Whenever you're finished pretending to care about the death of another career politician, and you've had your fill of talking heads parroting all that sanctimonious bullshit, a few points of fact:

• Edward Kennedy was expelled from Harvard for cheating. Then they let him back in.
• Edward Kennedy left a woman drowning in an overturned car. A car that he overturned. He was convicted of "leaving the scene" but got a suspended sentence and returned to his Senate job.
• Edward Kennedy took part in the demonizing of Timothy Leary (despite Leary's warning against the uncontrolled consumption of LSD) while simultaneously being a notorious drunk.

I don't doubt he was friendly and fun to yacht with. But forgive me if I can't work up a tear for another fortunate son whose greatest success - it seems to me - was not getting shot. Or perhaps not getting shot was a mark of his failure to have a truly original political vision. He "championed the poor." So what? Every politician champions the poor. How are the poor doing these days?