August 26, 200917 yr Very sad news. Kudos, RTS. As I know that you are someone that would agree with very few of Senator Kennedy's political ideas and would disagree with certain decisions he made in his life, you simply expressed your sorrow at the loss of someone's father, someone's husband, someone's friend and someone that had served our country as a senator for many years. Very classy, RTS. :thumb: I echo your sentiment.
August 27, 200917 yr I am a life long republican and I have been against most of what Sen Kennedy stood for his entire life. That being said, I cant help but be saddened by his passing and the end of a political dynasty. Regardless of what I think of his politics, he did devote his entire life to public service. Also, I think anyone deserves respect at their passing, for their family and friends if nothing else. I think a person's death is a time to look at the good things they did in life, not the negative.
August 27, 200917 yr I am a life long republican and I have been against most of what Sen Kennedy stood for his entire life. That being said, I cant help but be saddened by his passing and the end of a political dynasty. Regardless of what I think of his politics, he did devote his entire life to public service. Also, I think anyone deserves respect at their passing, for their family and friends if nothing else. I think a person's death is a time to look at the good things they did in life, not the negative. :thumb::thumb::thumb: As humans we all fail. But Kennedy never deterred from what he felt was right, and to have lasted more than 40 years as a Senator is a testament to his committment to public service. On a tangent, as a family, the Kennedy's may have given more for this country than virtually any other family of similar circumstance. When you look at the legacy of the Kennedy family, the things that stand out the most are what they either directly or indirectly changed for those in this country without a powerful voice.
August 27, 200917 yr Well Sherlock, I think that our nation is better off without him as a member of Congress. Hope he made restitution with our Lord and saviour Jesus Christ before he left this world. Why? Nothing amazes me more how someone can be so judgemental about someone at there passing and speak of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ and then a short two posts later question why its not ok to hate someone.
August 29, 200917 yr I lost my remote and I am to lazy to get up and change the channel so right now I am watching the Kennedy funeral and wondering......if there was a terrorist attack (God forbid) and we lost all of our leaders that are present at the Boston Basilica, who would be president? I thought one leader had to be at another location (usually the vice president). As I am watching I see Obama, Biden, Clinton, Reid, Pelosi, McConnell. This probably wouldn't have been difficult for a terrorist to predict and prepare for. Kennedy had been very sick with brain cancer, The Boston Basilica would have been the obvious place for the funeral. No disrespect, just curious.
August 29, 200917 yr I lost my remote and I am to lazy to get up and change the channel so right now I am watching the Kennedy funeral and wondering......if there was a terrorist attack (God forbid) and we lost all of our leaders that are present at the Boston Basilica, who would be president? I thought one leader had to be at another location (usually the vice president). As I am watching I see Obama, Biden, Clinton, Reid, Pelosi, McConnell. This probably wouldn't have been difficult for a terrorist to predict and prepare for. Kennedy had been very sick with brain cancer, The Boston Basilica would have been the obvious place for the funeral. No disrespect, just curious. I just asked my wife how much security do you think is present in that area right now. All of today's powerful political leaders and all of the past presidents and political leaders.
August 29, 200917 yr Nothing amazes me more how someone can be so judgemental about someone at there passing and speak of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ and then a short two posts later question why its not ok to hate someone. I'm amazed someone can last that meany years in public service after killing someone and covering it up. I mean Bob Huggins got fired from coaching a college basketball team for a DUI where he didn't injure anyone.
August 29, 200917 yr Now seems the appropriate time to let God judge him and his friends and family to mourn him.
August 29, 200917 yr I lost my remote and I am to lazy to get up and change the channel so right now I am watching the Kennedy funeral and wondering......if there was a terrorist attack (God forbid) and we lost all of our leaders that are present at the Boston Basilica, who would be president? I thought one leader had to be at another location (usually the vice president). As I am watching I see Obama, Biden, Clinton, Reid, Pelosi, McConnell. This probably wouldn't have been difficult for a terrorist to predict and prepare for. Kennedy had been very sick with brain cancer, The Boston Basilica would have been the obvious place for the funeral. No disrespect, just curious. That's a good question- anyone know the answer? If, God forbid, these people (bolded) were to all die, who would be POTUS?
