“The Kennedy Machine Buried What
Really Happened”: Revisiting Chappaquiddick,
50 Years Later
Vanity Fair,
by
Josh Sanburn
Original Article
Posted By: earlybird,
7/19/2019 5:36:16 PM
Fifty years ago, as men prepared to land on the moon and millions of those stuck on earth followed each staticky dispatch from space, Senator Ted Kennedy drove his car into a pond.(Snip)
Looking back 50 years on, Chappaquiddick says much about its era, a time when a privileged, powerful man could manipulate a system to avoid prosecution while a young woman who had ascended in male-dominated Washington—when only 11 women were in Congress—had both her life and death engulfed by the senator’s political ambitions and America’s fascination with the Kennedys. (Snip)“The Kennedy machine buried what
Reply 1 - Posted by:
earlybird 7/19/2019 5:38:45 PM (No. 128463)
Maybe this is why her parents didn’t want any more publicity. Why they were willing to accept a very small - considering their loss - payment and just have it all go away.?
Kopechne strongly supported the civil rights movement, says Kluge, which drew her to Montgomery, Alabama, after graduation. There she taught at an all-black high school. She moved to Washington, D.C., in 1963 and joined Bobby Kennedy’s staff the following year, drawn to the senator because of his focus on social justice issues.
During the ’68 campaign, Kopechne was tasked with counting the candidate’s Northeast delegates and typing speeches. She was even on the train that carried RFK’s body back to Washington from New York City.
Kluge says Kopechne attended the party because it was ultimately a thank-you for the women’s work on the Kennedy campaign a year earlier. “She didn’t go up there because of Teddy,” Kluge says. “She didn’t really know him.”
The coverage at the time often implied some sort of improper relationship between Kennedy and Kopechne. The party itself was cast as vaguely illicit, since most of the men were married and all of the women were single. But Kay Martin, one of the Boiler Room Girls who did not attend the party, says that the gathering was characterized as “something other than what it was” and that Kopechne was “portrayed in a very negative light.”
7 people like this.
Reply 2 - Posted by:
franq 7/19/2019 5:42:23 PM (No. 128469)
Kennedy Machine? Re: Howard J. Turkstra (Stripes) "There was one?"
Uncle Walter Crankase kept everyone in the dark...
8 people like this.
Reply 3 - Posted by:
Vesicant 7/19/2019 6:07:03 PM (No. 128482)
And Teddy drove the whole country into a ditch with the immigration acts of 1965 and 1990: "our cities will not be flooded with a million immigrants annually. ... Secondly, the ethnic mix of this country will not be upset." I guess that means if you like your country, you get to keep your country -- right, Teddy?
21 people like this.
Reply 4 - Posted by:
droopydog 7/19/2019 6:33:16 PM (No. 128498)
Are there any Kennedy family members still in politics? I hope not.
7 people like this.
I imagine ole Teddy is going to long for some of that water she drowned in...going to be mighty for eternity.
6 people like this.
Reply 6 - Posted by:
nwcudagal 7/19/2019 7:15:47 PM (No. 128518)
I've read two articles this week that attempt to rewrite the history of what happened. One might have involved Christine Blowsey Ford who traveled back in time to write a letter to Kopechne's parents saying that someone had placed Mary Jo in Kennedy's car, and Teddy didn't know it. Back in the day when I could still read books without going to sleep, I read two books that exposed the cover-up; at least in my eyes. Why he was ever held in high regard is beyond me. I've heard that the Kennedy's made their money in liquor, and it appears that the family has been steeped in it ever since.
13 people like this.
Reply 7 - Posted by:
chumley 7/19/2019 7:27:08 PM (No. 128525)
No matter what spin anyone puts on it, we owe Mary Jo an eternal debt of gratitude. Her death kept that miserable scoundrel out of the White House. Many have given their lives for less and been called heroes.
20 people like this.
Reply 8 - Posted by:
Nevadadad46 7/19/2019 8:03:56 PM (No. 128562)
What a stupid thing to drag up. If most people alive today don’t even remember the principle people involved in this mess of obfuscation and lies then who cares?
What is going on that it is being brought up now?
4 people like this.
Reply 9 - Posted by:
earlybird 7/19/2019 9:06:03 PM (No. 128592)
Re #8, not stupid at all. The young women who were at that party were given a bad rap. This is the first time I’ve seen any mention of what the party was about and why they were there. Mary Jo Kopeckne had a cloud over her head because of erroneous implications and innuendo plus the desire on the part of some to assume the worst about her … bad word, assume. I am glad to see Josh, at VF of all places, attempt to portray her as she was, as those who knew her knew her to be.
7 people like this.
Reply 10 - Posted by:
NorthernDog 7/19/2019 9:20:35 PM (No. 128596)
I have always assumed Kopechne was idealistic and a bit entranced by the Kennedys - not a party girl. She deserved a better biography by the media. Teddy's bad behavior continued on and off for another 40 year with only occasional scrutiny.
10 people like this.
Reply 11 - Posted by:
Rama41 7/19/2019 10:28:39 PM (No. 128622)
The best book on Chappaquidick is "Senatorial Privilege: The Chappaquiddick Coverup", by Leo Damore. I remember it as being very detailed, the result of his interviews and observations, with accounts of how the boiler room girls all stuck together, even meeting each evening of the inquest, at which they apparently testified, to compare notes. As far as I know, they are all still around, having kept quiet all these years.
3 people like this.
Reply 12 - Posted by:
Dodge Boy 7/19/2019 11:17:17 PM (No. 128637)
There's really nothing else to see here. Kennedy raped Mary Jo, was afraid she would squeal on him and squash his political ambitions. So the fix was in and Teddy claiming to fall asleep at the wheel that night and drove off the road and drowned her while conveniently helping himself out of the car.
2 people like this.
Reply 13 - Posted by:
Jubal 7/20/2019 2:08:00 AM (No. 128672)
The damage Ted Kennedy did to the U.S. can be felt even today.
Kennedy was personally responsible for the defeat of one of the
most gifted nominees to the Supreme Court — ever: Robert Bork.
Kennedy's vicious attack added another word to the English language "BORKED".
1 person likes this.
Reply 14 - Posted by:
F15 Gork 7/20/2019 7:58:11 AM (No. 128801)
As soon as I saw Theodore’s neck brace I knew he was a lying sack of Schumer.
1 person likes this.
Reply 15 - Posted by:
DVC 7/20/2019 9:59:26 AM (No. 128913)
VF is not a reliable source, especially on Kennedys.
Not interested in any revisionist history from leftists.
0 people like this.
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An unusual slant for VF… The writer focused some light on Mary Jo Kopechne, who was also portrayed as being quite different than she was known to be...