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When Sen. Ted Kennedy was merely just another Democrat bloating
on Capitol Hill on behalf of liberal causes, it was perhaps
excusable to ignore his deplorable past.
But now that he's become a leading Republican attack dog,
positioning himself as Washington's leading arbiter of truth and
integrity, the days for such indulgence are now over.
It's time for the GOP to stand up and remind America why this
chief spokesman had to abandon his own presidential bid in 1980
- time to say the words
"Mary Jo Kopechne"
out loud.
As is often the case, Republicans have deluded themselves into
thinking that most Americans already know the story of how this
"Conscience of the Democratic Party" left Miss Kopechne behind
to die in the waters underneath the Edgartown Bridge in July
1969, after a night of drinking and partying with the young
blonde campaign worker. But most Americans under 40 have never
heard that story, or details of how Kennedy swam to safety, then
tried to get his cousin Joe Garghan to say he was behind the
wheel.
Those young voters don't know how Miss Kopechne, trapped inside
Kennedy's Oldsmobile, gasped for air until she finally died,
while the Democrats' leading Iraq war critic rushed back to his
compound to formulate the best alibi he could think of.
Neither does Generation X know how Kennedy was thrown out of
Harvard on his ear 15 years earlier -- for paying a fellow
student to take his Spanish final. Or why the US Army denied him
a commission because he cheated on tests.
As they listen to the Democrats' "Liberal Lion" accuse President
Bush of "telling lie after lie after lie" to get America to go
to war in Iraq, young voters don't know about that notorious
1991 Easter weekend in Palm Beach when Uncle Teddy rounded up
his nephews for a night on the town, an evening that ended with
one of them credibly accused of rape.
It's time for Republicans to state unabashedly that they will no
longer "go along with the gag" when it comes to Uncle Ted's
rants about deception and moral turpitude inside the Bush White
House.
And if the Republicans don't, let's do it ourselves by passing
this forgotten disgrace around the Internet to wake up memories
of what a fraud and fake Teddy really is.
The Democratic Party should be ashamed to have the national
disgrace from Massachusetts as their spokesman. |