August 29, 200917 yr The Presidential Succession Act of 1947, signed by President Harry Truman, changed the order again to what it is today. The cabinet members are ordered in the line of succession according to the date their offices were established. Prior to the ratification of the 25th Amendment in 1967, there was no provision for filling a vacancy in the vice presidency. When a president died in office, the vice president succeeded him, and the vice presidency then remained vacant. The first vice president to take office under the new procedure was Gerald Ford, who was nominated by Nixon on Oct. 12, 1973, and confirmed by Congress the following Dec. 6. The Vice President Joseph Biden Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi President pro tempore of the Senate1Robert Byrd Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton Secretary of the Treasury Timothy Geithner Secretary of Defense Robert Gates Attorney General Eric Holder Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Shaun Donovan Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood Secretary of Energy Stephen Chu Secretary of Education Arne Duncan Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric Shinseki Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0101032.html
August 31, 200917 yr I just had to share this E-mail I received today. I do feel bad for the family losing a loved one. But this is what is floating around in cyber space today. Will the REAL Ted Kennedy Please Stand Up As soon as his cancer was detected, I noticed the immediate attempt at the "canonization" of old Teddy Kennedy by the mainstream media. They are saying what a "great American" he is. I say, let's get a few things clear and not twist the facts to change history. 1. He was caught cheating at Harvard when he attended it. He was expelled twice, once for cheating on a test, and once for paying a classmate to cheat for him. (My friend went to prep school with this classmate -- Bill Frate.) 2. While expelled, Kennedy enlisted in the Army, but mistakenly signed up for four years instead of two. Oops! The man can't count to four! His father, Joseph P. Kennedy, former U.S. Ambassador to England (a step up from bootlegging liquor into the US from Canada during prohibition), pulled the necessary strings to have his enlistment shortened to two years, and to ensure that he served in Europe, not Korea , where a war was raging. No preferential treatment for him! (like he charged that President Bush received). 3. Kennedy was assigned to Paris, never advanced beyond the rank of Private, and returned to Harvard upon being discharged. Imagine a person of his "education" NEVER advancing past the rank of Private! 4. While attending law school at the University of Virginia, he was cited for reckless driving four times, including once when he was clocked driving 90 miles per hour in a residential neighborhood with his headlights off after dark. Yet his Virginia driver's license was never revoked. Coincidentally, he passed the bar exam in 1959. Amazing! 5. In 1964, he was seriously injured in a plane crash and hospitalized for several months. Test results done by the hospital at the time he was admitted had shown he was legally intoxicated. The results of those tests remained a "state secret" until in the 1980's when the report was unsealed. Didn't hear about that from the unbiased media, did we? 6. On July 19, 1969, Kennedy attended a party on Chappaquiddick Island in Massachusetts. At about 11:00 PM, he borrowed his chauffeur's keys to his Oldsmobile limousine and offered to give a ride home to Mary Jo Kopechne, a campaign worker. Leaving the island via an unlit bridge with no guard rail, Kennedy steered the car off the bridge, flipped, and into Poucha Pond. 7. He swam to shore and walked back to the party passing several houses and a fire station. Two friends then returned with him to the scene of the accident. According to their later testimony, they told him what he already knew - that he was required by law to immediately report the accident to the authorities. Instead, Kennedy made his way to his hotel, called his lawyer, and went to sleep. Kennedy called the police the next morning and by then the wreck had already been discovered. Before dying, Kopechne had scratched at the upholstered floor above her head in the upside-down car. The Kennedy family began "calling in favors", ensuring that any inquiry would be contained. Her corpse was whisked out-of-state to her family before an autopsy could be conducted. Further details are uncertain, but after the accident, Kennedy says he repeatedly dove under the water trying to rescue Kopechne and he didn't call police because he was in a state of shock. It is widely assumed Kennedy was drunk, and he held off calling police in hopes that his family could fix the problem overnight. Since the accident, Kennedy's "political enemies" have referred to him as the distinguished Senator from Chappaquiddick. He pleaded guilty to leaving the scene of an accident, and was given a SUSPENDED SENTENCE OF TWO MONTHS. Kopechne's family received a small payout from the Kennedy's insurance policy and never sued. There was later an effort to have her body exhumed and autopsied, but her family successfully fought against this in court, and Kennedy's family paid their attorney's bills.... a "token of friendship"? 