There's a difference between admiring the ideas of a past individual and using an individual's death to further a cause.

Dude, this guy killed a young woman and got away with it, not to mention his other dalliances. One not respecting him as a result is understandable.

Fine by me. You can quote me anytime a Republican invokes a dead party leader who drove off a bridge in a drunken haze, left a young woman to slowly suffocate, then used his political connections to avoid prosecution.

or as Mookie puts it "the privileges of power..."

Hey now, I wasn't saying that in admiration. More of a "shake your head with a frown" kind of way. I wish it wasn't so, but people in power do get a lot more leeway than us shmoes.

Not an issue. If Republicans put Ronald Reagan's name on a tax cut bill, tried to invoke sympathy for that cause during his funeral by mentioning that it was his lifelong dream to see a 15% tax cut reduction ad nauseum before he died, (and how sad he didn't get to see it) the day he died, and do these things as a mean to pass it by exploiting his death, I might find some equivalence.

There simply is none here. Republicans have not done anything like this.

The more power they get moreso.

Which is why the current trends in american politics concearns me.

Fair enough, it's just the nonchalant way you put it that was a bit striking to me.

:doh:

What about the ones who are guilty of the deaths of, well, hundreds of thousands or even millions? Are they 'safe' because they are republicans?

You do know that Kennedy confessed to the charges the police brought up on him... right?

What about the tens thousands of civilians our last president got killed in his reckless actions against Iraq- specifically Fallujah in which hundreds of innocents were bombed and killed with white phosphorous? I'm not saying that Kennedy's actions were right. Far from it. But we both know the only reason you're making this big of a deal about what Kennedy did over Bush is because he was a Democrat.

That comparison is just downright stupid. Every single national leader in the world is going to make policy decisions that affect the lives (and deaths) of others. We are not all ever going to agree on those policies, but people with this particularly pointless thought process would handicap every leader's decision making process if they have their way.

What Kennedy did was not a policy decision - it was personal misbehavior. And the fact that you have to stretch all the way to Bush and Iraq shows an odd desperations to justify a man simply because you share a political ideology.Wrong. I'm not a Republican.

Furthermore, I have a problem with ANYONE who'd do such a thing, and I for damned sure would say the same thing.

My morality isn't guided by my political views, unlike you I suppose.

Politics is unimportant when discussing either person; the simple fact of the matter is that lives were lost (in both cases) because of reckless stupidity and flawed decision-making. The focus issue, however, is which person's bad decision cost more?

Hardly, when it's substantiated by factual reason. But what was the reason for the Iraq War? Afghanistan I can understand, because we knew for a good two decades that terrorist militant groups operated there.

Well... the effect seems to be the same... for Kennedy and Bush. Again, the politics are irrelevant in the end. Quite simply, both men's bad decisions got people killed. That's what matters to me.

I never said what Kennedy did was right nor did I attempt to justify it as you claim; I already said I agreed that it was a horrid decision on his part and I did not condone it. I just find it odd that people like August can call a person like Kennedy a "sociopath" so freely for his one s*** decision which ended up in getting one person killed, yet he/they completely blow over the one s*** decision a person like Bush made that ended up in getting thousands of people killed.

Furthermore, I'm a Social Democrat, but that doesn't make me a member of the Democratic Party. I do agree with you that they and Obama are using Kennedy's death to push their agenda for health care reform. HOWEVER, do not be so quick to forget that Bush and the Republican Party used 9/11 to push their agenda for going to war with Iraq. My point being, both sides are filled with s*** and both sides will use whatever they can to try and gain victory. They both disgust me.

Then what are you?

Well at least we agree on something then.

Not quite, but this also makes us similar in another manner.

He only confessed to leaving the scene of an accident. Read up on it yourself:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chappaquiddick_incident

...after causing injury. Though by reporting the accident, 10 hours later unfortunately, he was also admitting to vehicular negligence, which is defined as failing "to operate a vehicle in a comprehensive and safe manner, causing property damage, injury and/or death".

Geez, is the discussion still going on about Ted and his drinking ways? Let face it, he was DUI, crashed the car in the water and left the scene. He left her there die also. That is as close to summing up the story. I remember this incident and hearing about it when I was a kid. I lived on Long Island and was quite the topic of discussion. Simply put, he got away with murder.