RFK Jr. Drives Stake Through Heart of Kennedy Mystique

For the first time in something like 60 years, there will be no members of the famous Kennedy political dynasty serving in congress. The "Lion of The Senate," Ted Died in 2010 and his congressman son Patrick, chose not to run for reelection in Rhode Island. To be honest, the mystique that the family once had, certainly diminished over the past few decades. The very public tragedies that seemed to follow them around took on more of a scandalous flavor. Instead of political assassinations they were visited by more mundane scandals and tragedies brought on by reckless behaviour. Their political advantage evaporated. Caroline was laughed out of the room when she toyed with the idea of being crowned Senator. (Of course she had no interest at all in running for office. "Hey, if you're handing out Senate seats Mr. Governor, I could stick around for a while.")Ted's seat went Republican less than 3 months after he died.

But in the wake of the tragic shootings in Arizona, RFK Jr. has come forth to finally put an end to any association between the Kennedy family name and serious political discussions. He wrote this piece for the Huffington Post:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-f-kennedy-jr/post_1548_b_807713.html

The gist of the piece is the outright lie that his uncle, JFK, was killed by the forces of right-wing intolerance. Of course this myth has been around ever since Jaquelyn Kennedy openly suggested it in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary.

This is a despicable smear. The man has manufactured a history to fit this myth. He even included the long ago discredited story about school children in Dallas cheering at the news that JFK had been shot, and tells it as fact. The story was born when Dan Rather (little more than a cub reporter at the time) ran with the story even though he knew it to be false. What had happened was that one principal had decided to dismiss classes for the day because of the shooting, but didn't want to upset the children, so he didn't tell them about the assassination. They did what any other schoolkid under the circumstances would do. They cheered because they were going home early. Rather had been told it did not happen, but ran the story anyway. Surely Mr. Kennedy cannot be ignorant of this. Ironically, this whole column reminds me of the Dan Rather/Texas National Guard story that cost him his job at CBS. During that one, when it was becoming obvious that the documents he had were forgeries, he retreated and declared that even though the documents were phony, he thought the story was still true. Sometimes, a story is so good you just can't let the facts get in the way.

In the RFK column, he insists that the atmosphere of right-wing intolerance in Dallas was at the crux of his uncle's assassination. Just like Arizona, the problem was the "rage" and "craziness" unleashed by this toxic atmosphere. Dallas had become "the center of the extreme right wing." He even points out that the mayor of Dallas at the time, Earl Carroll, helped co-found the John Birch Society. Only the mayor of Dallas at the time was Earle Cabell and he was not a co founder of the John Birch Society. Documentation of just how radical Dallas was comes mostly from a historian by the name of Manchester. It's not surprising he would quote this man since the Kennedy family bought and paid for that history. Mr Manchester was commissioned by Jacquelyn Kennedy to write the book and apparently she even censored it, demanding that certain passages be deleted, and not because they weren't true. Publication was delayed until she got her way.

But the real problem is that Lee Harvey Oswald was a communist sympathizer and dedicated leftist. He was not just a member of Fair Play for Cuba, he defected to the Soviet Union at one point. (Warning: I will not dignify wacko conspiracy theories about the "true" killers. LHO did it, end of story.) Seven months before he shot JFK, Oswald had made an attempt on the life of Major General Edwin Walker, a right-wing zealot who had been relieved of his command for handing out right-wing literature. The bullet matched the gun he used to shoot Kennedy in November. JFK was a cold warrior who had just overseen the Bay of Pigs invasion.

RFK Jr.'s column is strange, though. It's like he's saying the right-wingers created the atmosphere of hate that then prompted left-winger LHO, to go out and kill? Have I got that? And you know, maybe he actually did refer to his mother as "mummy" but I don't think we need to hear that. Reading this crap was infuriating. But reading the comments that followed it was even more sickening. the guy is fabricating history in order to smear his political opponents. He refers to conservative commentators as hate mongers, and this is how the sycophants at the Huffintgton Post responded:

"I so admire who you are and what you do."

"Very moving, poignant article."

"Violence is keeping this brilliant guy on the sidelines, I postulate. Too bad, we could use him. But I understand."

And the one that me quit reading,

"Those who do not study history...."

Indeed. But if it's true that those who do not study history are condemned to repeat it, then what is the fate of those who make up their own history?