Ted Kennedy

:This article is about the U.S. senator, for information about the ice hockey player see Ted Kennedy (hockey player).

Political Resurrection

The accident at Chappaquiddick, along with continuing allegations of heavy drinking, drug use, and womanizing have haunted Kennedy's reputation and hampered his political career through the decades since it transpired. He withdrew in 1974 from the 1976 presidential race and failed in a 1980 primary challenge to Jimmy Carter. Critics have specifically pointed to allegations that he and fellow Senator Christopher Dodd sexually harassed a waitress at Washington DC's La Brasserie restaurant in 1985 and a night of barhopping in 1991 with his nephew William Kennedy Smith which culminated in Smith's trial and acquital for rape.

Related Topics:
1974 - 1976 - 1980 - Jimmy Carter - Christopher Dodd - 1985 - 1991 - William Kennedy Smith

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In 1991, during the Clarence Thomas hearings, Kennedy's career reached what has been called a low ebb. Journalist Anna Quindlen wrote that he "let us down because he had to; he was muzzled by the facts of his life." The Boston Globe, editorialized that his "reputation as a womanizer made him an inappropriate and non-credible" critic of Thomas.

Related Topics:
1991 - Clarence Thomas - Anna Quindlen - Boston Globe

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According to a 2002 article in The Nation by Jack Newfield, that year also appears to represent a turning point. His good friend, Republican Senator Orrin Hatch confronted him about his drinking and then he "met Vicki Reggie and ended his partying." After his marriage in 1992, he faced a tough challenger, Mitt Romney, for re-election in 1994. Some of Romney?s supporters criticized Kennedy for statements he had made about the exclusionary policies of the LDS church, in which Romney held a leadership role. http://www.bostonphoenix.com/boston/news_features/top/features/documents/02232944.htm Kennedy defeated Romney with 58 percent of the vote. According to Newfield, Kennedy's family and friends believe that campaign "allowed him to reconnect with his reasons for believing in public service."

Related Topics:
The Nation - Orrin Hatch - 1992 - Mitt Romney - 1994

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Newfield states that "In making the physical and emotional sacrifices necessary to win an exhausting campaign, Kennedy recovered his dedication to remain in the Senate, and he focused all his energies on the job"; he goes on to call him "the best and most effective senator of the past hundred years." "Because of his tragic experience", says Newfield, he is often found serving as "America's national grief counselor." Despite his liberal views, "The key to Kennedy's effectiveness has been his remarkable capacity to form warm, genuine friendships—more than mere working alliances—with GOP senators." http://www.thenation.com/docprint.mhtml?i=20020325&s=newfield

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