14 things about Teddy
De Mortuis Nil Nisi Bunkum
Teddy Kennedy died last week, in case you missed it. Being his co-religionist, I have prayed for his soul. But amid the grief – which extended to a leading story on the 7.30 Report – I find myself asking: just what did Teddy Kennedy actually achieve in his (for a male Kennedy) unusually long life, and his five glorious decades in the US Senate?
Teddy Kennedy – or (as we must apparently now call him) Senator Edward Kennedy, elder statesman and pillar of reform – is currently being described as ‘the brother who mattered most’, and a champion of many great causes. He is being credited with everything from achieving peace in Northern Ireland to saving schools and healing the sick.
In retrospect, I don’t think many of Teddy’s really great achievements have been praised enough. It’s easy to remember minor achievements like driving his first wife to drink and Mary Jo Kopechne into a pond, and yet so many other things go unacknowledged. So here is a list of…
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