The Kennedy Clan: Blessed And Cursed

Damian Whitworth

Boston, August 29, 2009 – Ten summers ago I spent several days sitting outside Ted Kennedy’s home in Hyannis Port. I was not alone. The world’s media had assembled at the Kennedy family’s compound in Massachusetts as the clan awaited news of the fate of John F. Kennedy Jr, whose aircraft had gone missing.

The cluster of white-washed homes on Cape Cod has been the scene of agony and ecstasy many times over more than half a century. It was there in 1944 that Joseph Patrick Kennedy received news that his son Joseph Jr had perished when his plane exploded over the English Channel during the war. Senator John F. Kennedy waited there to hear that he had been elected President by the narrowest margin in 1960.

The clan have convened every year at what was dubbed the “Summer White House” in President Kennedy’s day, for Teddy’s annual Thanksgiving dinner. Numerous weddings have been held there. Indeed, the clan had been preparing for the wedding of Rory, daughter of Bobby, the weekend John Jr died.

As the truth dawned that JFK Jr, his wife Carolyn and her sister, Lauren, had died in the small plane, family members walked the sand dunes, reflecting on the latest chapter in the tragedy-studded history of America’s most famous political dynasty.

Teddy, the family patriarch, went sailing to gather his thoughts. The weekend also happened to be the 30th anniversary of the notorious Chappaquiddick incident on nearby Martha’s Vineyard that had effectively ended his White House hopes.

A few days later the great orator worked all night preparing the eulogy for a Mass in honour of his nephew. He told the mourners that John Jr, “like his father, had every gift but length of years”.

Senator Edward M. Kennedy, who died at the Hyannis Port home last night at least had years. He was 77 and his Senate career was the third longest at 47 years. His longevity meant that he witnessed more of his family’s triumphs and disasters than most Kennedys.

He was the youngest of Joe and Rose Kennedy’s nine children and only his sister Jean Kennedy Smith, a former US ambassador to Ireland is still alive. His sister Eunice died earlier this month.

His sister Kathleen was also killed in a plane crash, in 1948. Rosemary, the third of the nine children, was slightly brain-damaged and then further incapacitated by a lobotomy and lived in a care home until her death in 2005.

Ted, 15 years younger than John, grew up quickly when, aged just 30, he ran for the Senate seat vacated by his brother as he took over the presidency and won it in 1962. After the assassinations of the President in 1963 and then Bobby during his 1968 presidential campaign, and then the death of their father in 1969, Teddy became the family head.

He held the position through four decades of personal and family upheavals Shakespearian in tenor.

There was talk of a run for the White House but at Chappaquiddick in 1969 Ted showed none of the character that Americans expect of their Presidents. Mary Jo Kopechne, a passenger in a car he was driving, drowned when the vehicle plunged off a bridge. It took Kennedy several hours to report the accident.

Days later he gave a televised address that far from cleared up what had happened. He asked if "some awful curse did actually hang over the Kennedys". This did enough to save his Senate career but not his further ambitions.

In 1980 he did finally have a stab at the White House but he failed to defeat Jimmy Carter in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination.

The idea that this family, blessed with wealth, power and, in most cases, good looks, was also somehow being punished by the gods, only gained wider currency with each fresh tragedy or scandal.

One of Robert’s sons, David, died of a heroin overdose. Edward’s son Patrick was treated for cocaine addiction. In 1991 William Kennedy Smith, a nephew of Ted, was acquitted of rape after a trial that tainted the Senator’s reputation with stories of his own drunken debauchery. Ted said the drinking on the night in question had been a way to mourn the family’s dead.

In 1997 it emerged that Michael Kennedy, another of Robert’s sons, had had an affair with a teenage babysitter. He said he was being treated for alcoholism. Another of Robert’s sons, Robert Jr, once said that nine members of the clan were members of Alcoholics Anonymous. A year after the babysitter scandal Michael was killed after he hit a tree on an Aspen ski slope.

Through all this Ted built a formidable reputation for passing legislation in the Senate, cutting deals with Republicans on Capitol Hill and in the White House. The stability that his second wife Victoria brought to his life was seen as key to his blossoming in the Senate.

He was known as the “lion of the Senate” and although his liberal voting record was a lightning rod for conservatives, he worked with George W. Bush on domestic policy. The former President once described him as “a fabulous United States senator. When he's against you, it's tough. When he's with you, it is a great experience."

As the head of America’s most prominent Irish Catholic family he took a great interest in the peace process in Northern Ireland and was always ready with a sound bite for a British correspondent if cornered on Capitol Hill. “It is often forgotten that more than half of the 44 million Americans of Irish descent are protestant. To the Unionists in Northern Ireland we say that we are your brothers and sisters, not your enemies,” he said once.

The reality today is that there is no Kennedy political heir to Ted. For a brief time it looked like Caroline Kennedy, JFK’s daughter, might fit the bill. She had always appeared uninterested in a political career until last year when she backed Barack Obama and became co-chair of his vice presidential search committee. After his election she expressed an interest in the Senate seat being vacated by Hillary Clinton. But she came across as fuzzy on important issues and was mocked for using the phrase “you know” 168 times in one interview. She backed out of the race.

Ted’s son, Patrick, is a Congressman from Rhode Island, but any hopes of higher office may be impeded by his ongoing battle against drug addiction and manic depression.

Bobby’s eldest child, Kathleen Kennedy Townsend had once looked destined for great things. She served as Maryland’s Lieutenant Governor, but failed in a bid for the governorship. Her brother, Christopher Kennedy, last week announced that after serious deliberations he had decided not to run for the Chicago seat held by Barack Obama.

Still, Kennedys are never far from power. Maria Shriver, Ted’s niece, is First Lady of California, courtesy of her marriage to Arnold Schwarzenegger, the governator.

And few would bet against more young Kennedys entering politics. A few years ago I was staying with a friend in Washington. We attended his children’s school fete. There, wielding a hammer twice his size and beating all comers at the ring-the-bell game, was a boy with familiar looking hair and teeth. “That’s a Kennedy,” said my friend.

As Ted himself said when he admitted defeat in the 1980 presidential election: “the dream shall never die".

Source: Times Online, August 26, 2009 

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