8. Kennedy has held his Senate seat for more than forty years, but considering his longevity, his accomplishments seem scant. He authored or argued for legislation that ensured a variety of civil rights, increased the minimum wage in 1981, made access to health care easier for the indigent, funded Meals on Wheels for fixed-income seniors, and is widely held as the "standard-bearer for liberalism". In his very first Senate role, he was the floor manager for the bill that turned U.S. immigration policy upside down and opened the floodgate for immigrants from third world countries. 9. Since that time, he has been the prime instigator and author of every expansion of an increase in immigration up to and including the latest attempt to grant amnesty to illegal aliens. Not to mention the pious grilling he gave the last two Supreme Court nominees, as if he was the standard-bearer for the nation in matters of "what is right" How Pompous!! 10 . He is known around Washington as a public drunk, loud, boisterous, and very disrespectful to ladies. JERK is a better description than "great American" is. "A blonde in every pond" is his motto. Let's not allow the spin-doctors to make this jerk a hero -- how quickly the American public forgets what his real legacy is. Send this on, as a LOT of the younger people don't have a clue about all of this, and us older ones tend to forget things that happened so many years ago. Although I HAVEN'T Thank you for doing this, you beat me to it!
August 31, 200917 yr The Presidential Succession Act of 1947, signed by President Harry Truman, changed the order again to what it is today. The cabinet members are ordered in the line of succession according to the date their offices were established. Prior to the ratification of the 25th Amendment in 1967, there was no provision for filling a vacancy in the vice presidency. When a president died in office, the vice president succeeded him, and the vice presidency then remained vacant. The first vice president to take office under the new procedure was Gerald Ford, who was nominated by Nixon on Oct. 12, 1973, and confirmed by Congress the following Dec. 6. The Vice President Joseph Biden Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi President pro tempore of the Senate1Robert Byrd Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton Secretary of the Treasury Timothy Geithner Secretary of Defense Robert Gates Attorney General Eric Holder Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Shaun Donovan Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood Secretary of Energy Stephen Chu Secretary of Education Arne Duncan Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric Shinseki Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0101032.html Thanks mcpapa. I think I'd rather have any of those people then Byrd or Pelosi, FWIW.
August 31, 200917 yr The Presidential Succession Act of 1947, signed by President Harry Truman, changed the order again to what it is today. The cabinet members are ordered in the line of succession according to the date their offices were established. Prior to the ratification of the 25th Amendment in 1967, there was no provision for filling a vacancy in the vice presidency. When a president died in office, the vice president succeeded him, and the vice presidency then remained vacant. The first vice president to take office under the new procedure was Gerald Ford, who was nominated by Nixon on Oct. 12, 1973, and confirmed by Congress the following Dec. 6. The Vice President Joseph Biden Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi President pro tempore of the Senate1Robert Byrd Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton Secretary of the Treasury Timothy Geithner Secretary of Defense Robert Gates Attorney General Eric Holder Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Shaun Donovan Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood Secretary of Energy Stephen Chu Secretary of Education Arne Duncan Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric Shinseki Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0101032.html So based upon who I saw at the funeral, Byrd would have been the first choice, followed by Geithner.
August 31, 200917 yr So based upon who I saw at the funeral, Byrd would have been the first choice, followed by Geithner. Correct, and after them, a Republican. Don't get any ideas, my right-leaning friends.
September 2, 200917 yr I found this column by syndicated columnist Kathleen Parker, who leans left, to be an interesting take on the divide in how folks view Kennedy. Particularly this passage toward the end of the article: One can't help wondering, nonetheless, how those same Old Testament celebrants would have treated Kennedy had he, as recompense for his sins, embarked on a crusade against abortion and same-sex marriage instead of universal health care. My modest guess is that they would have found a way to forgive him and insisted that a man's worst moment is not the sum of his life.
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.