When I learned of the passing of Senator Kennedy not a surprise but never the less a sadness fell upon me. IMO he may not be a forefather but he has been very much a father of this country. There are no words to bring complete scope to his service to this country.

I didn't always agree with Sen. Kennedy but my fondest knowledge of this man is hearing his Republican peers speak most fondly of him. That right there is the true measure of a person. When your professional adversaries have no sentiment short of respect and love to describe you you have done your duty well.

Peace and Blessings Edward Kennedy.

DUI/Manslaughter and the cops looked the other way.

hypno i couldn't have said any better. Thank you!

That's too bad. History will remember him well.

So sad. What a hard time for the family.

today is a sad, sad day...

I can see it now. God and Mary Jo are standing there, tapping their feet and and really saying much. Oops.

We've had a lot of iconic losses this year in the States. But Senator Kennedy is quite possibly the biggest loss - he worked tirelessly to fight for all of us. His lion's road will be greatly missed.

I say, let's get a couple things clear and not twist the facts to change the real history:

1. He was caught cheating at Harvard when he attended it. He was expelled twice, once for cheating on a test, and once for paying a classmate to cheat for him.

2. While expelled, Kennedy enlisted in the Army, but mistakenly signed up for four years instead of two. Oops! The man can't count to four! His father, Joseph P. Kennedy, former U.S. Ambassador to England (a step up from bootlegging liquor into the US from Canada during prohibition), pulled the necessary strings to have his enlistment shortened to two years, and to ensure that he served in Europe, not Korea , where a war was raging. No preferential treatment for him! (like he charged that President Bush received).

3. Kennedy was assigned to Paris , never advanced beyond the rank of Private, and returned to Harvard upon being discharged. Imagine a person of his "education" NEVER advancing past the rank of Private!

4. While attending law school at the University of Virginia , he was cited for reckless driving four times, including once when he was clocked driving 90 miles per hour in a residential neighborhood with his headlights off after dark. Yet his Virginia driver's license was never revoked.. Coincidentally, he passed the bar exam in 1959. Amazing!

5. In 1964, he was seriously injured in a plane crash, and hospitalized for several months. Test results done by the hospital at the time he was admitted had shown he was legally intoxicated. The results of those tests remained a "state secret" until in the 1980's when the report was unsealed.. Didn't hear about that from the unbiased media, did we?

6. On July 19, 1969, Kennedy attended a party on Chappaquiddick Island in Massachusetts . At about 11:00 PM, he borrowed his chauffeur's keys to his Oldsmobile limousine, and offered to give a ride home to Mary Jo Kopechne, a campaign worker. Leaving the island via an unlit bridge with no guard rail, Kennedy steered the car off the bridge, flipped, and sank into Poucha Pond.

7. He swam to shore and walked back to the party, passing several houses and a fire station. Two friends then returned with him to the scene of the accident. According to their later testimony, they told him what he already knew – that he was required by law to immediately report the accident to the authorities. Instead, Kennedy made his way to his hotel, called his lawyer, and went to sleep. Kennedy called the police the next morning and by then the wreck had already been discovered. Before dying, Kopechne had scratched at the upholstered floor above her head in the upside-down car. Kopechne was able to stay alive for a while breathing a bubble of air inside the car.

One source notes "A diver was sent down and discovered Kopechne's body at around 8:45 am. The diver, John Farrar, later testified at the inquest that Kopechne's body was pressed up in the car in the spot where an air bubble would have formed. He interpreted this to mean that Kopechne had survived for a while after the initial accident in the air bubble, and concluded that: 'Had I received a call within five to ten minutes of the accident occurring, and was able, as I was the following morning, to be at the victim's side within twenty-five minutes of receiving the call, in such event there is a strong possibility that she would have been alive on removal from the submerged car.' "

The Kennedy family began "calling in favors", ensuring that any inquiry would be contained. Her corpse was whisked out-of-state to her family, before an autopsy could be conducted. Further details are uncertain, but after the accident Kennedy says he repeatedly dove under the water trying to rescue Kopechne and he didn't call police because he was in a state of shock.

It is widely assumed Kennedy was drunk, and he held off calling police in hopes that his family could fix the problem overnight. Since the accident, Kennedy's "political enemies" have referred to him as the distinguished Senator from Chappaquiddick. He pled guilty to leaving the scene of an accident, and was given a SUSPENDED SENTENCE OF TWO MONTHS.

Kopechne's family received a small pay out from the Kennedy's insurance policy, and never sued. There was later an effort to have her body exhumed and autopsied, but her family successfully fought against this in court, and Kennedy's family paid their attorney's bills… a "token of friendship"?

8. Kennedy has held his Senate seat for more than forty years, but considering his longevity, his accomplishments seem scant. He authored or argued for legislation that ensured a variety of civil rights, increased the minimum wage in 1981, made access to health care easier for the indigent, and funded Meals on Wheels for fixed-income seniors and is widely held as the "standard-bearer for liberalism". In his very first Senate roll, he was the floor manager for the bill that turned U.S. immigration policy upside down and opened the floodgate for immigrants from third world countries.

