Another Political Hack Bites The Dust
Melissa Lafsky, who wrote a piece on Huffington Post?in late August?about Ted Kennedy and Mary Jo Kopechne, has decided to combat the “right-wing,” “troll” responses to her column with…whining. Ms. Lafsky wrote, in a somewhat facetious manner, “Who knows — maybe [Kopechne would] feel it was worth it” in her Huffington Post piece, regarding the latter’s death. Naturally, she is shocked when people are offended (who would have thunk it?).
Most people, when caught out with something controversial, ham-handed or wrong, explain with logic and reason why they voiced such an opinion, or apologize. Joe Klein, for example, after making a rude comment about Charles Krauthammer earlier this year in a Politico article about the latter, did both; George Will, when confronted regarding some global warming claims, simply found more information and used it to back up his points?(though, to be fair,?it turns out Will was incorrect, and even the Washington Post ombudsman corrected him publicly); and Charles Krauthammer provided both evidence and a logical walk-through of his claims in a follow-up to a controversial torture column this year.
The fact is that Ms. Lafsky mocked the unfortunate and highly suspicious death of a young woman with naive hyperbole. Ted Kennedy has done many positive and negative things in his life, and what he did surrounding the death of Mary Jo Kopechne was certainly the lowest point of his career in addition to being probably the most harmful action he committed against his fellow man. While most Americans, including myself, hope and pray he made his peace with God before his passing, he also was never punished through the legal system for his actions and in fact rose to a higher position of power and influence within our political system later in his career. Instead of crying foul, and claiming she had no opportunity for “discussion or debate”- a claim which she discredits only a couple sentences later by admitting she “declined” opportunities to appear on conservative shows- Ms. Lafsky should admit to making an error, briefly explain her point of view, and chalk her initial column off as a mistake. Defending it only makes her appear more the fool.
