Senator Ted Kennedy is dead.

He died late last night at his home in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts. The "Lion of the Senate" will be "lionized" and eulogized throughout the day by various and sundry pundits from many different news outlets. Other politicians will speak of him in reverence and with sadness they will mourn his passing. The Democrat Party will bow their corporate head and pray for the soul of their dearly departed and then they will use his name to champion their battle for socialized...er, national health care reform.
To all of today's coming pageantry I say... what does Mary Jo Kopechne think? It was just a month over 40 years ago that a drunk 37 year old named Edward "Ted" Kennedy drove off a bridge into a river on Chappaquiddick Island killing the young democrat activist. She was the only child of Joseph and Gwen Kopechne, and after her death they were personally told of the incident by Ted Kennedy...though he failed to mention that he had been the driver of the car. What often gets lost in the retelling of the grisly accident, is that Mary Jo did not drown in the upturned car in the river... no, she asphyxiated. Mary Jo's head was fortuitously in an air pocket after the accident and she died when the oxygen in that pocket was depleted. After the car went into the water and Mr. Kennedy made his escape he returned home and alerted a few of his aides but did not call authorities. In fact Mr. Kennedy did not inform the authorities until after they had found his overturned vehicle (with Ms. Kopechne still inside) the next day. Even then Senator Kennedy tried to evade blame by concocting a story where Mary Jo Kopechne had been the driver, but his cousin Joe Gargan convinced him to own up to his "mistake".
A week after the incident, Kennedy pleaded guilty to leaving the scene of an accident after causing injury. He received a two month suspended sentence and claimed that he had not been intoxicated that night (though witnesses say he had been drinking all day). Only a Kennedy could have gotten away with a sentence this lenient for a crime this severe. Mary Jo Kopechne was 28.
So on this day 40 years later upon the death of the "Lion of the Senate" I choose to remember and mourn for her life... as Senator Kennedy will have millions of devout mourners remembering him.
* More from the brilliant Robert Stacy McCain.
* More from the indomitable Michelle Malkin.
* More from Nick Gillespie at Reason.
* More from Ed Morrissey at Hot Air.
* How would our founding fathers feel about the Kennedy family often being called American "royalty"? Personal opinion? The Kennedy family legacy is dangerous. No family should be revered simply because of their name or deep pockets. In a society such as ours where we value honesty, integrity, and hard work the real "Camelot" should be found in those average people working hard to realize the American dream... The Kennedy family has always been deeply flawed from patriarch Joe Kennedy's corruption (and admiration for Nazi Germany), to President John Kennedy's womanizing and cavorting with gangsters (specifically the Chicago/Las Vegas mob who helped him beat Richard Nixon in 1960), to Ted Kennedy's non-manslaughter. The "Camelot" myth is a creation of a media hungry for celebrities... case in point the recent fascination with our new "First" family - the Obama's. Whether discussion is about Mrs. Obama's clothing choices or what pet they will adopt... the media craves celebrity politicians and that is why they loved the Kennedy's.
* Yahoo mourns the end of "Camelot".
* Charlie Rangel is still a Dirty Dirty liar.
* What Britain's health care system is really like.
* I ask again where are the war protesters?!?! The Obama White House says rendition will continue! This is the same rendition that so many Democrats despised just a few months ago, but now that the man behind the renditioning is President Obama everything is just peachy.
* Pot is safer than alcohol.