Ole Teddy

"The foundation of national morality must be laid in private families. ... Public virtue cannot exist in a nation without private, and public virtue is the only foundation of republics." --John Adams

Teddy Kennedy

"Now you listen here, the Federal government should provide healthcare coverage for every breathing American citizen regardless of their ability to pay for it!!!!"

Kennedy was born into great wealth, privilege and political influence, the fourth son and ninth child of Joseph and Rose Kennedy. He never worked a day in a private-sector job, and like his brothers before him, he owed his political career to his father's considerable political machinations, I'm guessing like bootleg stills in the Massachussetts hills.

Ted, like his brother John, developed a reputation as a serial womanizer in college. Unlike his Ivy League brothers, however, Ted was kicked out of Harvard for cheating, though allowed to return a few years later to complete his cheating undergraduate degree.

Thanks to some election-night manipulation of returns by Old Joe, JFK was elected president in the closest race of the 20th century (49.7 percent to Richard Nixon's 49.5 percent). That paved the way for TK's victory in a 1962 U.S. Senatespecial election in Massachusetts.

Kennedy was an ardent backer of his friend Bill Clinton after the latter lied about sexual encounters with a subordinate White House intern in 1998. In turn, Clinton awarded Kennedy the Presidential Medal of Freedom, which, along with theCongressional Gold Medal, is the highest civilian award in the U.S. It is designated for individuals who have made "an especially meritorious contribution to the security or national interests of the United States, world peace, cultural or other significant public or private endeavors." (so why did teddy get the medal again? oh yeah, teddy pulled him aside and told Bill that "Hey, it wasn't you, all girls screw, forget about it!") that my friends, will get you a citizen's freedom medal from "the man".

Despite the Left's insistence that private virtue and morality should not be a consideration when assessing those in "public service" (unless, of course, they are Republicans), the fact is that the two are irrevocably linked.

Finally, in 1968, when Ted Kennedy delivered the eulogy for his brother, Robert, he said, "My brother need not be idealized, or enlarged in death beyond what he was in life..." Why Teddy, were you behind RFK's demise so you could run to the front of the line? I'm just asking.

I would hope that whoever is slated to deliver Ted Kennedy's eulogy follows that advice because we do a disservice to him and our country to suggest Kennedy was anything more than he was.

Character: what you do when nobody's looking, not what you fake in front of a bank of cameras.

I do not know who will bestow his final tribute, but I'm guessing that Mary Jo Kopechne would have loved a shot at it.

Mary Jo Kopechne