Wonder when Ted Kennedy's son is gonna eat crow for abusing a 58 year old black female security guard? This happened years ago, there is tape of the incident, and its amazing how little press attention this got:
Sorry about the Kennedys, L.A.
Dear Fellow Citizens of L.A.: The recent incident at LAX involving Rhode Island Congressman Patrick Kennedy who was "caught on tape" at a security checkpoint where he allegedly cursed and shoved security woman Della Patton is now being examined by law enforcement in your city. Many of us who live in Rhode Island, Kennedy's adopted residence of political convenience, are concerned that the massive Kennedy spin machine with which we are all too familiar may cast its spell over the process in sunny California.
Patrick (known here more commonly as "Patches" or "The Congressboy") may actually spend more time among your citizens than he does with us, his constituents. His jet-setting duties to raise money for the Democratic Party bring him to the glitter of Hollywood on a regular basis, leaving the rest of us with a congressional representative who too often draws a blank when confronted with his own Rhode Island neighbors. This fact, however, does not mean that you actually know him, only that you see him more often. As we have come to understand in Southern New England, after generations of Kennedy rule, what you see with a Kennedy is not necessarily what you get.
So we don't want the good people of Los Angeles to be fooled. Kennedys have a long history of confrontations with law enforcement. They are seldom found guilty, and, when they are their penalties are minor.
In almost every instance when a Kennedy is caught in a lawbreaking act, the family history of public service as well as the tragic assassinations of former President John F. Kennedy and his brother Robert are trotted out for review. We are reminded that this family, in its collective mind, has already given America so much that, conversely, America should be willing to cut it a great deal of slack.
The problem is, the people asking us to overlook their momentary transgressions are too often doing so from positions of tremendous power, positions from which they also pretend to judge the rest of us with a less merciful, less flexible view.
Only a week after Ms. Patton complained to authorities about her treatment by the congressman at LAX, and shortly after her attorney contacted the attorney now representing Patrick, news stories surfaced, quite mysteriously, alleging that Patton herself may have a criminal history. Ironically, she is accused of past involvement with the same illegal drugs Kennedy himself has admitted to using during his years of addiction. So the public must ponder why a victim should have any less credibility as a former-user-turned-security-guard than Patrick can have as a former-user-now-congressman.
We have already been taken through the first stages of the usual Kennedy spin on this matter. At first there was denial. The incident at LAX just didn't happen. Then, it didn't happen as it was being reported. Once the existence of a videotape was announced, the spin changed to, "Well, maybe it happened but I was exhausted and it wasn't such a big deal." With the leaks of Patton's history, we are at stage four: "I am a Kennedy: Mess with me at your peril!"
Those who remember Sen. Ted Kennedy's adventures on Chappaquiddick, the questions around the death of Marilyn Monroe, the ugly annulment battles of Congressman Joseph Kennedy, the Palm Beach rape trial of William Kennedy Smith, and the assorted motor vehicle matters (usually on Cape Cod) by Kennedy kin, one of which resulted in permanent injuries to another person, know this pattern all too well. Frankly, around these parts we are weary of the scenario.
Though using the "F" word in public, asking, "Don't you know who I am?" and pushing of a 58-year-old black grandmother in the uniform of an airport authority, as Patrick Kennedy is alleged to have done, pale beside some of his father's adventures, which include leaving a woman in his car beneath the waters of Martha's Vineyard, such actions are, nonetheless, answerable to when attributed to a congressman. When that congressman is on the way to make a speech about racial equality, as Patrick was when he was rushing through LAX in a snit, the credibility question looms even larger.
Perhaps you good folks in LA know all of this, in which case we in Kennedy country apologize for taking your time. But, just in case, we wanted to send up a warning flare as the LAX incident comes under California scrutiny.
No matter how many Battle Hymn(s) of the Republic they try to use to drown out the facts in the matter, no matter how many references to slain political leaders they heap on you, no matter how many chits they try to call in or how many dirty-little-secrets they amass on their accusers, res ipse loquitur: The facts do, indeed, speak for themselves, in LAX, Chappaquiddick, and elsewhere.
That is why we still call this America!
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