May 28, 2009
BOOK REVIEW: Camelot Chronicler Edward Klein Takes On the Curious Case of Ted Kennedy
By David M. Kinchen
Huntingtonnews.net Book Critic
Quoting an Irish poet, Edward Klein in "Ted Kennedy: The Dream That Never Died" (Crown, 272 pages, color and black and white photos, $26), describes Edward Moore Kennedy as the only son of Joe and Rose Kennedy who lived long enough to "comb grey hair."
In his fast-paced, very readable biography of the long-serving senior Senator from Massachusetts, Klein also quotes Kennedy's more experienced and qualified Democratic primary opponent, Massachusetts attorney general Edward McCormack, in his 1962 run for the Senate seat who said that if Ted's name had been Edward Moore, he wouldn't have his name on the ballot.
And if he had been named Edward Moore, he most likely wouldn't have escaped with a slap on the wrist for his actions in the July 20, 1969 death of Mary Jo Kopechne in Poucha Pond on Chappaquiddick Island. Yes, Klein, a serial biographer of the Kennedy clan, deals forthrightly with the matter, citing a local policeman who said that he could have rescued Kopechne in 45 minutes or less, had he been notified. Although there was no autopsy -- amazing as it may seem -- medical experts estimated that Kopechne survived for 4-5 hours in Kennedy's 1967 Oldsmobile Delmont 88 in the pond.
Compulsive womanizing, something not unheard of in the U.S. Senate? Yes, Klein covers that. Binge drinking and reckless driving, even when Kennedy was stone cold sober? Yes, again, it's covered by Klein. Frat boy antics -- and worse -- in the 1991 Palm Beach William Kennedy Smith incident with the then almost 60-year-old senator encouraging his young relatives to drink and worse? Yes, guilty as charged.
"Angels & Demons," a current movie based on a Dan Brown novel, could sum up the life of the man who is second only to West Virginia's Robert C. Byrd in his Senate tenure. Beloved as the "Lion of the Senate" by Democrats and many Republicans alike, Kennedy seems almost as bi-polar as his ex-wife Joan in his behavior.
Klein drew on a vast store of original research and unprecedented access to Ted Kennedy’s political associates, friends, and family, to reveal many secrets. Among them:
• Why Caroline Kennedy, at Ted’s urging, aspired to fill the New York Senate vacancy but then suddenly and unexpectedly withdrew her candidacy.
• How Ted ended his longest-lasting romantic relationship to marry Victoria Reggie, and the unexpected effect that union had on his personal and political redemption.
• What transpired between the parents of Mary Jo Kopechne and Ted Kennedy during two private meetings at Ted’s home.
• Which feuds are likely to erupt within the Kennedy family in the wake of Ted’s demise, and what will become of Ted’s fortune and political legacy.
Klein may be a regular biographer of the Kennedy clan, but he spares no one in this book. Ted Kennedy's children by his first wife, the former Joan Bennett, whom he married in 1958, unsurprisingly are not admirers of Vicki Reggie Kennedy, and fear that she and her children from her first marriage will benefit financially when Kennedy dies. They also make fun of her Louisiana drawl (she's from Crowley, LA, in the state's Cajun country and has a Lebanese Catholic background).
Klein reveals that Joan Bennett Kennedy apparently inherited her alcoholism -- which was as bad as Ted Kennedy's -- from her father and mother. She's also seriously afflicted with a bi-polar mental illness, along with depression.
Having reviewed Sheila Rauch Kennedy's 1998 tell-all "Shattered Faith: A Woman's Struggle to Stop the Catholic Church from Annulling Her Marriage," I was intrigued to find that her former husband, Joe Kennedy II, the first-born son of Robert and Ethel Kennedy, has apparently inherited the angry dark side of his father, who was assassinated in June 1968 in Los Angeles.
Klein (on Page 204) mentions Sheila's book and the effect it had on Joe Kennedy II's political career. That, along with the disclosure that Joe's brother Michael was having an affair -- surprise! surprise! -- with Joe's teenage babysitter has pretty much derailed the career of a man who considers a political career a birthright.
That, in my opinion, is the problem with the Kennedys: They view the world as their oyster, crabcake and lobster all in one, a feast for them by right of birth. The last time I looked, that's not the American way, but it's not limited to the Kennedys, as the Bushes, Rockefellers and Clintons have demonstrated. In the case of the Kennedys, you can probably blame it on Joe and Rose Kennedy, if I'm interpreting Klein correctly.
Something else I learned from Klein's book: Teddy sought and obtained an annulment from his marriage to Joan a couple of years after their civil divorce. Rich Catholics can buy just about anything, seems to be the moral of this incident. Sheila Rauch Kennedy made the -- valid to me, at least -- point in her book that an annulment effectively makes any children of a union illegitimate. I researched this and discovered that children of an annulled marriage are considered to be legitimate. Ted Kennedy, in order to have a valid church marriage to Vicki Reggie under canon law, had to obtain an annulment from Joan.
Whether you admire Ted Kennedy for his recent courageous battle against brain cancer and his liberal stance on many issues or wonder about the sanity of Massachusetts voters for continuing to return him to the Senate, Klein's biography is worth reading.
About the Author
EDWARD KLEIN is the former foreign editor of Newsweek and former editor in chief of The New York Times Magazine. He frequently contributes to Vanity Fair and Parade. Klein is also the author of several New York Times bestselling biographies, including All Too Human; Just Jackie; Farewell, Jackie; and The Kennedy Curse.
