U.S. Senator Edward Kennedy, a towering figure in the Democratic Party who took the helm of one of America's most fabled political families after two older brothers were assassinated, died at age 77, his family said.
"Edward M. Kennedy, the husband, father, grandfather, brother and uncle we loved so deeply, died late Tuesday night at home in Hyannis Port (Massachusetts)," the Kennedy family said in a statement early on Wednesday.
One of the most influential and longest-serving senators in U.S. history -- a liberal standard-bearer who was also known as a consummate congressional dealmaker -- Kennedy had been battling brain cancer, which was diagnosed in May 2008.
August 26, 2009
Senator Edward Kennedy Dies at Age 77
From Reuters:
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19 comments:
i just feel alone today somehow.
I'm 51. I believe that today is the first day of my life that a Kennedy has not been a United States Senator.
And the Senate is less for it.
From Alas, a blog:
Kennedy was a driving force behind repeated hikes in minimum wage, creating the S-CHIP program (which provides health insurance for children), the existence of Title IX, and the preservation of the Voting Rights Act during the Reagan administration. Kennedy was instrumental in preventing Robert Bork’s confirmation, an act that literally saved Roe v. Wade. He was a strong anti-Apartheid activist, defying South Africa’s racist government by staying with Archbishop Desmond Tutu on a 1985 trip. He also worked with the Reagan administration as an envoy to the Soviet Union, negotiating for arms reductions with Premier Mikhail Gorbachev. In recent years he led the effort to liberalize immigration laws. And when health insurance reform is passed — and it will be passed — it will because of the hard work Kennedy has put into its creation.
Nice to see progressive starting the deification of Ted Kennedy.
I expect any memorial for him to be politicized and exploited like the Wellstone Memorial.
He also worked with the Reagan administration as an envoy to the Soviet Union, negotiating for arms reductions with Premier Mikhail Gorbachev.
And worked behind the scenes with the Soviets to help undermine the US .
Chebrikov reported that Kennedy offered to help organize a Soviet PR campaign, which would "root out the threat of nuclear war" and "improve Soviet-American relations" (and also hurt Reagan's 1984 re-election prospects).
HTTT;
And the evidence for this memo? Besides, of course, a blog that links back to HumanEvents online:
http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=19472
Is the memo published anywhere online? How did it come into Kengor's possession? Has it been verified as authentic by any Intelligence service on the planet?
I haven't been able to find out the answers to any of those questions.
You'd think that after Senator Kennedy's vocal dissent regarding GWB's war in Iraq, IF the memo was readily available someone someplace in Dubya's administration would have leaked it or even mentioned it someplace.
Have they?
I'm just asking.
Found a copy of the letter. At freerepublic.com
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1760564/posts
It says it's from Kengor's book. It also says that after the KGB files were opened, it was found by a Times of London reporter in the early 90s.
I am now wondering who translated it. It's safe to assume Andropov wasn't in the habit of reading memos in English.
Has it been validated?
I see that you are moving the goalposts.
"where is this memo" to " who translated it" to "Has it been validated"
I wish progressives had the same standards with the Bush TANG memos.
Here is a interview with Kengor The Kennedy KGB Connection
From the Human Event article, you linked:
Sen. Kennedy’s office today disputes the characterization that Kennedy offered to work against Reagan, saying that the charge is “way off the mark.” In response to the publication of this Chebrikov document in my book, "The Crusader: Ronald Reagan and the Fall of Communism," Kennedy’s office has attempted to redirect the issue, maintaining that, to the contrary, Kennedy “had a constructive relationship with President Reagan on the Soviet Union,” and pointing not to Kennedy and Andropov but to Kennedy’s support of Reagan’s negotiations with Mikhail Gorbachev in the second term.
No goalpost moving here.
I FOUND a copy of the memo online. That was why I POSTED THE LINK.
All that aside, perhaps you can help me out on something HTTT. If it's been "known" since the early 90s (when the Times story reportedly came out) then why didn't every conservative who had a bone to pick with Kennedy say something about it?
Trent Lott?
Newt Gingrich?
George W Bush?
Fox News?
Do you know something they don't? Or are they in on the conspiracy of silence to protect the liberal lion?
Awaiting your answer.
For the first three, I am guessing Inside the beltway Senate collegiality and G.W. Bush's new tone.
However I do remember Fox News covering the story on the Political Grapevine part of Special report with Brit Hume.
Senate Congeniality (even among Republicans) trumps TREASON??
Are you really saying that?
Wouldn't that make Newt, Trent et al co-conspirators? And since Ted is dead why shouldn't we prosecute the trator's co-conspirators?
Here's Kegnor on the "Grapevine" segment you remembered:
The only cable source was FoxNews, Brit Hume’s “Grapevine,” and even then it was only a snippet in the round-up. In fact, I was frustrated by the occasional conservative who didn’t run with it. I did a taping with Hannity & Colmes but they never used it, apparently because they were so focused on the mid-term elections, to the exclusion of almost any other story or issue. The Hannity & Colmes thing was a major blow; it could’ve propelled this onto the national scene, forcing the larger media to take note. That was the single greatest disappointment.
Brit Hume - a snippet, but no report.
Sean Hannity - NOTHING.
Shouldn't that tell you SOMETHING about the validity of the story? When even those guys don't want to touch it?
Ted Kennedy was expelled from Harvard for cheating, was guilty of multiple driving violations at UVA, killed Mary Jo Kopechne (sp?) and was an alcoholic. We owe the existence of HMO's to Ted Kennedy. Other than that, Ted Kennedy was probably a good guy.
Two of the people in this thread are in dire need of a trip out back to the woodshed for a good ol' fashion lesson in decency.
You want to trash the man with slander and lies? Then go to some wingtard blog where you can have at it.
Go some where else and regurgitate your rhetorical vile.
Learn when to hold your tongue.
In other words, GROW UP and act like the "moral" people you claim to be, because hijacking a memorial post and thread is simply petty and pathetic and says far more about both of you than your sad words say about Ted Kennedy.
For the love of God, have a little respect for the dead.
Hey, HTTT and ConMtn? Fuck you. When GWB and Rove and Gingrich and DeLay and any number of lowlife shithead GOP losers shuffle off this mortal coil, my first response will not be to post all the nasties about them....
The bottom line is that Teddy GOT STUFF DONE. And he actually worked across the aisle like an adult, not like a small-minded twerp. And he didn't do it for the corporate elite; he did it for you and me. Yes, even for you.
Dayvoe. Sorry for the strong emotion. Feel free to delete if you wish....
Not slander and lies.. all truths... didn't say anything nasty.
Then you're in serious need of a psychiatrist, because you are truly f**ked in the head.
As long as we get to point out THE DAY George W Bush passes away that he:
- failed to fulfill his military obligations and was thus a deserter.
- was arrested for drunk driving in 1976.
- lied to the nation repeatedly causing the deaths of thousands of American servicemen.
- was a drunk.
...And started a stupid, hopeless war based on lies and deception....
Is there anything worse that anyone could do???
- waved HI to Stevie Wonder.
CM,
Were the negative comments about the late Senator posted because they were "true," or with the intent to demean a great man?
And, like it or not, Ted Kennedy was a great man.
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