Churchill and Kennedy were both political survivors who forged long and highly
successful careers with the spectre of past, and potentially career destroying,
early mistakes/misdeeds hanging over their heads. With one or two exceptions
they maintained friendly personal relationships with fellow politicians of all
persuasions to the benefit of their political influence and legislative
initiatives. Both had a charismatic presence, in part, coloured by ancestry
and family history and sustained by their own powerful personalities, personal
convictions and productivity. Both affected people on a profound personal and
emotional level, hence both were mourned and paid tribute to upon their deaths
by a wide range of influential political friends and foes. It is hard for me
to imagine Churchill thriving in the American political system or for Kennedy
to have reached such heights in British politics - but both reached and
sustained high levels of success and impact within their respective systems.
Grave dancing on this discussion list is rather unseemly and isn't very
Churchillian.
Stan
----- Original Message -----
From: Geoff Zimmerman
To: [email protected]
Sent: Saturday, August 29, 2009 11:54 AM
Subject: [ChurchillChat] Re: WSC and EMK
Yes. Forgetting about politics, Kennedy throughout his life was a man of low
character. At Chappaquiddick he behaved as a coward. I don't see any basis for
comparing him to Churchill.
Geoff Zimmerman
[email protected]
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: "[email protected]" <[email protected]>
To: [email protected]
Sent: Saturday, August 29, 2009 11:17:06 AM
Subject: [ChurchillChat] Re: WSC and EMK
I will not bring politics into the discussion. But I refuse to believe that
WSC would ever have acted as despicably as the late Senator Kennedy did at
Chappaquiddick. Had he not been a Kennedy in Massachusetts, he would have
spent a goodly number of years in the slammer.
The media has been eager to sweep Mary Jo Kopechne under the rug. She
should not be forgotten.
Jonathan Hayes
-------------- Original message from "Joe Hern" <[email protected]>:
--------------
>
> A new thread: Edward Moore Kennedy and Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill
>
> As a Churchillian, and a man from Massachusetts who proudly wears a PT
109
> tie clasp, I can't help but see parallels between my late senator for
most
> of my life and WSC.
>
> The scenes at the JFK Library in Boston of ordinary folk waiting in line
> over three hours to pass the bier are reminiscent of 1965. Due to popular
> demand, viewing was extended past the scheduled time; another parallel.
>
> I hear that the British and the Irish P.M.s are to attend Senator
Kennedy's
> rites tomorrow, as are the current U.S. president (whose election owes a
> great deal to the endorsements of Senator Kennedy and his niece Caroline)
> and three out of four living ex-presidents.
>
> I was privileged to witness yesterday the cortege drive through the
streets
> of Boston - the Kennedy stronghold - and to sail today close to the John
F.
> Kennedy Library (coming about before the posted Coast Guard pickets could
> challenge us!).
>
> The most striking parallel is that EMK was the master of, and a great
lover
> of, the U.S. Senate just as WSC was the master of the House of Commons.
> Today's New York Times reports an example of this: that Senator Kennedy
> arranged for Robert Caro, the LBJ biographer, to address senators about
the
> traditions of the Senate. But for the equally esteemed Senator Byrd,
> Senator Kennedy would be known as the father of the Senate.
>
> I invite commentary not on Senator Kennedy's politics but on his role as
a
> parliamentarian, a lover of his legislative house and his obsequies, vis
a
> vis those characteristics in Winston Churchill.
>
>
>
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