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Title: SENATORIAL PRIVILEGE by Leo Damore ISBN: 0-440-20416-X Publisher: Dell Pub. Date: 04 June, 1989 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $4.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.5 (8 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: A haunting and enduring tragedy
Comment: I bought this book in July of 2000, after watching an extraordinary 2-hour installment about the story on A&E's "Investigative Reports" (also available on videotape). The author here, Leo Damore, was also part of the television program. Just as the video holds up to repeated viewing, so have I found I've returned more than once to the book. Called 'the most famous traffic fatality in American politics,' it certainly remains that.
'Profile in Courage' this is not. I was 15 the summer of this accident and then had only a teenager's curiosity about it. One more 'Kennedy tragedy,' but this one proves to be one that could have and should have been avoided. I distinctly remember the carried-on-all-networks 'statement' the senator gave days late, stage-managed to nth. And not very believable. What I hadn't remembered was that even without Chappaquiddick, it was hardly a slow news week; it was the same weekend we'd first landed on the moon. According to the book, the latest mishap of the Kennedy family's pushed the moon story to the bottom of page one of "The Boston Globe." I remember the cute neck brace too, which apparently didn't go on for one or two days after the accident, and after many sources in the book had noticed no incapacity in the senator. It would be a pleasure to say 'No one today could get away with the circumvention and manipulation of law enforcement and investigation that was at work here. But don't expect to hear it from someone who sat through nine 1995 months of the Simpson criminal proceedings. If Robert Blake walks too, good luck un-convincing me that the rich and famous get away with it every time.
Damore relies heavily on the recollections of Joseph A. Gargan, a Kennedy insider, and one of the first people the senator confessed the accident to. After nearly two decades Gargan was ready to talk. I find him credible, but it's a messy story and no one comes up smelling like a hero. If nothing else, "Senatorial Privilege" is a study of how much of yourself you can trade away to get close to power and celebrity. Gargan is no enviable figure looking back from late middle-age, and having played sycophantic clean-up man for so much of it.
But I couldn't put this book down, which I bought used, and I recommend it. (From the cellophane over the dust jacket, it was clearly once a library hardcover edition, but it was in fully satisfactory condition.) It's one of the best non-fiction works I've read in recent years. Mary Jo Kopechne would be 63 this year.
Rating: 4
Summary: IMPORTANT OVERVIEW AND REMINDER
Comment: Teddy Kennedy went to a party attended by Mary Jo Kopechne. He got sloshed as usual. He drove off a bridge in bad weather thereby inadvertently causing the death of Ms. Kopechne. Sounds like a good case for involuntary manslaughter - that is, unless you are a Kennedy. This book, while providing nothing new, offers a great overview of the Chappaquiddick tragedy. Those desiring truthful books about the Kennedy scourge should definitely add this one to your burgeoning collection. Intelligent, logical readers will be incredulous that Kennedy escaped prosecution. He delayed reporting the accident for hours - went to his hotel, cleaned up a bit, chatted with confidants about how to handle the matter and THEN called the authorities. It is astounding that, even as Mary Jo Kopechne sat drowning in his car, Kennedy would be bent on protecting his political hide. What is even more disturbing is the number of reviews trying to pan this book as "Kennedy bashing". A few reviews, out of misguided devotion to this errant family, simply absolve Teddy of all guilt. After all, it was JUST a drunk driving accident - one that deprived a family of their daughter forever. But since Teddy was involved, it never happened...right?
Rating: 1
Summary: Senatorial Privilege
Comment: You can breeze through this book in under an hour -- I just did. While it makes for a suspenseful, albeit entertaining, account of what happened that infamous night, Damore relies too heavily on witnesses' accounts and police remarks (often little more than Kennedy bashing). By now, most of us can accept the facts: that EMK drank way too much and drove off a bridge, subsequently leading to tragedy. DUI accidents happen every day, chillingly often to average people. The fact that this happened to one of the greatest Senators in the history of the United States only reaffirms this. ...
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Title: Death at Chappaquiddick by Thomas L. Tedrow, Richard L. Tedrow, Thomaas Tedrow ISBN: 0882892495 Publisher: Pelican Pub Co Pub. Date: January, 1980 List Price(USD): $5.95 |
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Title: The Real Anita Hill: The Untold Story by David Brock ISBN: 0029046564 Publisher: Free Press Pub. Date: April, 1994 List Price(USD): $22.95 |
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Title: The Final Days: The Last, Desperate Abuses of Power by the Clinton White House by Barbara Olson ISBN: 0895261677 Publisher: Regnery Publishing Pub. Date: December, 2001 List Price(USD): $27.95 |
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Title: The Case Against Hillary Clinton by Peggy Noonan ISBN: 0060393408 Publisher: Regan Books Pub. Date: 01 April, 2000 List Price(USD): $24.00 |
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Title: The Kennedy Men: Three Generations of Sex, Scandal and Secrets by Nellie Bly ISBN: 1575660156 Publisher: Kensington Pub Corp Pub. Date: March, 1996 List Price(USD): $22.95 |
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