Publisher's web site: www.crownpublishing.com
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BOOK REVIEW: Camelot Chronicler Edward Klein Takes On the Curious Case of Ted Kennedy
By David M. Kinchen
Huntingtonnews.net Book Critic
Quoting an Irish poet, Edward Klein in "Ted Kennedy: The Dream That Never Died" (Crown, 272 pages, color and black and white photos, $26), describes Edward Moore Kennedy as the only son of Joe and Rose Kennedy who lived long enough to "comb grey hair."
In his fast-paced, very readable biography of the long-serving senior Senator from Massachusetts, Klein also quotes Kennedy's more experienced and qualified Democratic primary opponent, Massachusetts attorney general Edward McCormack, in his 1962 run for the Senate seat who said that if Ted's name had been Edward Moore, he wouldn't have his name on the ballot.
And if he had been named Edward Moore, he most likely wouldn't have escaped with a slap on the wrist for his actions in the July 20, 1969 death of Mary Jo Kopechne in Poucha Pond on Chappaquiddick Island. Yes, Klein, a serial biographer of the Kennedy clan, deals forthrightly with the matter, citing a local policeman who said that he could have rescued Kopechne in 45 minutes or less, had he been notified. Although there was no autopsy -- amazing as it may seem -- medical experts estimated that Kopechne survived for 4-5 hours in Kennedy's 1967 Oldsmobile Delmont 88 in the pond.
Compulsive womanizing, something not unheard of in the U.S. Senate? Yes, Klein covers that. Binge drinking and reckless driving, even when Kennedy was stone cold sober? Yes, again, it's covered by Klein. Frat boy antics -- and worse -- in the 1991 Palm Beach William Kennedy Smith incident with the then almost 60-year-old senator encouraging his young relatives to drink and worse? Yes, guilty as charged.
"Angels & Demons," a current movie based on a Dan Brown novel, could sum up the life of the man who is second only to West Virginia's Robert C. Byrd in his Senate tenure. Beloved as the "Lion of the Senate" by Democrats and many Republicans alike, Kennedy seems almost as bi-polar as his ex-wife Joan in his behavior.
Klein drew on a vast store of original research and unprecedented access to Ted Kennedy’s political associates, friends, and family, to reveal many secrets. Among them:
• Why Caroline Kennedy, at Ted’s urging, aspired to fill the New York Senate vacancy but then suddenly and unexpectedly withdrew her candidacy.
• How Ted ended his longest-lasting romantic relationship to marry Victoria Reggie, and the unexpected effect that union had on his personal and political redemption.
• What transpired between the parents of Mary Jo Kopechne and Ted Kennedy during two private meetings at Ted’s home.
• Which feuds are likely to erupt within the Kennedy family in the wake of Ted’s demise, and what will become of Ted’s fortune and political legacy.
Klein may be a regular biographer of the Kennedy clan, but he spares no one in this book. Ted Kennedy's children by his first wife, the former Joan Bennett, whom he married in 1958, unsurprisingly are not admirers of Vicki Reggie Kennedy, and fear that she and her children from her first marriage will benefit financially when Kennedy dies. They also make fun of her Louisiana drawl (she's from Crowley, LA, in the state's Cajun country and has a Lebanese Catholic background).
Klein reveals that Joan Bennett Kennedy apparently inherited her alcoholism -- which was as bad as Ted Kennedy's -- from her father and mother. She's also seriously afflicted with a bi-polar mental illness, along with depression.
Having reviewed Sheila Rauch Kennedy's 1998 tell-all "Shattered Faith: A Woman's Struggle to Stop the Catholic Church from Annulling Her Marriage," I was intrigued to find that her former husband, Joe Kennedy II, the first-born son of Robert and Ethel Kennedy, has apparently inherited the angry dark side of his father, who was assassinated in June 1968 in Los Angeles.
Klein (on Page 204) mentions Sheila's book and the effect it had on Joe Kennedy II's political career. That, along with the disclosure that Joe's brother Michael was having an affair -- surprise! surprise! -- with Joe's teenage babysitter has pretty much derailed the career of a man who considers a political career a birthright.
That, in my opinion, is the problem with the Kennedys: They view the world as their oyster, crabcake and lobster all in one, a feast for them by right of birth. The last time I looked, that's not the American way, but it's not limited to the Kennedys, as the Bushes, Rockefellers and Clintons have demonstrated. In the case of the Kennedys, you can probably blame it on Joe and Rose Kennedy, if I'm interpreting Klein correctly.
Something else I learned from Klein's book: Teddy sought and obtained an annulment from his marriage to Joan a couple of years after their civil divorce. Rich Catholics can buy just about anything, seems to be the moral of this incident. Sheila Rauch Kennedy made the -- valid to me, at least -- point in her book that an annulment effectively makes any children of a union illegitimate. I researched this and discovered that children of an annulled marriage are considered to be legitimate. Ted Kennedy, in order to have a valid church marriage to Vicki Reggie under canon law, had to obtain an annulment from Joan.
Whether you admire Ted Kennedy for his recent courageous battle against brain cancer and his liberal stance on many issues or wonder about the sanity of Massachusetts voters for continuing to return him to the Senate, Klein's biography is worth reading.
About the Author
EDWARD KLEIN is the former foreign editor of Newsweek and former editor in chief of The New York Times Magazine. He frequently contributes to Vanity Fair and Parade. Klein is also the author of several New York Times bestselling biographies, including All Too Human; Just Jackie; Farewell, Jackie; and The Kennedy Curse.
Publisher's web site: www.crownpublishing.com
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