Courtney Martin on the mistakes of Ted Kennedy‘s youth and his attempts to compensate for them:
As Sen. Edward Kennedy was put to rest this weekend, cable news networks filled airtime by exhausting every angle of his life. They waxed poetic about his leadership style, debating who would be the Senate’s next “lion.” They delved into the history of America’s most beloved and, many would argue, most doomed first family. They looked forward, wondering how the senator’s death might serve as motivation in the ongoing debate over health-care reform.
There was one topic that every producer and biographer struggled to integrate with the whole: the so-called “Chappaquiddick incident.” In July of 1969, a much younger Kennedy drove his car off a bridge, and his passenger, a former campaign worker for the late Sen. Robert F. Kennedy named Mary Jo Kopechne, was killed. Ted Kennedy pleaded guilty to leaving the scene of an accident and received a suspended sentence.
