Chappaquiddick Swimming Champ Speaks From The Grave

There's usually a period of respect after one dies to allow family and friends a grieving time. Is it too early to end that and beat the tar out of Ted Kennedy's legacy?

Hell no.

His friends the Dummycrats didn't respect any time out for grieving, instead using his death as a tool. Former KKK recruiter and the man the Dummycrats call the "Conscience of the Senate" Robert Byrd used him the day Kennedy died to press for "commie-care" medical insurance, and Dingy Harry Reid admitted to the same with his vulgar statement that Kennedy's death "...is going to help us."

Ted Kennedy's estate will next week publish his memoirs, so in fact Teddy himself has ended the respectful greiving period that never was.

So let's have at him.

"Chappaquiddick" is now the shorthand name for a heinous selfish act committed by then Senator Ted Kennedy. It's the island at Martha's Vinyard where Teddy (hicup!) Kennedy drove off a bridge after a party. As he swam away to safety at speed records Michael Phelps would envy, his passenger Mary Jo Kopechne was left to drown.

Kenndy walked past several homes without aksing anyone to call for help. He went back to the party and had friends give him a ride. They drove him back to the bridge, and Teddy then swam home. The two men who drove him didn't report the incident either.

Now whenever a friend of mine leaves a party with a girl and shows up again soaking wet with no car and no girl, I never get suspicious. I guess incidents like that are just usual when you're partying with a Kennedy. I always drop off my friends at a bridge in the middle of the night so they can swim home.

For 9 hours, Kennedy didn't call the authorities. Hmmmm. What would he be doing (hicup!) for 9 hours? Why would he not want authorities to see him (hicup!) for 9 hours?

From his soon to be released memoir, MSNBC reports Kennedy's view of Chappaquiddick:

"In it, Kennedy said his actions on Chappaquiddick on July 18, 1969, were "inexcusable." He said he was afraid and "made terrible decisions" and had to live with the guilt for more than four decades."

He also states in the book he as been in the process of "atonement" for what he did to Mary Jo for 40 years.

Atonement? I'm thinking not so much.

As a fellow Catholic to Kennedy, I know a little something about atonement. It requires an admission about what you did.

I suspect what he did that night had more to do with this part of his memoir:

"I have enjoyed the company of women," he wrote. "I have enjoyed a stiff drink or two or three, and I've relished the smooth taste of a good wine. At times, I've enjoyed these pleasures too much."

The scuba diver who retrieved Mary Jo's body, John Farrar, has stated that when he found Mary Jo, she was holding the seat and had her head pressed into the foot well. Farrar said that in such a submerged vehicle, there is often an air pocket in the foot well that can last for 2 hours.

That means when Teddy decided to leave the scene for whatever reason (hicup!) and walk past the houses without knocking on doors for the police to be called for whatever reason (hicup!) Mary Jo could have been saved by the scuba diver, who also said from the time of the call to rescue would be only 25 minutes.

All Ted Kennedy ever admitted to was being guilty of leaving the scene of an accident. He paid a fine, while Michael Vick went to jail for killing a dog, not la ovely young campaign staffer. Grand jurors later complained that they couldn't indict Kennedy becuase, for reasons still unexplained, the prosecutor would not show them evidence.

If atonement requires admission for what he did, Kennedy never atoned. He'd have to admit to killing Mary Jo for atonement. Kenndy posthumously calls his action "inexcusable" but when it came time to face punishment in life, he certainly had himself excused.

So long, Chappaquiddick swimming champion. Satan awaits your arrival.