Sen. Ted Kennedy dead at 77

[BringBackJoeT]

Originally Posted by Buster

It's sad that a family lost someone. I sympathize with the family, especially so soon after losing another and the painless losses they've endured over the years.

However, why should we throw away facts and anything negative about someone and blindly praise someone who honestly doesn't deserve the praise?

Honesty is on the road to extinction. It's un-PC to be honest I guess. We just went through this after Micheal Jackson died and we ignored the children's lives he wrecked, now we'll ignore the family this man took a daughter from after a night at the bar.

I'll bow out of this now, let the lovefest resume.

I think that's a little bit dramatic. I will at least say, though, that I'm not sure it's entirely unfair to evaluate what particular events in his life most define his legacy, seeing as how he spent the better part of forty years in a very powerful position, one in which he was able to drive policy in this country. From my own political vantage point, he was a policy hero and I consider his death a great loss to the Senate and country as a whole. However, if we were discussing Richard Nixon's death in its immediate aftermath, I don't think it would be unfair to bring up Watergate, so I think it would be similarly not-unfair to, in a thread on Senator Kennedy upon his death, question the degree to which some of his less-than-stellar personal moments overshadowed his accomplishments.