church that Kennedy claimed to be a member of. Later in 1983, the Soviet Union shot down a Korean airliner, killing an American congressman, Larry MacDonald.

Soviet assassinations

Thankfully, Kennedy failed and so did the Soviet Union. His treachery was exposed thanks to the discovery of documents in the Soviet archives following its collapse.

Kennedy's legislative efforts have been just as disastrous. While he was a long time supporter of a government takeover of health care, he had no problem availing himself of the best private medicine, instead of the government-run VA hospitals. He supported the bill creating HMOs, which he would later attack.

Kennedy consistently advocated disastrous immigration policy. He led the floor efforts for the disastrous 1965 immigration bill. During debate, he argued

“First, our cities will not be flooded with a million immigrants annually. Under the proposed bill, the present level of immigration remains substantially the same… Secondly, the ethnic mix of this country will not be upset…. Contrary to the charges in some quarters, [the bill] will not inundate America with immigrants from any one country or area, or the most populated and deprived nations of Africa and Asia….

In the final analysis, the ethnic pattern of immigration under the proposed measure is not expected to change as sharply as the critics seem to think.”

Kennedy never apologized for being so wrong. He was a leading supporter of the 1986 amnesty, and a main sponsor of the failed 2006 and 2007 amnesty efforts.

Kennedy was also a leading supporter of cutting off all aid to South Vietnam. This is not American troops or bombing, mind you, but aid that America had committed by treaty to provide. This snatched defeat from the jaws of victory, and led to the slaughter of millions of Vietnamese by the communists.

When it was convenient, Kennedy opposed abortion.

“[O]nce life has begun, no matter at what stage of growth, it is my belief that termination should not be decided merely by desire.”

But when it was politically necessary, he became a staunch defender of baby-killing.

While the "McCarthyism" of Joe McCarthy is a myth, Kennedy did something like it with his ludicrous "Robert Bork's America" speech smearing a highly distinguished judge. (Ironically, Robert F. Kennedy worked for McCarthy.) (see Blacklisted by History)

Contrary to the plaudits of liberals, Kennedy didn't give a damn about the common man. He cared about Ted Kennedy first and only. Where was Kennedy's compassion for others when he was letting Mary Jo Kopechne die? Kennedy never gave his millions in inherited wealth to the poor, but he was always eager to take money in taxes away from Americans far poorer than him.

Kennedy's longevity in politics says a lot about the liberals who covered for and defended him through the years. Somehow, it seems unlikely that a Republican (much less a conservative) could have gotten away with Kennedy's actions.

Kennedy's record speaks volumes about both Kennedy himself and the modern American left.

UPDATE: Not funny, indeed.