Happy Belated Birthday Chappaquiddick

Vic Vega said:
I did. We want to be able to elect Senators we like and keep them in office. If the voters here thought that it was a problem to have long-serving senators, we would have term limits.
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The problem is that these politicians that you seem to adore sit on committees that effect the rest of the country. It is extremely difficult to vote out a career politician. Why Teddy figured that an elected office should be a lifetime job is rather sad in itself. Since term limits for the U.S. Congress are not up to individual states, it wouldn't matter if Massachusetts voters actually figured out that it is a problem.
 
Actually, I'm pretty sure a state could enact term limits on their senators.

But they are unlikely to, since key positions and influence in the Senate are often easier to get with seniority. I suspect this also plays into why otherwise unacceptable candidates get re-elected.
 
Cicero said:
The problem is that these politicians that you seem to adore sit on committees that effect the rest of the country. It is extremely difficult to vote out a career politician. Why Teddy figured that an elected office should be a lifetime job is rather sad in itself. Since term limits for the U.S. Congress are not up to individual states, it wouldn't matter if Massachusetts voters actually figured out that it is a problem.
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Come to think of it, I think you're right. I recall there was a court case about states trying to impose term limits on federal offices.

Anyway, yes, I like Ted Kennedy. The fact that you don't is your problem.
 
Vic Vega said:
Come to think of it, I think you're right. I recall there was a court case about states trying to impose term limits on federal offices.

Anyway, yes, I like Ted Kennedy. The fact that you don't is your problem.
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The fact that you and Massachusetts citizens keep voting for Teddy is the problem of millions of Americans. But they can take solace in that this is his last term. Maybe Camalot Caroline will have moved to Massachusetts by 2012, and he can leave the seat to her.
 
Cicero said:
The fact that you and Massachusetts citizens keep voting for Teddy is the problem of millions of Americans.
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I guess it's a matter of perspective, isn't it? We don't think that it's a problem. The fact that he keeps gettng elected isn't an accident. We like him.

You act as if we are being scammed or are a state full of morons. Nothing could be further from the truth. The people in Massachusetts are the most educated in the nation. We just happen to like Ted Kennedy... You don't.
 
Vic Vega said:
I guess it's a matter of perspective, isn't it? We don't think that it's a problem. The fact that he keeps gettng elected isn't an accident. We like him.

You act as if we are being scammed or are a state full of morons. Nothing could be further from the truth. The people in Massachusetts are the most educated in the nation. We just happen to like Ted Kennedy... You don't.
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Actually, Massachusetts places third, Vermont being first with Connecticut second. The fact that Teddy gets elected is not surprising since he is virtually unopposed. I doubt 3% of Massachusetts voters could even name his opponents during his previous elections. His 1976 election, the first after Chappaquiddick, he still won 69 percent of the vote. This sort of blind devotion to a politician is not the hallmark of educated, or even moral, voters, but rather the embodiment of benighted sheep enthralled by siblings of JFK.
 
Cicero said:
Actually, Massachusetts places third, Vermont being first with Connecticut second. The fact that Teddy gets elected is not surprising since he is virtually unopposed. I doubt 3% of Massachusetts voters could even name his opponents during his previous elections. His 1976 election, the first after Chappaquiddick, he still won 69 percent of the vote. This sort of blind devotion to a politician is not the hallmark of educated, or even moral, voters, but rather the embodiment of benighted sheep enthralled by siblings of JFK.
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According to the US census bureau, as recently as 2007, Massachusetts ranks first in the nation in PERSONS 25 YEARS OLD AND OVER WITH A BACHELOR'S DEGREE OR MORE:

http://www.census.gov/compendia/statab/ranks/rank19.html

Your argument is nonsense. What part of "WE LIKE HIM" is that difficult to understand? The voters are only "enthralled sheep" because they happen not to agree with you. Typical.
 
Vic Vega said:
According to the US census bureau, as recently as 2007, Massachusetts ranks first in the nation in PERSONS 25 YEARS OLD AND OVER WITH A BACHELOR'S DEGREE OR MORE:

http://www.census.gov/compendia/statab/ranks/rank19.html

Your argument is nonsense. What part of "WE LIKE HIM" is that difficult to understand? The voters are only "enthralled sheep" because they happen not to agree with you. Typical.
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The part where "liking" a politician trumps holding that politician responsible for their atrocious behavior. Massachusetts voters prove that education and knowledge are not synonymous. The voters are enthralled sheep because they reflexively look for the Kennedy name on the ballot and check it off. I wonder how many votes an opponent named Thed Kannady would get on a Massachusetts ballot? I bet this guy would get more votes than any previous candidate running against Teddy just by virtue of name similarity. He might even win much to the dismay of the bemused constituency.
 
