Is America Finally Done With The Kennedys?

I realize Ted is ailing so I won't pile on him here, though I will confess to disliking and disrespecting him as a man and politician perhaps more than any other politician over the years.

For some reason, Ron Rosenbaum opts to take on Billy Joel and Jeff Jarvis at Slate - via Hot Air headlines. Be warned - it's a rather petty, self-indulgent and time-wasting read. But what about a symbol of America that is possibly just a little bit more important than Billy Joel?

It seems Caroline Kennedy is alleged to have gotten either nasty, or childish in her retreat from her pursuit of a seat in the Senate. It's difficult if not impossible to think of one fact emerging from her vetting that suggests she was the least bit qualified for a place of so-called leadership in America. Actually, she didn't come off looking real good as an individual, either. Yet the politics and heretofore ongoing Kennedy worship we've endured in America placed this over-privileged woman just one individual's nod away from that very thing.

Gov. Paterson rapped Caroline Kennedy at a private event the night before he tapped Kirsten Gillibrand for the Senate, telling guests Kennedy had been "nasty" to him and shown "disrespect" with how she bowed out, attendees told The Post.

From Ted's infamous accident to various tawdry trysts, trials, the sense of entitlement and unfortunate tragedies we've endured from this family, to nonsensical liberal thinking that has not served America well over the years, if we want real change in America, perhaps it's time we dispensed with the Kennedy worship and myth.

While it's doubtful they will ever squander the full measure of their financial inheritance from an anti-semite and bootlegger, one can hope that with Caroline dispatched and Ted likely to be gone from public service before too long, they have finally squandered the capital of their heritage they've traded upon and few if any of them ever truly earned.

Comments

[Fred Beloit]

Oh woes, I keep pointing out that there is no Caroline Kennedy who was briefly considered for appointment to the Senate; she doesn't exist. There is a Caroline Schlossberg and a Caroline Kennedy-Schlossberg, but no Caroline Kennedy. Either the world ignores me for some nefarious reason, or I am trivializing the insignificant and by doing so have become myself unimportant, more so at any rate than usual.

[mark l.]

How much of the decison was Patterson's?
as of late, I'm getting the idea that he was a decision he made, almost exclusively.

IF it was mostly his decision, I wonder how much his blindness played a role.

The Kennedy legacy is largely bult on imagery, with Jackie and JFK standing alongside with their family. The pictures and the newsreels are very much a part of their legacy.

Caroline had the misfortune of being 'interviewed' by a guy who was immune to the historic advertising of the Kennedys. All he had to go on was a voice...

caroline has, at best, a nasaly droning sound with nothing else.

haven't heard the audio of gillibrand, but I venture a guess that she, lacking the history of the kennedys, had something in her voice that made Patterson choose her.

(this is under the premise that Patterson was the actual person that made the selection-which is far froma certainty)

[SacTownMan]

Just your average American Democratic family!

Well, if you ignore the murdering uncle or the rapist cousin, or the "typical white person" adultering president.

What would you expect from a family founded on the riches of an anti-semite that once was quoted as telling the German Ambassador during WWII that "we" Americans "understood" their handling of the jews! After all they screwed up the movie industry!

http://archives.econ.utah.edu/archives/marxism/2004w52/msg00084.htm

Now we have a new Democratic iconic figure in their newest President!

What is about these half-wits that they need to have their hero worship of murderers, jew haters, adulterers and now crack heads?

Great role models!

[mark l.]

"Now we have a new Democratic iconic figure in their newest President!"

obama has a great stage voice, but lacks the charisma that kennedy had. kennedy's whole family had grown up in the spotlight, while obama (and family) are newbs, adding to his personal aura.

michelle isn't exactly jackie, as evidenced by the refusal of even the left to draw the comparison.
I don't see obama 'prostituting' his kids like joe of john.

This isn't to say that the kennedy's were wrong to have used their kids as props, but times have changed since the 50-60's. Nixon/checkers, ford/betty, carter/billy, reagan/patty & rr jr and a bunch of others really cleared the 'use of family' from politics.

[Steve]

Excellent post here!!

Would you like a Link Exchange with our new blog COMMON CENTS where we blog about the issues of the day??

http://www.commoncts.blogspot.com

[Calypso Jones]

I really don't believe Caroline got any nastier or childish than a kennedy is normally. I think that the Governor of NY could not see his way clear to appoint ANOTHER politician with tax, nanny and infidelity problems. It would only serve to remind people of how Patterson came to his present position

[Steven Den Beste]

Political dynasties in this country don't last. We're almost free now of the Rockefellers (one left, and he's old), and as you say also the Kennedies. I think that the Bush dynasty has seen its peak (there's no next generation), and I don't think that Clinton will become one (Chelsea?).

The Daley dynasty is still going strong, but I think it's also seen its best days.

[Peg C.]

