Robert George and Ted Kennedy

I would make a couple of points concerning Robert George’s claims about Ted Kennedy. It is true that Ted Kennedy does not give as detailed an account of his moral failures in the death of Mary Jo Kopechne as does Robert George. He does take full responsibility; he agrees that his actions on that night, particularly in failing to promptly report the accident, were flawed, wrongheaded, terrible, and inexcusable.

I am not a criminal lawyer, but I suspect that Kennedy might have been guilty of manslaughter in this incident. I do not know how much he had been drinking when he left the party. Putting that aside, I do not know how much the fact that he suffered a concussion upon impact would complicate a prosecution for his actions after he emerged from the water. I am not at all sure that she was alive when Kennedy passed the first house. But I do not think it matters in generally assessing his conduct. He does admit to a number of self-serving motives that went through his head after he emerged from the water. And, however, clouded his mind might have been, his actions were reprehensible.

Nonetheless, to telescope a man’s life into a sinful episode 40 years ago, and to portray it as the way Kennedy lived his life as a Catholic is indefensible.

Similarly to catapult one’s disagreements with Kennedy over abortion and stem cell research (my views by the way on these subjects are more complicated than George assumes) into a claim that Kennedy did not impose religion on himself is cheap exaggeration.