I wasn't going to say anything at all on the subject of Senator Edward Kennedy's death. I'd rather not be unkind to a man at a time when his family is suffering the grief that is natural to any such passage.
However, Dr. Althouse does raise an excellent point, based on the information that Chappaquiddick jokes were a particular favorite of his.
If Teddy always "saw the other side of everything and the ridiculous side of things," then that's an open invitation. Despite his death, we can make all the Teddy Kennedy jokes we want. If anyone should see fit to criticize us, they need to know: Teddy wouldn't have wanted it that way.That's not an unreasonable assertion, actually. Taking the story as its author plainly intended it -- and those men who worked with Kennedy seemed almost invariably to have liked him -- jokes at the deceased's expense might be an honest expression. Such jokes are not unusual at Irish wakes, and Kennedy was Irish enough. For ideological foes, often astonished at how much the man was let to get away with because of his name and willingness to vote 'the right way,' such jokes are even a tribute of a sort. They point to just how astonishing his record actually was.
Here is a good collection. I'll quote a few that I liked. If you have others, include them in the comments.
"Declassified papers report that John Kennedy was taking eight different medications a day. He was so wasted, his Secret Service code name was Ted Kennedy." —Craig Kilborn
"It's Bring Your Daughter to Work Day. This tradition began about 25 years ago down in Washington, D.C. by a quick-thinking Ted Kennedy who was spotted leaving his office with an 18-year-old." —David Letterman
"What a nightmare I had last night. I dreamed I was at a Washington party and I had to choose between Dick Cheney taking me on a hunting trip or Ted Kennedy driving me home." --Jay Leno
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