Murderers, rapists, philanderers, ne'er-do-wells, drunks, addicts, trust-fund-babies, and morally and intellectually bankrupt mediocrities. One was president and only has a great legacy because he was assassinated before he could fail in the job. This is your American Kennedy dynasty. Please let us be rid of them.

[www.google.com/accounts/o8/id?id=AItOawmBMl2PJShNdcvDaMNZcY4BAl7i_n7J4PQ]

John Kennedy to Caroline Kennedy: tragic hero to clown in one generation. This would be some sort of record for rate of degeneration were it not for Ted Kennedy. Ted pissed on his dead brothers' graves and embraced their McGovernite/Stalinist enemies, repudiating his brothers' patriotism and policies for empty socialist rhetoric.

[Bill Adkins]

I don't know if America is done with the Kennedys - they seem to be done with the Roosevelts and the Lincolns, though. And I'm damn sure America is done with the Bush family.

[Bill Adkins]

And let me add, George HW Bush to George W. Bush: mediocre leader to Worst President in History in one generation.

[WAHOO WILLIE]

Obie keeps referring to himself as Lincoln incarnate......I'm siding with the secessionists this time.

[Todd]

"Murderers, rapists, philanderers, ne'er-do-wells, drunks, addicts, trust-fund-babies, and morally and intellectually bankrupt mediocrities. One was president and only has a great legacy because he was assassinated before he could fail in the job. This is your American Kennedy dynasty. Please let us be rid of them.

Posted by: Peg C. | Sunday, January 25, 2009 at 08:12 AM"
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Well, as long as we're going to trash family political dynasties on the left, why not be evenhanded and examine the legacy of the Bush family. That includes Prescott Bush, father of George H.W. Bush and grandfather of George W. Bush. and George Herbert Walker, George W. Bush's great-grandfather and their Nazi connections.

http://www.geocities.com/bushfamilynazis/

Money quote: BUSH-NAZI LINK CONFIRMED

Documents in National Archives Prove George W. Bush's
Grandfather Traded with Nazis - Even After Pearl Harbor

by John Buchanan (Exclusive to the New Hampshire Gazette)

WASHINGTON - After 60 years of inattention and even denial
by the U.S. media, newly-uncovered government documents in
The National Archives and Library of Congress reveal that
Prescott Bush, the grandfather of President George W. Bush,
served as a business partner of and U.S. banking operative
for the financial architect of the Nazi war machine from 1926
until 1942, when Congress took aggressive action against Bush
and his "enemy national" partners.

The documents also show that Bush and his colleagues, according
to reports from the U.S. Department of the Treasury, tried to
conceal their financial alliance with German industrialist Fritz
Thyssen, a steel and coal baron who, beginning in the mid-1920s,
personally funded Adolf Hitler's rise to power by the subversion
of democratic principle and German law.

Furthermore, the declassified records demonstrate that Bush
and his associates, who included E. Roland Harriman, younger
brother of American icon W. Averell Harriman, and George
Herbert Walker, President Bush's maternal great-grandfather,
continued their dealings with the German industrial tycoon for
nearly a year after the U.S. entered the war.

[Todd]

Not to be forgotten is the savings-and-loans crisis of the late 1980's that found Neil Bush, George W. Bush's brother, right in the middle of it as a Board of Director of Silverado Savings and Loan. The savings-and-loan crisis of the 1980's cost American taxpayers $1 billion dollars.

http://dir.salon.com/story/ent/col/fix/2004/03/09/tues/index.html

Money quote: Neil, the fourth of George and Barbara Bush's six children, a charming boy whose schoolwork as a child suffered due to dyslexia and whose graduation from high school was greeted by his family as something of a triumph (he went on to graduate from Tulane University -- and to get an MBA there as well), got his first big moment in the headlines shortly after the 1988 election, in connection with the savings and loan scandal. Neil, it turned out, had served as a director for the Silverado Banking, Savings and Loan in Denver from 1985 to 1988, during which time the company loaned more than $200 million to Neil's two partners in an unsuccessful oil company, JNB Exploration. His two partners' failure to repay $132 million in loans helped precipitate Silverado's collapse, which cost taxpayers around $1 billion. Federal regulators determined that Neil suffered from an "ethical disability," and required him to pay a $50,000 fine. (He himself admitted, appearing before the House Banking Committee in 1990, that some of his dealings looked "a little fishy.") He became a poster boy for the $500 billion savings and loan scandal, his house picketed, his face plastered on "wanted" posters screaming "Jail Neil Bush."

[Fred Beloit]

PEANUTS: "The savings-and-loan crisis of the 1980's cost American taxpayers $1 billion dollars." Even though it was 1980 money.

Now you take Barney Frank (please). He and Dodd are not such pikers. They have cost us about, what, $40 Bil so far and looking forward to $850 Bil more in the form of the largest pork bill ever?

By the way, when will the Dems in Congress start getting serious with the investigations of Dodd and Rangell, two members, IMO, of the Democraticic maelstrom of malfeasance?

