Chappaquiddick: What if it had happened today?

[Wyldgusechaz]

A synopsis Chappaquiddick incident - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

There is no way to frame Ted Kennedy as anything more than a dogworm coward and at the least a louse. Yet he has been a decent legislator. Nowadays if a politician found himself involved in such an incident, there would be no way he could survive the media storm, given all the news channels, gossip mavens, and internet bloggers. No way.

His prognosis is grim and I know something about glioblastoma, and I feel for him and his family having dealt far too often with that tumor in loved ones, but how should history view a man who let a woman die, and yet went on to a storied Senate career? He was 37 when it happened and you can't excuse it as youthful error.

 

[Tattooed Goddess]

This thread should be interesting by the time i wake up in the morning.

 

[DC_DEEP]

What a silly question.

If it happened today? At first, he would flatly deny any involvement at all. When that was proven false, he would claim it was not his car. When that was proven false, he would deny that he was driving. When that lie fell through, he would claim it was due to alcohol addiction and go into rehab. When he finished that in one week, he would make a public statement, thanking god for his miraculous healing, and all his friends and family for their support.

Then he would win the following election by a multiple majority.

 

[TinyPrincess]

What a silly question.

Nothing has changed - you could get away with murder then - you can get away with murder now. You just need enough cloud to cover it up and scare the media off.

 

[swordfishME]

What a silly question.

If it happened today? At first, he would flatly deny any involvement at all. When that was proven false, he would claim it was not his car. When that was proven false, he would deny that he was driving. When that lie fell through, he would claim it was due to alcohol addiction and go into rehab. When he finished that in one week, he would make a public statement, thanking god for his miraculous healing, and all his friends and family for their support.

Then he would win the following election by a multiple majority.

DC, you nailed the squence of events perfectly :biggrin1:

 

[DC_DEEP]

Nothing has changed - you could get away with murder then - you can get away with murder now. You just need enough cloud to cover it up and scare the media off.

Well, obviously you could (with enough money and fame) get away with murder then or now... the big difference is how it's done.

Then, it was "cover it up, and the sheep will forget when the next celebrity takes center stage"; now, it's "blame someone or something else, and the sheep will forget when the next celebrity takes center stage."

 

[SpeedoMike]

DC, you nailed the squence of events perfectly :biggrin1:

and his nephew Congressman Patrick Kennedy learned well from Uncle Ted. He managed to "escape" responsibility for driving his car drunk/drugged one night in Washington a year or two ago.

 

[TinyPrincess]

Well, obviously you could (with enough money and fame) get away with murder then or now... the big difference is how it's done.

Then, it was "cover it up, and the sheep will forget when the next celebrity takes center stage"; now, it's "blame someone or something else, and the sheep will forget when the next celebrity takes center stage."

Correct - why wait it out, when you can just blame someone else by planting a false story in the media. Hey, haven't all the wars conducted by the US for the last 15-20 years been based on false stories...?!

DC, you nailed the squence of events perfectly :biggrin1:

Agree totally!

 

[DC_DEEP]

and his nephew Congressman Patrick Kennedy learned well from Uncle Ted. He managed to "escape" responsibility for driving his car drunk/drugged one night in Washington a year or two ago.

There have been plenty from the Kennedy clan who have committed egregious acts - but their names protect them, and they know it.

Does anyone remember their American History, and a depression-era campaign slogan, "Two chickens in every pot, a car in every garage"? (and perhaps it is misquoted.)

How about, "Two chickens in every pot, and a blonde in every pond"...:biggrin1:

 

[TinyPrincess]

Well, not just the Kennedys - Hulk Hogan knows the drill - blame the victim.

hulk hogan blames the victim - AOL Video

 

[Principessa]

Ridiculous question. Don't get me wrong, I'm a diehard democrat and when I lived in Mass I was proud to vote for him; BUT he was guilty and his inactions as well as his actions caused a young woman to die.

Had it been 50 years before and his last name been Vanderbilt, Astor, or Rockefeller, the outcome would have been the same. This is still America and money buys innocence or at least a not guilty. The memory of the American public is notoriously short, I am actually a bit surprised so many people are still outraged. Especially so many people that weren't even born when the tragic event occurred.

