UPDATE:  If you read some of the comments below, there are a few upset with me bringing up Ted Kennedy’s mishap at the lake upon news of his death.

Well, apparently lefty Henry Rollins over at Vanity Fair seems to think the “unpleasantness” at the lake is fair game when remembering Kennedy.

Admittedly, I have only read a handful of articles by Henry Rollins.  But I really liked him when he was with the band Black Flag.  His solo work was ok to, I guess.

UPDATE TWO:  An excellent piece on the selective memory of liberals and the MSM (and in the MSM), regarding Ted Kennedy and the events at Chappaquiddick.  Just in case some of you didn’t know how the whole thing went down…

UPDATE THREE:  Hey, wanna know who thought Chappaquiddick was funny?  Ted Kennedy.  Man that guy is some joke teller.  And here it is me being called the asshole. 

ORIGINAL POST 

I could’ve said: Senator Ted Kennedy:  RIP.  But, yeah, I had a hard time with that.  Either way, it still doesn’t change the fact.

Mary Jo Kopechne just emailed me asking when Ted passed if it felt like cold, icy water bubbling up through the floor boards of a submerging Oldsmobile.  Or when he was following the proverbial “light”, if the light resembled the watery moonlight glow from behind a rearview window of a submerging Oldsmobile.  Good questions Mary Jo.  Although, now you can ask him yourself. 

But alas, Ted Kennedy lost his battle with brain cancer last night and died at the age of 77.  Unlike Mary Jo, he went quietly in a dry, warm bed surrounded by friends and family who loved him.  One could argue he died the way he lived:  Trying to preserve the Royal Kennedy Senate seat by subverting the law, while enjoying medical care his pet legislation would likely deny other 77 year-olds with terminal brain cancer.  Indeed.

Yet, there is part of me wanting to take the high road and not stoop to the level we see on the left when one on our side dies.  In fact Michelle Malkin says we will have all the time in the world to pick a part Kennedy’s life and career, but today is a day to give condolences to his family.

So I’ll tell you what I’m going to do.  I am going to huddle with my lawyer and family, along with several other people, and wait 10 hours before I decide if I am going to give any comfort or condolences to Kennedy or his family.

Just like those same people gave Mary Jo Kopechne.

Again, I was up at the Amelia Earhart festival in Atchison, KS this weekend, so I was sort of incognito and unable to comment on one of the most significant annivesaries in American History: July 18/19, 1969, Chappaquiddick Island. Or, as some have called the most brilliant cover-up ever achieved in a nation where investigative procedures are well developed and where the principles of equal justice prevail. So again, let’s have a belated review shall we? Yes, we shall:

During a party on Chappaquiddick Island on July 18, 1969, Senator Kennedy drove his 1967 Oldsmobile Delmont 88 off Dike Bridge (also spelled Dyke Bridge), a wooden bridge that is angled obliquely to an unlit road onto which he claimed to have made a wrong turn. The car plunged into tide-swept Poucha Pond (at that location a channel) and landed upside down under the water. There is speculation about whether Mary Jo Kopechne drowned or suffocated.

Kennedy returned on foot to the Lawrence Cottage where a party was in progress. Two other men, his cousin Joseph Gargan and party co-host Paul Markham then assisted him in trying to reach rescue Kopechne. All involved failed to use the telephone at the Lawrence Cottage to call the police for help. Kennedy discussed the accident with several people, including his lawyer, before he was contacted by the police. The next morning July 19, 1969 Police Chief Dominick Arena called the Senator from the closest house to the Dike Bridge rented at the time by the Malms. Senator Kennedy was given the news that his mother’s car had been involved in a fatal accident. Kennedy had never reported the accident, a science teacher and 15 year old boy fishing discovered Kennedy’s car the morning where the incident occurred.

Kopechne’s body was discovered by diver John Farrar. John Farrar observed that a large amout of air was released from the car when it was righted in the water, he also noted that the trunk when opened was remarkably dry. These observations and others lead many to believe that Mary Jo Kopechne had not drowned but suffocated in an air pocket within the Delmont 88. The diver John Farrar has stated that he was on call and available at the time of the accident.

Though claiming to be injured, Kennedy, swam a second larger body of water after the accident to return to his hotel room as the ferry was closed for the night.

Teddy waited 10 hours to call in the “accident” while he huddled with his lawyers. Mary Jo Kopechne survived for as long as two hours in the submerged automobile by breathing a pocket of trapped air.

In a stark bit of foreshadowing, the Kennedys call their lawyers rather then dialing 911. Fun Fact: Ted Kennedy’s dog is named… ‘Splash’

To put this in a little perspective folks, fewer people died in Abu Ghraib prison than died in Ted Kennedy’s Oldsmobile. Furthermore, it took less time for the Marines to destroy the Medina Republican Guard than it took Ted Kennedy to call the police after his car sank–with Mary Jo Kopechne in it–at Chappaquiddick.

It was a sad time this past weekend indeed. For justice, politics, scummy politicians, lost integrity and especially for Mary Jo’s family.