Tuesday, January 29, 2008

Reason #9587 why I am ashamed to be from Massachusetts

I was looking into Ted Kennedy and Chappaquiddick on Wikipedia and for some reason I had always thought the "incident" had occurred when he was in his younger college days - a youthful indiscretion. Well, for those who don't know, here's the story in a nutshell:

In the summer of 1969, Ted Kennedy, the 37 year old Senate Majority Whip from MA, drove his car off a bridge after a party some time after 12:40am. Unfortunately, Mary Jo Kopechne was still inside after Ted managed to escape the car. Kennedy never called the police or for help and it wasn't until the next morning that some fishermen saw the car in the water and finally the police were called. I will now quote the rest from the Wikipedia page on the Chappaquiddick incident, which I recommend reading for more details on the senator's malfeasance:

The diver, John Farrar, would later testify at the inquest that Kopechne's body was pressed up in the car in the spot where an air bubble would have formed. He interpreted this to mean that Kopechne had survived for a while after the initial accident in the air bubble, and concluded that "Had I received a call within five to ten minutes of the accident occurring, and was able, as I was the following morning, to be at the victim's side within twenty-five minutes of receiving the call, in such event there is a strong possibility that she would have been alive on removal from the submerged car."

And Massachusetts has reelected him to the Senate ever since!

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