Published: August 27, 2008 09:59 pm            

Mike Reliford: 8/28/08

There are

millions of

people who ...

... hate Ted Kennedy. The list of reasons is fairly long. Here are the main ones: Chappaquiddick, alcoholism, womanizing, pro-choice, big government.

Kennedy is an unabashed liberal, of that there is no doubt. He was a skirt-chaser who tore up his first marriage. He drank too much. He believes in a woman’s right to choose. And he’s not afraid of taxes to help benefit those in need.

Now, throw all of the previous paragraph out. It is Chappaquiddick that cost him his shot at the presidency. It is the death of Mary Jo Kopechne in that incident that, without the interference of his powerful father and clan, would have landed him in jail for manslaughter, ending his political career.

Ted Kennedy has been called “the Lion of the Senate” and the “Conscience of the Senate.” That’s by those who like him.

At the other end are those who call him names like “murderer” and “baby killer.”

I became interested in politics when John Kennedy became president and, like most of America, came to know and love the Kennedy family, the Camelot experience.

I watched their victories, defeats and, time after time, their heartbreaks. I almost understood what drove the youngest Kennedy brother to drink. How much tragedy can one endure?

That drinking and power finally created his biggest enemy — himself — and in no way condones Chappaquiddick. His stories about that night, easily found on the Internet for those who don’t know them, never meshed.

And even if they did ring slightly true, they struck raw nerves in the process. It was wealth and privilege over the little guy in almost everyone’s eyes.

From that night forward, though, Ted Kennedy, through his work in the senate, became the Kennedy to be remembered a century from now.

His president brother and senator brother were murdered before they really made their marks, but the baby boy Kennedy will leave the senate having made a more lasting stamp on America. He is the only Kennedy brother we watched grow old.

He has stumbled and erred often along the way, with drink in hand until the calming influence of his current wife. But his work has made a difference and will long stand. I think history will reveal him as a good senator.

His time is short now, because of the cancer in his head. That he strode to the lectern Monday night and gave a great speech was amazing.

But that tremendous body of work in the senate, his legacy that upstaged his brothers, is clouded by the memory of another body and a river. That, unfortunately, might be the Lion of the Senate’s lasting legacy.

MIKE RELIFORD can be reached at (606) 326-2647 or mreliford@dailyindependent.com

        

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