Not Drowning! Anything but Drowning!

I must admit, I find this amusing. In questioning Alberto Gonzales on Thursday (hearings into Gonzales' nomination to be Attorney General), Ted Kennedy mentioned a threat of drowning as a particularly odious type of torture. Drudge drew attention to this, without comment; it was picked up I think by the Corner: 20:12:12 SENATOR IRONY: Edward Kennedy Grills Gonzalez Over 'Drowning' Torture... *

These techniques included the threat of live burial and waterboarding, whereby the detainee is strapped to a board, forcibly pushed under water, wrapped in a wet towel and made to believe he might drown. The article states that you raised no objection,

For a long time it was rare for Kennedy's name to be mentioned without an immediate reference to "Chappaquiddick." This may be unfair, but it is also unfair that whenever Clarence Thomas retires or dies, the obits will all refer to "sexual harrassment" in the opening paragraph--even though Anita Hill did not, at the time of his nomination hearings, accuse him specifically of sexual harrassment.

Just a quick recall: at best, Ted, driving drunk, drove his car off a bridge. A young woman named Mary Jo Kopechne died inside. The best tesimony seems to be that she survived for a while under water, but Ted made little or no effort to save her, or even to call the police. Instead he walked to a phone, and gathered much of the Kennedy brain trust in order to plan how to get him out of trouble, and what to say to the media.

Among the weird theories that have floated around is that there were two crashes. The first didn't involve water, but left Mary Jo looking pretty bad. So Ted deliberately drove off a bridge, thinking this crash would somehow look better or explain her death better than the first crash. In any case, he may honestly have believed that she was dead by the time he got to the surface of the water; and he may have been too drunk to be of much help. And, er, that would be his defence.

Volkswagen ran ads for the old beetle emphasizing that the car had offbeat advantages. (Since it wasn't particularly big, or powerful, or safe). One series of ads emphasized, for some strange reason, that the Beetle would float--at least for a while. National Lampoon or a similar magazine ran a spoof ad that said: "If Ted Kennedy drove a Volkswagen he'd be President today."

Sat Jan 8, 2005 12:41 pm MST by robertll | Email Article |

Return to Main Page

Not Drowning! Anything but Drowning!