TEDDY: HIS TROUBLES AND OURS
Avey, John
Teddy: His Troubles and Ours John Avey A little more than a year removed from the incident at Dyke Bridge, Teddy Kennedy has become a Dreyfus in reverse: Dreyfus, the innocent, was sent to...
...For the first time it has been confirmed that despite many moralistic pronouncements, the overwhelming majority of the American people simply do not care very much about moral questions...
...What Americans do care about are moralistic fads and fashionable causes, especially those that are given vociferous support by the media and the more liberal pulpits...
...Teddy, the guilty, will in all probability be sent back to the United States Senate...
...it is not for the man of sense to dispute with such animal...
...Everything is upside down but curiously serene...
...Instead of the sustained and fervent display of moral outrage, we are witnessing what might be called the Rehabilitation of a Candidate, 1970...
...The writer, evidently shaken to the core by such a thought, hastens to assure us that he doesn't really believe it...
...What is it about Teddy or about us that makes it impossible for us to treat him with the proper mixture of pity and scorn he deserves--and, perhaps, in his heart of hearts, really even wants...
...The polls indicate that the Massachusetts voters are quivering with anticipation to cast their votes for the Great Channel Swimmer...
...In the midst of the Times magazine article, we are even threatened by the unthinkable: Teddy may run for the Senate, win, and then...
...Occasionally, however, he does withdraw, "thinking of those things he's been through...
...Cynics may claim to see no difference between those two fates, but it is safe to say that Teddy has done very well for himself...
...Sure they will," Bilgewater insisted...
...Fans of Teddy - if not fans of justice - will be glad to learn that Joan and Ted (she never calls him Teddy) are getting along just fine, thank you, and that it was really a great blow to Ted but he has come through it a better man, etc...
...resign...
...Haven't you ever heard of logrolling...
...Sitting next to Carl Curtis or Russell Long may be an exquisite torment to a fellow of Teddy's patrician sensibilities, but it beats solitary confinement any day...
...A recent article in a women's magazine dealt with Joan Kennedy and her reactions to the incident...
...Astounded at this information, I wasn't prepared for Bilgewater's next revelation: many professors never bother to read the books they "review...
...But, then, they have not "been through" what Teddy has...
...Teddy: His Troubles and Ours John Avey A little more than a year removed from the incident at Dyke Bridge, Teddy Kennedy has become a Dreyfus in reverse: Dreyfus, the innocent, was sent to Devil's Island...
...Publishers merely titude less than respectful to the young prince, but it is not exactly tar and feathers...
...The article, "Can Kennedy Survive His Reputation," contains all the essential elements of the New Teddy revision...
...All they can think about is 'proliferate, proliferate.' Hell, they're biblionympho-maniacs: they can never say no...
...Yet, after all this, he is back in business, lustily preaching morality to others from the Senate floor, greeted by thunderous applause on campus (that citadel of contemporary morality) and apparently only biding time before he makes his move toward the White House...
...If anyone seeks to discover the progress, of morality in the twentieth century, he could do worse than to re-read Joseph Conrad's Lord Jim and then read the material from the Kennedy television cop-out...
...Admittedly, this is evidence of a public atGreat American Series In the fevered state of our country, no good can ever result from any attempt to set one of these fiery zealots to rights, either in fact or principle...
...the plight of Mary Jo Kopechne, her parents, elementary decency, truth and, yes, honor, seems to be too much of a burden for the public to bear for longer than a few weeks...
...Quite a fellow, our Teddy...
...Won't they refuse to comply with your scheme...
...Nobody, apparently, knows the troubles he has seen...
...Thomas Jefferson Bilgewater jumped in ecstasy...
...You see, librarians are like Catholics...
...Ah, H.L...
...It has not been precisely what one would call a Pilgrims' Progress...
...Here we have for the first time what will be a recurring theme in the rehabilitation campaign: Teddy as a sort of secular saint, his psychic wound a political version of the stigmata...
...It's a great gimmick...
...Hell, they're part of the fraud...
...The wound, it turns out, is not a physical one, but one to Teddy's "self-esteem" and "commitment...
