Can we drop Laura Bush's and Ted Kennedy's accidents already?

[GodlyDemocrat]

Yes, I'll concede that if either of these accidents happened today, the legal consequences would be much worse, (especially if either of them did not have money to hire a good lawyer). However, these accidents happened in the 1960s, when the laws were different (and quite frankly maybe the laws then were better suited rather than the zero tolerance bullshit we have today). These accidents were tragedies, mistakes were made in the heat of the moment, but neither of these individuals actions were intentional. (BTW, I will also extrapolate this to former Rep. Jankalow, who got jail time for his fatal accident). On a side note, I feel that jail time for vehicular homicide where alcohol was not involved is stupid, but this is just my opinion.

[A-Schwarzenegger]

1. "jail time for vehicular homicide where alcohol was not involved is stupid"

That jingling sound is folks reaching for their keys. :*

[paulsby]

2. not to beat a dead horse,

but kennedy walked by a frigging house within 200 yrds of the accident scene. he didn't stop to call police.

i deal with people all the time who leave the scene of a (drunken) accident, and then report it THE NEXT DAY. why? generally speaking, when people crash their car, and leave the scene, waiting a long time before they report it, it's because they were drunk.

kennedy, fwiw, was a known heavy drinker, and i have little doubt he was drunk on the night of the accident.

we will never know whether or not kopechne could have been saved IF he had run to the nearby house and called for help.
. i
the tragedy is that he cared more about his career than kopechne.

fwiw, as an aside, i once made a traffic stop on john kennedy jr.

at 3:00 am.

and he was sober. nice man, btw.

putting myself in kennedy's shoes, i would LIKE to say i would have had the strength to do the right thing. but i can't know for sure. nobody can.

you are correct. nobody thinks he intentionally ran off the bridge and tried to drown kopechne.

and if he had run to the nearby house and summoned authorities and been found to have killed her pursuant to a DUI accident, that probably would have ended his career.

one thing is abundantly clear. kennedy's life ex-post chappy was pretty frigging remarkable, and he was a great senator.

[RufusTFirefly]

4. Why was Teddy drunk that night?

Perhaps the strain of two brothers bumped off under suspicious circumstances was too much for him? I don't forgive the behavior, but I think I can understand it. Nobody's going to believe what you know, so why even try telling? And yet, how can you keep that sort of knowledge to yourself? I think that's enough to drive anyone to drink. Again, that doesn't make it OK, but it does make it a bit more understandable.

[OhioBlue]

5. the fact is none of us really know the entire story.

My thoughts are that he was probably mentally unstable right after the crash. He had just survived his second brush with death after seeing his 2 brothers killed. I think he did try to save her and then probably flipped out a little. It was a tragic accident.. but as you say, absolutely not intentional.

I agree - he should have reported it immediately... but I can understand if he had a melt down and didn't know what to do or where to go. i don't excuse it... but understand it. None of us have walked in his shoes.

[Canuckistanian]

3. Fine with me

But they STILL won't drop TK's accident.

[defendandprotect]

6. Look . . . these things have to be worked thru . . .

when people think they've found some truth . . . then they drop them!

I for one think there's a good possibility that Teddy was framed --

comments on the White House tapes seem to indicate that Nixon had a hand

in Chappaquiddick!


Neither Laura nor W have clean slates -- and as long as there's an interest

in it all, it should be explored. Certainly the Dan Rather firing ignores

the reality that Bush was AWOL.