I really don't have an axe to grind...

...with the Kennedys, and I really hate to be the skunk at the garden party. (Okay, okay; I don't mind it that much.) But when I read the reviews of Ted's new memoir, True Compass, I can feel my blood pressure rising a little. (I actually have very low blood pressure; nurses often laugh when they take it. I then smile as if I had something to do with it.) When I read that the senator "believed then and now that [Jimmy Carter] reserved a special place in his animus toward me," I just want to ask how helpful Ted was with the new president from Georgia. My guess is, not very. Also, according to the review in the Times, he said that "had his brother Jack lived, he would have sought a way out of Vietnam." I first heard this piece of revisionist history from Oliver Stone in the movie, "JFK." I was skeptical then and I'm just as skeptical now. JFK was a notorious Cold War hawk and I've seen no evidence that he would have reconsidered his Vietnam policy, despite the infinite wisdom that so many of his followers have attributed to him. Ted also writes about how the Chappaquiddick episode may have "shortened his father's life." To which I have to remark, isn't that just like a Kennedy, to focus on how someone else's tragedy impacted their family? (I couldn't help thinking about Mary Jo Kopechne's family last week. I wonder how much of the memorial they watched. And what about his ex-wife Joan? What was she thinking all last week, what a great husband he was? As the old saying goes, no man is a hero to his valet.) Finally, Kennedy writes about how fearful he was of his life after the assassinations of his brothers. It says he "flinched at 21-gun salutes and once dived for the pavement when a car backfired in the street." That's perfectly understandable, but what I want to know is, do cars still backfire? I thought that was just something that happened in old Laurel and Hardy movies.

Again, I really don't mean to single out Ted or the rest of the Kennedys for criticism. I actually think there's a lot to admire about the family and Ted in particular. After all, he could have just lived off his inheritance and spent his days lying on a beach and his nights drinking and chasing women. He could have entered public life to protect the privileged class. But he chose a life devoted to speaking out for the less fortunate among us. And for that he should be most remembered.