...The kid's got it...
...He has served several Presidents and his favorite hobby is skindiving...
...Teddy managed to pull off what might be called the hat trick of political disaster: he offended the woman voter's sense of family sanctity, proved himself to be either a bad liar or a good Machiavellian in his attempts to explain away the incident and disgraced himself by reading Ted Sorenson's transparent and contradictory apology over nationwide television...
...By the time the media are finished with this ploy, the incident at Dyke Bridge will be seen as an example of Teddy's heroic fortitude...
...Since most of them are old maids, every book purchase fulfills a maternal need...
...Since any such series will be obsolete in a year or two, then Trivia can issue a new series...
...Teddy would not do that to us...
...Teddy dishonored himself and his family, then called for a vote of confidence from his constituency...
...To Teddy and Gargan and Markham and all those wonderful girls in the boiler room...
...It is my guess that the incident at Dyke Bridge may well serve as a landmark (or, to be more consistent, a watershed) in the history of American public morality...
...I nodded my assent...
...Yet the most important piece of evidence pointing to a campaign of rehabilitation is a long, well-written and obviously sympathetic account of Teddy in The New York Times Magazine...
...The apparently bottomless reservoir of sympathy for the Kennedy family has played an important role in his rehabilitation, yet it is not enough to explain the almost total lack of sustained moral outrage against him...
...Exactly five years after Trivia quits publishing the series, -Retread Press will re-release it as an 'Oldie but Goodie' at three times its original price...
...Students of contemporary morality may well ponder his comeback, for it tells us more about the state of the nation than it does about the state of Teddy's soul...
...The public seems to be content with inflicting upon Teddy nothing more serious than a lower rating in the polls...
...Refuse...
...At this point, one does not know whether to laugh or cry...
...They are determined as to the facts they will believe and the opinions on which they will act...
...There is a macabre fascination about all this...
...He is "bearing up," he is "enduring...
...Conrad's hero dishonored himself and spent the rest of his life wandering in search of repentance and atonement...
...The conscience of France was finally awakened after overwhelming evidence showed that Dreyfus was wrongly accused...
...Hold on, Bilgewater...
...Whether or not the parents of Mary Jo Kopechne have moments of levity is not mentioned by the writer...
...The plight of left-handed Puerto Rican midgets could become a national crusade if given the proper exposure...
...Same damn thing goes on in colleges...
...Within seventy years we have gone from the stern, pitiless but deeply human vision of Conrad to...
...The writer begins by asking: "How grave is the wound...
...favorite hobby is skindiving...
...Teddy, who by any civilized rules of behavior should be in a Trappist monastery living out his life in repentance and grief, has days and apparently even weeks of levity and gaiety according to the Times writer...
...Librarians will realize the nature of this fraud...
...Mencken, wouldst that thou were alive at this hour...
...Professor X favorably reviews Professor Y's book in the Yahoo State Journal of Humanistic Studies, and of course Professor Y reciprocates with X's book...
...Any one of these would ordinarily be enough to end a political career...
...Conrad, looking down upon us, is probably muttering in Polish, wondering if anyone will ever again be able to read his great book with any understanding...
...the conscience of America is slumbering pleasantly after overwhelming evidence has been presented to show that Teddy acted shamefully, perhaps even criminally, before, during and after the Dyke Bridge incident...
...What does it all mean...
...Get by them, therefore, as you would by an angry bull...
...They can pamper and fondle their latest reference set, without having to go through the pains of bringing another bouboos americanus into this veil of tears...
...It is history seen through the eyes of a Catch-22 Character...
...This is a particularly interesting gambit, for it takes what should be Teddy's great weakness - his association with a disgraceful incident -and turns it into a strength...
...John Avey is a mortician and soldier of fortune working in Washington, D.C...
...Still feeling argumentative, I remarked that professors surely wouldn't order such rubbish...
...Whatever it may be, it is contributing to a rise in Teddy's popularity and a steady decline in what might be called the national conscience...
...what...
Vol. 4 • November 1970 • No. 1
