It’s bit ingenuous to say this. You assume that no other liberal congressperson would have carried out TK’s actions. Clearly there were co-sponsors on the bill, and dozens of other congresspeople had to help it pass.

I am grateful for what he’s done, but that doesn’t mean he’s not a scumbag.

A quick google search reveals that it was Michael Douglas. Reading further proves that it was a true accident (she wasn’t drunk), and there was no deliberate attempt on Mrs. Bush’s (nee Welch) part to try and evade prosecution or hide from police.

Thanks for playing, we’ve got some nice door prizes for you…….

Reading the above flowery posts implies that in this context Ted “Where are my pants” Kennedy escaping criminal prosecution for Mary Jo’s death was an acceptable sacrifice to the liberals because of the supposed good that Kennedy did in the years following the incident. Maybe somebody should ask her family if they feel that way too.

If this is your logic, then surely you also believe that Clinton’s Monica-gate was a higher crime than Bush’s killing of hundreds of thousand’s of Iraqi and American lives ?

The death of Mary Jo should definitely not be forgotten, but Sen. Kennedy’s work for upliftment of the ‘little’ people and setting high standards for American life (min wage, to leave during child) should never be forgotten either: the legislations he promoted are the practices that other developing countries are trying to adopt. If you are so against the policies that Teddy Kennedy put forward, you should boycott min. wage for yourself, and expect to lose your (if you are a woman) or your spouse’s job when you have a baby. If you are a South Asian settled in US and fomenting those above words, then you might even consider protesting Ted Kennedy’s work (which you so seem to detest here) by moving away to some other country, because without the legislation he passed, you wouldn’t be able to settle in US, unless you were from N. Europe.

Just because Sandy Weil didn’t experience the holocaust doesn’t mean he didn’t face anit-semitism. Indeed he did, after being told partnership at drexel was out of the question, he, like old Joe, started his own bank. Privilege/oppression isn’t an either/or proposition. the poorest person in america is still largely more privileged than the most Cubans, north Koreans or indeed Indians…by mere virtue of accident of birth.

so joe’s oppression was more along the line of sandy’s. and, yeah, he did some horrible things with his power, setting up a business competitor on false charges of rape and engaging in voter fraud on behalf of his son, for example.

perhaps my original comment was too hagiographic. both ted and joe were despicable human beings on many levels. perhaps they’d be common criminals if they weren’t born into privilege…but that doesn’t mean they didn’t do great things tin their respective fields. if you kick all the sinners out nothing gets done. that’s the Faustian bargain liberals made with ted and i guess i make with joe. “I have no tidy conclusion. It is what it is,” as Melissa McEwan said.

http://theragblog.blogspot.com/2009/08/lion-passes-different-look-at.html

From the present vantage point, it’s hard to realize how seriously the Kennedy “dynasty” was taken by certain of their non-admirers. Since most desis came here post-60s, it seems hard to believe. People actually speculated about all 3 brothers eventually occupying the Oval Office, and they all had a lot of kids….it sounds weird now, but the anti-Kennedy faction, including archenemy E. Howard Hunt (also associated with Dallas Grassy Knoll sightings), amounted to a kind of phalange of the Republican party. Not only were popular politicians feared during the Vietnam era of the 60s and early 70s, but even pop stars. I once leafed through a 3 inch thick file on John Lennon at the National Bureau of Immigration. Nixon was obssessed with keeping tabs on that guy. Even the Maharishi Yogi was under investigation when he toured the U.S. in the late 60s. Anybody even tangentially associated with the “hippie” revolution, could be a suspect. Even if Ted was not guilty of leaving his passenger to die, even if he knew nothing about it, wtf did he lie? Stupid? Scared? Confused? Whatever, he was not presidential material. You’d think he would have wanted to clear his name of homicide though. Politics and politicians are really, really strange. 50 years from now, nobody will believe Bobby Jindal’s story.

From context, it looks that the author meant that the Irish were second-class citizens in the UK, i.e. not that Joe Kennedy led a marginalized childhood in the US. It is for this reason that the appointment of an American ambassador of Irish origin is significant.

I’m jumping in the middle of this thread, but I wanted to point this out since I also heard someone at work mentioning how ‘old Joseph Kennedy came over from Ireland and had it tough and etc and look at him, became a millionaire, and etc and his sons and daughters, why, they’re practically angels.’ Come on. Joseph P. Kennedy Sr. went to Boston Latin and Harvard. As indeed did his older cousins. In the America of the 1900s, that was privilege by any standard.

P.J. Kennedy’s home was comfortable, thanks to his successful saloon business, investments, and an influential role in local politics. His mother encouraged Joseph to attend the Boston Latin School, where Joe was a below average scholar but was popular among his classmates, winning election as class president and playing on the school baseball team. Kennedy followed in the footsteps of older cousins by attending Harvard College. He focused on becoming a social leader, working energetically to gain admittance to the prestigious Hasty Pudding Club. While at Harvard he joined the Delta Upsilon International fraternity and played on the baseball team. He was blackballed from the Porcellian Club. His future father-in-law, John F. Fitzgerald, had attended Boston Latin School and Harvard Medical School…

Joseph P Kennedy

There’s no need to conflate the prejudice that the Irish of the Potato Famine (1840s) may have faced, with Joseph P Kennedy. It is important to make this point so you can see the ‘Ambassador to the Court of St James’ in context. Second class citizens indeed. Manju, you’re the last person I’d have expected to fall for the hagiographer’s baloney.