Originally Posted by SteveZ

Again, having lived in Massachusetts and watching the Kennedy machine run rampant makes for a different view.

Your commentary was one of idolizing a royal family, and that the offices they held were their birthright. There is no doubt that JFK and Ted were two very different people, and that they used their positions in radically different fashion. As far as Ted goes, I just saw a privileged kid who got thrown out of college for cheating, getting golden-gloved to a posh assignment by virtue of family money, getting a suspended sentence for a crime where a death occurred (where anyone else would have been charged with manslaughter), and by privilege keeping his law license when anyone else with such a conviction would have been disbarred. That's a hero?

Sorry, but I owe him nothing.

Kennedy's "many years" in the Senate was the perfect example of a well-oiled political machine which minimalized opponents and was so flush with money that it could buy whatever was necessary to win.

You may have loved him for his politics - I disliked him for the person he was.