Saint Ted?

The Democratic National Convention kicked off with a Ted Kennedy love fest that would make one gag. On one hand, the specter of any human being suffering from cancer is worth sympathy. However, the hero/saint treatment is appalling.

The nation knows about Chappaquiddick, when Kennedy's young female friend died on his watch. He saturated his brain in alcohol, drove off a bridge with a young woman in the car. When he miraculously escaped, he neither tried to help his friend, nor did he call the authorities. Instead he changed his clothes and went to a party while some parents' daughter lay dead under water.

Few people outside of West Virginia know of the felonies committed in our state on his watch. Ted Kennedy supervised his brother's 1960 presidential primary campaign in Southern West Virginia. In separate accounts, political boss Raymond Chafin and Caperton administration official Dr. Allen Loughry wrote about the massive sums of cash sent from "bagmen" in Chicago to bosses in Southern West Virginia. Upon receiving the money the bosses changed their support from Hubert Humphreys to John F. Kennedy. They then used the cash to convince voters to support the new favorite. Ted Kennedy deserved federal prison, not the United States Senate.

Yet this is their patriarch, their saint. Saint Ted was on hand to give his approval to the next generation of crooked politician with questionable Chicago ties. At least the Kennedy ties were with a mob that supported their country in times of war (FDR let J. Edgar Hoover use the Mafia for port security.) Obama's friends such as William Ayers wanted to kill American lawmakers and police officers. Ties to the mob and the Chicago machine are bad. Ties to terrorists should rule out anyone from elected office. Sadly the Democratic Party overlooks such trivial relationships, thinking a Cheshire cat grin and vague calls of unity will mask the reality of Obama's past.