 

[TinyPrincess]

This is still America and money buys innocence or at least a not guilty.

Nailed it - or even better, gets the victim in jail...

 

[DC_DEEP]

Nailed it - or even better, gets the victim in jail...

or just... gone.

 

[TinyPrincess]

LOL!!!

 

[Wyldgusechaz]

If I am not mistaken Eliot Spitzer had to give up the governorship just cuz he paid for sex, a totally victimless crime. An Idaho guy had to quit cuz he had gay bathroom sex, not even a crime.

 

[dreamer20]

He was 37 when it happened and you can't excuse it as youthful error.

His age was irrelevant. His errors caused a woman's death and her aggrieved parents forgave him. To err is human, to forgive divine.

 

[Wyldgusechaz]

His age was irrelevant. His errors caused a woman's death and her aggrieved parents forgave him. To err is human, to forgive divine.

Anyone can have an accident. Thats surely forgivable. Not calling for help immediately was criminal. Thats not so forgivable. That was coldly calculating. Don't forget he paid off the parents.

 

[Ethyl]

Anyone can have an accident. Thats surely forgivable. Not calling for help immediately was criminal. Thats not so forgivable. That was coldly calculating. Don't forget he paid off the parents.

This is not to excuse his crime but maybe after some time had passed he finally realised how wrong his actions were and decided the only way to make amends was to be the best senator (read: public servant) he could possibly be.

People can and do change for the better.

 

[tripod]

It is all in the past and her parents could have sent Kennedy to jail if they wanted to, they chose to accept the hush money instead. An autopsy could have proven if Mary Jo really had blood on her nose and mouth and the true cause of death.

Here is some crazy shit...

Mary Jo was a roomate of Nancy Carole Tyler when she was George Smather's secretary. Nancy Carole Tyler was the secretary of Lyndon Johnson aide Bobby Baker. Baker was involved in a scandalous deal helping to establish American owned casinos in the Dominican Republic. Bobby Baker's liason in the deal was Ed Levison who was an associate of mobsters Sam Giancana and Meyer Lansky.

Bobby Baker believed that the Dominican republic would be an ideal "little" Cuba and could be an effective replacement for the Mob's cash cow. He continued to do business with Levison and also brought in an associate of Jimmy Hoffa Ben Siegelbaum and started to branch out from their Dominican Republic base. All three men (Baker, Siegelbaum, and Levison) formed a vending machine company that supplied companies that were receiving federal grants. the machines were manufactured by a company secretly owned by Chicago mobsters including Sam Giancana.

There was no investigation into the matter by the Justice Department since Bobby Baker was personally involved with procuring women for the Attorney General's brother John Fitzgerald Kennedy. Baker did resign later that year due to increasing pressure from government insiders.

Nancy Carole Tyler died in a plane crash near Ocean City, Maryland on May 10, 1965.

The connection to Mary Jo is that Kennedy was outraged by Baker's activities and sought to remove Johnson from the presidential ticket. Kennedy's choice was Florida senator George Smathers. Mary Jo is said to have read the communication from Kennedy aloud to Smathers and had first hand knowledge of the incident. George Smathers was alledgedly connected to the Baker/Siegelbaum/Giancana/Lansky vending machine scheme, through a man by the name of Grant Stockdale. Grant was later pushed from his office on the thirteenth floor of the DuPont building on Dec. 2, 1963. Smathers claimed after the incident that, "Grant had grown increasingly sad as a result of the death of president Kennedy and had became depressed." He had made a similar remark about the earlier August 3, 1963 suicide (by shotgun) of his close friend Philip Graham by saying, "If you were married to Kay Graham, you would have killed yourself too."

That is fucking creepy...

 

[TinyPrincess]

If I am not mistaken Eliot Spitzer had to give up the governorship just cuz he paid for sex, a totally victimless crime. An Idaho guy had to quit cuz he had gay bathroom sex, not even a crime.

Well, we all know sex is much worse than murder...