Kennedy to Markey: Thanks for Keeping My Seat Warm [OPINION]

I've always had a mixed review of the Kennedy family as a whole. Growing up I knew my entire family, on both sides, loved President John F. Kennedy and the same can be said for Robert F. Kennedy, his brother and Attorney General during his administration.

The words of both were always magnanimous and inspiring. JFK was in office in turbulent and epic times of our history as a nation. The beginning stages of what would become the Vietnam War had begun.

The civil rights movement was a powerful machine in motion, with some stubborn racists in all 50 states still trying to keep segregation and keep equality from reaching black Americans.

JFK always had the right speech, tone and demeanor to soothe an unrestful nation.

When the Soviets would sabre-rattle, Kennedy reminded the world that we all breathe the same air and offer a higher-brow philosophy for the world to compare to Kruschev's.

Someone took out JFK, but I'll never be convinced it was just Lee Harvey Oswald. I saw the film of his assassination at least 70 times and his murder was covered up, no doubt in my mind.

Bobby was killed just five years later as he ran for president.

Then we were left with Senator Ted Kennedy – a hard worker in D.C., particularly when he was done trying to be president. He became a master of the craft of being a senator. He bartered, forged temporary alliances that he would break up the next week, all to get adversaries of his last bill to side with him on the next week's matter.

He was also like all Kennedys seemed to be: in shockingly unbecoming extra-marital relationships.

Ted never saw a tax he didn't like, abandoned the Catholic Church's position on abortion and was an all-out progressive by 1976.

The Kennedy fortune was created slowly at first, with their arrival to America in what is today known as East Boston, then called Noddle's Island in the late 1840s when Patrick Kennedy arrived.

Patrick, JFK's great-grandfather, was a cooper. He made barrels for a living. This was a much-needed craft, so he made much more than his neighbors and eventually was able to move out and buy a home closer to Boston, and from there got involved in city politics.

As you can imagine, the Kennedy family only grew in power and wealth as they forged relationships with other wealthy Irish Bostonians, and even forged political alliances with the old-town Yankees of British descent. It was a necessary evil then.

Patrick's grandson and JFK's father Joseph Kennedy rose to power in the Roaring 20s, venturing in Hollywood movies and other businesses. He became a force to be reckoned with.

He was able to put his children into private schools in Brookline, which was a lesser-known path to Harvard. They also spent quite a lot of time living in New York City.

In 1932, we saw the biggest example of Kennedy corruption when Joe took his wife Rose, his mistress, and then-President FDR's son James to London where Joe had his mistress, a friend of Winston Churchill, arrange a meeting at Churchill's private estate.

Within months of that meeting, prohibition was lifted, Kennedy had the importing rights to almost every bottle of alcohol coming out of Europe, and James Roosevelt secured the insurance of the goods shipped to America.

Not bad for a $50,000 donation to FDR's re-election campaign.

Think about it: the Kennedy corruption machine is powerful enough and old enough to seduce FDR and Churchill! It is unfathomable today.

Fast forward to 2019: the Democratic Party has a monarchy and it is called the Kennedy family.

If they want a position in government, the Democrats will put them there. They don't seem to have a choice.

Not good news for Senator Ed Markey, who has just been challenged by Rep. Joe Kennedy III.

I listened to Markey put on the brave face and speak to how he looking forward to a spirited campaign. Well, that's obviously a lie. Unless Markey has incredible dirt on this particular Kennedy, he is finished. There's no guessing. Kennedys do not lose elections, particularly in Massachusetts.

Markey laid out what he'd done "for Massachusetts" – fighting for immigration reform (open borders), climate change, and free college tuitions. So if you're like me, you could see those aren't Massachusetts issues, they are national progressive ones and ones that he hasn't accomplished a single thing for all of his alleged efforts. He is an afterthought, a go-along follower in D.C.

Ted Kennedy brought home the bacon, Bub. You haven't brought home a tater tot.

My hope is that Joseph Kennedy will not be a lunatic progressive but he sure sounds like he is being led around by them so far. I'd say Markey has a puncher's chance, but his fist comes with his thumb tucked inside his fingers.

This one is already over.

Ken Pittman is the host of The Ken Pittman Show on 1420 WBSM New Bedford. He can be heard Saturdays from 9 a.m. to noon. Contact him at ken.pittman@townsquaremedia.com. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the author.