A Sober Look at Ted Kennedy

Michael Kelly was a reporter for GQ magazine back in 1990. He wrote a lifestyle piece on Senator Ted Kennedy that is balanced but eye-opening. The article was titled "A Sober Look at Ted Kennedy."

Kelly's research indicated that Ted Kennedy was an effective Senator for liberal causes and well-liked among his colleagues. However, when he wasn't in the Senate promoting bills he was a drunken lush, a misogynistic lout, a flagrant womanizer. Kennedy felt he was above the rules that apply to others.

One of his primary womanizing and boozing buddies was Chris Dodd. Kelly writes:

It is after midnight and Kennedy and Dodd are just finishing up a long dinner in a private room on the first floor of the restaurant’s annex. They are drunk. Their dates, two very young blondes, leave the table to go to the bathroom. (The dates are drunk too. “They’d always get their girls very, very drunk,” says a former Brasserie waitress.) Betty Loh, who served the foursome, also leaves the room. Raymond Campet, the co-owner of La Brasserie, tells Gaviglio the senators want to see her.

As Gaviglio enters the room, the six-foot-two, 225-plus-pound Kennedy grabs the five-foot-three, 103-pound waitress and throws her on the table. She lands on her back, scattering crystal, plates and cutlery and the lit candles. Several glasses and a crystal candlestick are broken. Kennedy then picks her up from the table and throws her on Dodd, who is sprawled in a chair. With Gaviglio on Dodd’s lap, Kennedy jumps on top and begins rubbing his genital area against hers, supporting his weight on the arms of the chair. As he is doing this, Loh enters the room. She and Gaviglio both scream, drawing one or two dishwashers. Startled, Kennedy leaps up. He laughs. Bruised, shaken and angry over what she considered a sexual assault, Gaviglio runs from the room. Kennedy, Dodd and their dates leave shortly thereafter, following a friendly argument between the senators over the check.

Kennedy was a walking billboard for loutish behavior. Read the whole article here.

Update: Great minds think alike. Rush Limbaugh just now read the very same passage to his radio audience (10:25 AM PST).

Update 2: Last night our entire town had a blackout due to a damaged power line. Since I couldn't get on the internet, I decided to practice some Photoshop art and created the above image of Ted Kennedy. It's not great but once again I learned something new, how to make use of the smudge tool to blend sections of the drawing.