This one reminds me of the recent "Uncle Walter" death, where the big papers had already written and spit-shined the man's obituary months back. And with good reason. If you recall
last spring and
last fall, I doubt many of us thought the youngest Kennedy would be with us for even this long. But, we put it out of our mind, and kind of moved on. Maybe he would beat the cancer after all, serve another ten years, and break the record. But, no, he didn't. As they say, death and taxes (a topic Mr. Kennedy certainly knew a thing or two about) are inevitable.
I was lamenting the fact that I had to work tonight on the Teddy Kennedy obit, and my oldest daughter, Cameron asked "Who's he? Did he work for you?" And I suppose he sort of did.
I grew up in a lower middle class Democratic household, and was well versed in the obvious distinctions between Democrats and Republicans. The Democratic Party was the working class party that fights for the little guy and the Republican Party was the "money" party. And it's as simple as that. So, yeah, Ted Kennedy spent his whole career
working for me.
My Irish mother was about as working class as it gets, and a big fan of the Kennedys. But, even she admitted that young Teddy was "damaged goods." It was the whole
Chappaquiddick thing. I went so far as to write a report about it in high school. It all went down in 1969, and rather than write about the moon landing or Woodstock, I chose Chappaquiddick. I suppose I have always been a tad perverse. I have an extremely visceral memory of pouring through reel after reel of
microfishe, reading authentic articles from the time. Damn, I wish I still had that paper.
I distinctly remember
an old SNL skit, where the 1980 candidates were all doing domestic chores in an Iowa home. One of the big punchlines came when Teddy, played by Bill Murray, offered to drive the daughter home. You want longevity? How's this. TK was impersonated by FIVE different SNL actors over the years, starting with Murray and most recently Will Ferrell. That might be a record. But think about it. Who else has been in the public eye for that many years? Queen Elizabeth, for one. But she isn't tragically funny like our dearly departed Massachusetts senator.
What more is there to know about a man whose life was so
well documented? (Beautiful piece by the globe, I mean...hats off!) I found a neato
interactive map of his relationships and interrelationships. Speaking of interrelationships, he once was one third of a
sandwich with Chris Dodd and a DC-area waitress. His first wife,
Joan, is a notorious alcoholic and DUI collector. He was
expelled from Harvard for cheating on a Spanish test. He rather famously couldn't answer the Roger Mudd question, "
Why do you want to be president?" But there's a lot of good too. He had a wonderful
working relationship with Utah Republican senator and
songwriter Orrin Hatch. He was a noted
sailor up on the Cape. He loved dogs and in fact, his dog "wrote" a
book.
Oh, and one final related thought on the "
Singing Senator." My old friend, Glenn White, observed on Facebook today "The Dead Kennedys announce a new band member." Ok, a little twisted, but hey, why not take this moment and reflect on perhaps one of the best band names of all time?