Vic Vega said:
You act as if we are being scammed or are a state full of morons. Nothing could be further from the truth. The people in Massachusetts are the most educated in the nation. We just happen to like Ted Kennedy... You don't.
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Exactly what does education have to do with actual intelligence and the practical application (wisdom) thereof?
 
eeyore1954 said:
I've always wondered how people could continue to elect him after that.
A man gets in an accident that causes the death of someone. Doesn't report it for hours and uses his political clout to avoid real prosecution and people still vote for him.
I am sure there were other viable candidates who hold the same political views as him who could have been elected.

Why didn't he step up and resign like a honorable human being.
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You expect a politician to behave like an honorable human being?
 
Cicero said:
The voters are enthralled sheep because they reflexively look for the Kennedy name on the ballot and check it off.
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Ahhhh. I get it now. We couldn't simply like the job he does because we're sheep.

I guess everyone who doesn't agree with you is a sheep. I can now say this quite proudly:


BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!

BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!
 
Vic Vega said:
Ahhhh. I get it now. We couldn't simply like the job he does because we're sheep.

I guess everyone who doesn't agree with you is a sheep. I can now say this quite proudly:


BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!

BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!
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Well, talk to all the people who say they only voted for Kennedy because the unions told them to do so after buying them lunch. The same goes for many elderly voters.
 
Vic Vega said:
Ahhhh. I get it now. We couldn't simply like the job he does because we're sheep.

I guess everyone who doesn't agree with you is a sheep. I can now say this quite proudly:


BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!

BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!
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Heh, you aren't doing much to dismiss he notion.. and I don't mean because of the BAAAAA's either.
 
Doghouse Reilly said:
Evidence?
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"Broderick told authorities he had no recollection of the crash and did not know why he was in the wrong lane. "I don't remember the day. I don't remember even getting up in the morning. I don't remember making my bed. What I first remember is waking up in the hospital, with a very strange feeling going on in my leg," he said at the time.

Broderick was charged with causing death by dangerous driving and faced a prison term of up to five years. He was later convicted of the lesser charge of careless driving and fined $175. The victims' family called the case "a travesty of justice."

Where was Jennifer Grey before the collision? Could she see anything from her vantage point under the steering wheel?
 
I realize that the longer this goes on, the more of a derail it is, but:

Seems like the paramedics might have seen some evidence of such a situation considering that there wouldn't be much time to "zip up" after the collision. Having known someone who died in a head-on collision on a similar type of road, I can say that it doesn't require oral sex to drift into oncoming traffic long enough to cause an accident. Less than a second. Don't forget, if both cars are traveling at 65 mph, they are approaching each other at 130 mph.
So all I see are unfounded insinuations. For all we know Jennifer Grey was asleep, looking at a map, reading, or looking out a window during the split few seconds it would take for such an accident to occur.

Also, if the police suspected such a situation, they would likely have not reduced the charge to one that required the payment of a mere $175. I have also not been able to find any insinuations by the family of the deceased or the police that they believe such a thing to have been a contributing factor.

So of course it's possible, I just don't see any evidence to assume that it occurred.
 
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There's plenty of innuendo about Chappaquiddick, but what, exactly is the evidence? From what I've read about it, the only crime Kennedy can be convicted of is leaving the scene of an accident; which is the crime he was, in fact, found guilty of. Was he drunk? You don't know and I don't know.

Mary Jo Kopechne would have been just as dead no matter whether Kennedy had called the cops as soon as he possibly could after the accident or not. Was his behavior after the accident what he would, in retrospect, wish it to be? Of course not. Is it plausible that it was the result of the shock of the accident itself? If you've ever been in a car accident, you'll know that that that is perfectly plausible. Lots of people find themselves in something of a fugue state when they've had a great shock--not really able to process information in normal ways.

So...that's about what you've got. The guy had a car accident in which a passenger died and he behaved weirdly for about 20 hours or so after the accident. He was duly punished by the state for his weird behavior.

If he was driving drunk, then he did something much worse--but then, as I say, you don't know if he was and I don't know if he was. The fact that you hate him for political reasons is not evidence about his BAC on the night of the accident, any more than some other people's hatred of George Bush is evidence of his cocaine habit.
 
If Ted Kennedy was driving a Volkswagen Beetle that night he would have been President.

(National Lampoon mock ad - later pulled)
 
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