Porked. Teddy K Shrine Has Received $38 Million In Taxpayer Funds

But that isn’t stopping Liveshot Kerry and Chavez Boy Toy, Ed Markey from nosing around for another $30 million.

With $38.3 million in federal earmarks already secured for the Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate, Sen. John F. Kerry and Rep. Edward J. Markey (D-Malden) have in recent days tapped the government for $30 million more in the next budget.

The new taxpayer-funded total would cover the full $60 million estimated cost of building the project, adjacent to John F. Kennedy Presidential Library at Columbia Point. And it would put the public on the hook for nearly half the project’s $150 million target.

“If the Kennedy family wants to honor the family they should find a way to fund it themselves,” said David E. Williams of Citizens Against Government Waste, a Washington nonprofit group.

Aren’t you happy that your tax dollars are being spent on a shrine to a man who left a woman to die to save his political career?

Chris Matthews Indignant At Question About MSNBC’s Dismal Ratings

And he refused to answer the question.

A petulant Chris Matthews wouldn’t talk about MSNBC’s recent ratings dip during an interview flogging his fawning essay on the late Sen. Edward Kennedy that’s in the November issue of Boston magazine.

“Let’s just drop all the conversation about my network,” the “Hardball” host huffed the other day. “I’m not a media critic.”

It could be that Matthews got a little hot under the collar because his left-leaning network has been losing viewers.

During the recent third-quarter ratings period, Fox News averaged about 2.26 million total viewers in prime time and was up 2 percent from the same time last year. CNN had 949,000 viewers and was down 30 percent. MSNBC averaged 795,000 viewers and was down 10 percent.

In the coveted 25- to 54-year-old demographic, Fox News averaged 589,000 viewers and was up 5 percent. CNN had 288,000 and was down 39 percent. SNBC had 275,000 and was down 21 percent.

Mediaweek television analyst Marc Berman says Fox News is well above the competition.

“There’s bleeding everywhere except Fox News,” Berman said. “The rich has gotten richer and that’s Fox News.”

Matthews did, however, weigh in on the feud between rival Fox News and the Obama administration, which has accused the channel of being an “arm of the Republican Party” and said it shouldn’t be treated as a news organization.

“My hunch is they’ve discovered in their research that the commentators on that network have begun to cut into the independents and that they’re worried that some independents are listening to those voices and believing them,” Matthews opined.

As for his essay on Kennedy, Matthews says the glossy mag approached him to write it. The theme of his piece is how the legendary lawmaker triumphed over tragedy, and it’s the opening essay for the magazine’s upcoming Kennedy bonanza.

Boston magazine senior editor Paul Kix said they picked Matthews because he’d known Kennedy for a long time and because of his connection to the late House Speaker Thomas P. “Tip” O’Neill Jr. Matthews was the Cambridge Democrat’s top aide for six years.

Kix said he was also chosen for the “buzziness.”

“Though he’s not a local guy, he does have a reputation within media circles,” Kix said.

In addition to O’Neill, Matthews tells us he does have other Bay State ties. He graduated from Holy Cross and has a summer home on Nantucket.

The magazine had tried to get Kennedy’s widow, Vicki, to cooperate but she wasn’t interested . . .

Mary Jo Kopechne was not available for comment on the essay.

40th Anniversary of Chappaquiddick – Mary Jo Kopechne still cannot be reached for comment

Forty years ago today, Mary Jo Kopechne died in a car at the bottom of Poucha Pond while Ted Kennedy plotted to save his reputation and political career.

On July 18, 1969, Kennedy and Kopechne both attended a party at a cottage on Chappaquiddick Island.  Kennedy, a married man, and Kopechne left the party together in his car.  Kennedy claims he took a wrong turn and ended up on Dike Bridge where he lost control and the car went off the bridge. After the car plunged into the pond, he managed to extract himself and claims he made several attempts to free Mary Jo to no avail.  Instead of running for help, Kennedy walked back to the cottage where earlier he had been partying to summons his cousin, Joseph Gargan, and his friend, Paul Markham.  On the walk to the cottage Kennedy passed a fire station and a private home, but did not stop to ask for help at either.  All three men claim they returned to the scene made several more failed attempts to save Mary Jo.  This is where the story becomes ridiculous and sinister at the same time.  Kennedy and the other two men claim that he swam five hundred feet across the channel back to Edgartown and then walked to his hotel where he changed his clothes, complained about a noisy party (alibi, no doubt) and spent the night. 

The next morning Gargan and Markham claimed to be shocked that Kennedy hadn’t reported the accident to the authorities.  What did the three of them do next?  They returned to Chappaquidick and started working the phones.  Little did they know that two fishermen had discovered the car and had called the police.  At 8:45 a.m. the body of Mary Jo Kopechne was recovered from the submerged car. At 10:00 a.m. Kennedy walked into the Edgartown police station and reported the accident.  Nine hours had elapsed since the car went off the bridge. 

We all know what happened next.  The speech, the autopsy embargo, the neck brace, the slap on the wrist, the re-election to the Senate.  The continued womanizing and boozing until he was again in the news for an Easter weekend gone bad when his nephew was accused of rape following a day of partying with his cousin and uncle.

So when people revere Kennedy as the Liberal Lion of the Senate and gush over his accomplishments (can you name me five?), please  forgive me if I’m not feeling the warm fuzzies.