[Todd]

C'mon, Fred, you well know the S&L scandal cost well more than $1 billion, don't you? The entire savings-and-loan scandal cost the American taxpayer $125 billion in 1989 dollars. Is that stil peanuts? Silverado Savings and Loan cost the taxpayer $1 billion. That's Neil Bush's legacy, not the entire $125 billion. What is also significant is that he was a sitting president's son, and all he got was a $50,000 fine for his role. Ya think maybe he still somehow profited handsomely from his Silverado involvement?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Savings_and_loan_scandal

As to your point about Dodd and Rangel investigations, I say "bring 'em on." Full investigations should be done about the repercussions of Frank and Dodd blocking Fannie/Freddie reform. As a centrist, I want all politicians, regardless of party, who contributed to this morass be exposed and stripped of power, if they are still in power. I also want names named about who played major parts in this crisis, to make sure that history properly records who was responsible for this national nitemare. That includes culpable parties like Alan Greenspan, Phil Gramm, Chris Cox, George W. Bush, to name a few. I also want to see lots of perp walks of Wall Street players and full clawbacks of bonuses earned from phony profits.

And by the way, if you're one of those who believe that this whole mess was caused entirely by Dodd and Frank and the CRA, I have a bridge to sell you.

[WBestPresidentEver]

Bill, Enough of the Bush bashing. Go play in the traffic if you have nothing better to do.

You will soon wish that "President" G.W.Bush would come back.

To hell with all you Bush bashers. Go jump in bed with your trashy disgusting friend Micheal Moore and all his chump friends.

[mark l.]

"By the way, when will the Dems in Congress start getting serious with the investigations of Dodd and Rangell, two members, IMO, of the Democraticic maelstrom of malfeasance?"

the problem that comes up is that after the ethics committee reviews the cases, they must decide whether to submit a vote of censure to the body at large.

Dodd and Rangel are 'publicly' guilty. If the committee fails to agree, they risk looking like idiots-and the press will name names. If they proceed with presenting their findings before the relevant bodies of congress, it becomes a litmus test of how willing the dems are to support their own party for criminality.

[mark l.]

Todd-

good stuff about those bush/nazi ties.

The funny part is that your (exclusive rights) author has his own wiki entry.
not pretty.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Buchanan_(American_politician)

apparently he is also a '9/11 truther'.

If one crackpot is sufficient evidence for you,

consider the lincoln quote:

" "You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time." "

pick your category.

[Todd]

Okay, Mark.

Let's see what dirt you can find on the UK Guardian which ran this article on the subject of Prescott Bush's business dealings with German industrialist Fritz Thyssen who, beginning in the mid-1920s, personally funded Adolf Hitler's rise to power.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2004/sep/25/usa.secondworldwar

And Mark, what dirt can you dig up on John Loftus, ex Justice Dept prosecutor and vice-chairman of the Holocaust Museum in St Petersburg, who prosecuted Nazi war criminals in the 1970's?

John Loftus's money quote:

"You can't blame (George W.)Bush for what his grandfather did any more than you can blame Jack Kennedy for what his father did - bought Nazi stocks - but what is important is the cover-up, how it could have gone on so successfully for half a century, and does that have implications for us today?" he said.

"This was the mechanism by which Hitler was funded to come to power, this was the mechanism by which the Third Reich's defence industry was re-armed, this was the mechanism by which Nazi profits were repatriated back to the American owners, this was the mechanism by which investigations into the financial laundering of the Third Reich were blunted," said Loftus, who is vice-chairman of the Holocaust Museum in St Petersburg.

"The Union Banking Corporation was a holding company for the Nazis, for Fritz Thyssen," said Loftus. "At various times, the Bush family has tried to spin it, saying they were owned by a Dutch bank and it wasn't until the Nazis took over Holland that they realised that now the Nazis controlled the apparent company and that is why the Bush supporters claim when the war was over they got their money back. Both the American treasury investigations and the intelligence investigations in Europe completely bely that, it's absolute horseshit. They always knew who the ultimate beneficiaries were."

"There is no one left alive who could be prosecuted but they did get away with it," said Loftus. "As a former federal prosecutor, I would make a case for Prescott Bush, his father-in-law (George Walker) and Averill Harriman [to be prosecuted] for giving aid and comfort to the enemy. They remained on the boards of these companies knowing that they were of financial benefit to the nation of Germany."

Loftus said Prescott Bush must have been aware of what was happening in Germany at the time. "My take on him was that he was a not terribly successful in-law who did what Herbert Walker told him to. Walker and Harriman were the two evil geniuses, they didn't care about the Nazis any more than they cared about their investments with the Bolsheviks."

What is also at issue is how much money Bush made from his involvement. His supporters suggest that he had one token share. Loftus disputes this, citing sources in "the banking and intelligence communities" and suggesting that the Bush family, through George Herbert Walker and Prescott, got $1.5m out of the involvement. There is, however, no paper trail to this sum. "