Koolaid From Mimi Alford?

The blogosphere is all atwitter about Mimi Alford and her allegations that the late John F. Kennedy bamboozled her into an affair when she was a 19-year-old intern at the White House.  A site called Rock Center has an interview with her, which you can read for yourselves.

Regretably, JFK's many marital infidelities are so well-documented that no one - not even the most ardent of Kennedy devotees, doubt them.  So when someone like Alford comes along, a common reactions has been to automatically assume that she is telling the truth.  I'm not willing to blindly jump on that bandwagon, and I find it most disconcerting that some otherwise sensible Catholic bloggers seem to be doing precisely that.  They seem to forget that the existence of a general pattern of misbehavior does not constitute evidence of the same misbehavior in specific instances.

As you read through the Rock Center piece, you'll notice her allegations of being passed around from JFK to Ted Kennedy to aide David Powers.  All these individuals are now deceased, JFK being dead for over 40 years.  Obviously none of these men are able to refute Alford's allegations and tell their sides of the story.

Ms. Alford has written a book called Once Upon A Secret: My Affair With John F Kennedy And Its Aftermath.  She stated in the web piece her difficulty in talking of the affair - but writing a book?  What proof will she offer that this affair occurred?  What irrefutable evidence will she present?  In a word, why should we believe her?  I'm not saying it didn't happen, but I'm not prepared to ascribe to her credibility.  Think about it.  She's coming forward almost 50 years later.  All of the accused are dead, conveniently unable to contradict her charges.  This smacks of detraction, if not calumny.

Again, JFK's established patterns of 6th Commandment violations do not constitute substantial corroboration for Alford's allegations.  Will any evidence be offered in the book?  Who knows?  I certainly will not be dropping one penny to find out.  I regret that too many people will plunk down their hard-earned cash to satify voyeuristic impulses.  What a waste.

And now to address some points raised by someone who commented on the Matthews post at 6:17am today:   The Alford "revelations" and the Clinton investigations are not at all equivalent.  At the time the Clinton scandals broke, he was the President - not merely someone who had already been dead for decades.  The investigations and impeachment occurred because there was concern that he not only had, but was currently (at the time) abusing his office as President of the United States to subjugate women to his whims, and the idea was to stop ongoing crimes.  Of course Clinton had every opportunity to answer his accusers - as is proper in any real pursuit of justice.  The accused in Alford's case lack such opportunity as they are quite voiceless.  I don't know why you said she has a "duty" to spill her guts (assuming she is telling the truth in the first place).  What good is being served?  Who benefits?  What crimes are being prevented (now that the "criminals" are long dead and buried)?

A Shrine for Chappaquiddick Teddy?

That's what I see bandied about in last week's Boston Herald!  The "Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate" is already slated to receive $38.3 million of our tax dollars!  Now John Kerry and Edward Markey have stuck out their hands for $30 million more! 

Excuse me, but aren't we already spending ourselves into an insurmountable debt in the trillions?  But don't worry!  They want to draw $29 million from (wait for it!) the defense budget.  That's the one area that rightly deserves funding, and the one area that the Messiah Most Miserable seeks to dry up.  Isn't that a coincidence!

What has Ted Kennedy done for us?  He has inspired the Hell Bill that will trash health care in every way while forcing us to subsidize abortion and euthanasia.  He was "pro-life" until 1971 when he put politics before his Catholic faith and always voted for the murder of babies and for the trashing of the traditional family.  He was also a flagrant womanizer, and had been known to abuse alcohol, both of these being factors in the death of at least one woman (how he earned the nickname "Chappaquiddick Teddy"). Of course, while doing all this, he thumbed his nose at his own Catholic tradition.  His bishops were of no help to him, as they continued to cooperate materially and formally with his reception of sacriligeious Holy Communion - but that's its own rant.  And for all this the United States should strap itself for $68 million?

Let us hope and pray that this does not go through, and not only for the abysmal waste.  For should it go through, and this idolotry ediface is completed, I cringe to think of all the Catholic prelates who will go to shame themselves at the thing's ribbon-cutting ceremoney.

Our Troops Are Endangered To Fund Kennedy Memorial

After reading this week how our troops in Afghanistan and other dangerous outposts are being stretched due to shortages in vital supplies, I was disgusted to read of the sqandering of $20 million dollars to build some sort of "educational institute to honor and preserve the legacy of the late Senator Ted Kennedy." A particular cause for outrage is that this $20 million dollar earmark is being syphoned from monies that were intended for troop training, fuel and ammunition.

Our troops are in harm's way, and the liberal clowns who run Washington are already hell-bent on cutting them off at the knees by strangling their funding. This nonsense is the brain-fart of John Kerry, Kennedy's fellow pro-abortion "Catholic-in-name-only" senator from Massachusetts. History lesson! In the 2004 elections, it came to light that Kerry considered his fellow Vietnam vets to be murderers. In protest of the war, he tossed his medals over the White House fence - oh, wait! Sorry! I forgot! Kerry tossed someone else's medals over the wall! My bad!


However, if we want to see the real legacy of Senator Edward M. Kennedy, please look to the right. He has, for most of his chequered career, aided and abetted the murder of millions of tiny children, such as this poor little girl shown at the right. This picture was taken on Route 219 in Deep Creek, MD during a Face the Truth Tour on Sept 5th. A state-wide tour occurs in Maryland every summer, orchestrated by Defend Life.

Just think! If you participate in this (and/or other similar efforts), you are not only giving our nation a much-needed wake-up call, but you're helping to display the "legacy" of the late Ted Kennedy. Maybe the feds can sell that monstrosity and give that money back to our soldiers!