9. Since that time, he has been the prime instigator and author of every expansion of an increase in immigration, up to and including the latest attempt to grant amnesty to illegal aliens. Not to mention the pious grilling he gave the last two Supreme Court nominees, as if he was the standard bearer for the nation in matters of "what's right".

10. He is known around Washington as a public drunk, loud, boisterous and very disrespectful to ladies. JERK is a better description than "great American". "A blond in every pond" should be his motto.

Let's not allow the spin doctors to make this disgraceful drunk and wh*re of anti-American special interests a hero. It's shameful that more people don't know what his real legacy is.

I added a link to Chappaquiddick, cirrus. It is an important and controversial part of his history. Thanks for the reminder.

Rich (American) bastard dies and a nation mourns - not.

Wow Tressugar, you guys really attract some class acts in the comments. Why don't you guys disable anonymous commenters and stop trying to compete with jezebel.

Hey anonymous......guess you ought to be getting down on the tributes to him made by George W and Nancy Reagan and other prominent Republicans.

Annonymous I think most of us unless we've been living under a rock are aware that Sen. Kennedy was not infallible. His errors and misjudgments are well documented in history and well covered even on the most liberal news stations on this mornings news.

I don't know what the tradition is for you however for most on a personal level we tend to eulogize ones accomplishments. My father and I were estranged for many years but I still loved him as my father. I certainly wasn't going to present a laundry list of things he had failed at or made poor judgements in to my family after his death.

The Sen. is not cherished for making mistakes he is cherished for rising above them and becoming a better person. I believe this is why we fall, why we fail. It is a test of our person to grow and rise above the trial. His life is just an example that no failure is too great and at the end of his life he was a better man for it.

I understand he is a public figure who is subject to criticism and that's fine I have no problem with that but the venom with which some people speak isn't going to hurt Ted Kennedy so present the other side of the coin if you'd like but relax, he's gone.

I deeply mourn the fact that Ted Kennedy never tried to live up the example his pre-deceased brothers set for him, and that he had such a long run in the Senate based upon the pity that the electorate in MA felt for his family. His track record speaks for itself, that he has worked tirelessly to the detriment of our nation & the continued pursuit of power by his family.

I regret that our nation is so besotted with celebrity that he was able to have such a long & ill-earned career, and that apologists for his actions are so prevalent.

Peace & condolences to his family & friends.

Anti American? Ted Kennedy may have been many things but he was not Anti American. You know who else they called anti American (until very recently) Martin Luther King Junior. The whole civil rights movement was considered anti American and communist by those who did not want change...

-Skeeve,
Because student loan reform, and health care are teh evils right? I really think they should add a historybella tap, that gives info on little know history everyday. So much vileness is simply do to ignorance. It really isn't any one's fault because most of us do not study history or anthro in college.

Anonymous--Your lack of class is astounding. Seriously.

I must respectfully disagree with the vileness and lack of class comments. This conversation so far has been remarkably well mannered from both sides of the isle.

Anonymous and Skeeve did bring up some very important points that a number of people, including very prominent Republicans, are overlooking and/or downright ignoring. I will be one of the first to say this makes me rather ill. I did not like the Senator at all. However, I would not wish something like brain cancer on anyone. Well, maybe a couple of really evil people...

Which brings me to another point--What if the shoe were on the other foot? Now that I think about it, one prominent example comes to mind. Remember when Tony Snow was diagnosed with cancer? People at the Daily Kos and HuffPo were elated. If you disliked or disagreed with him, that's great. I have no problem with that. However, some of the things I read were truly vile and really horrifying! Or, we'll up the stakes. What if Dick Cheney or Bush 43 died? Let's not lie. In certain parts of the country, the parties in the streets would equal Mardi Gras. That qualifies as a total lack of class, not the comments Anonymous or Skeeve made.

Cirrus--Politics aside, the attack of ANY dead person (or ill person, as you mentioned) is classless in my book. And, might I add cowardly when done anonymously.

cirrus I agree I too was disturbed by the comments after Tony Snow's death. I called those out then but this is now and Sen. Kennedy's turn and I'm calling them out here too.

thanks anon, like we needed reminders?? ted has also done a lot of good for americans, and he seemed to give a damn, unlike 99% of other politicians. i live in MA and i will miss him out there fighting for me. r.i.p. ted

Cirrus,
Whatever happened to class. That whole "well they do it too" is just so childish. Oh and you want to see vile, why don't you check out the day JFK died there's tapes, or what people said, or MLK, or those guys who died in Freedom Summer (look up old copies of the Dayton Newspaper). John Wilkes booth was shocked when Southern Newspapers lamented the passing of Lincoln. Has our society really degenerated so much?