Robert F. Kennedy

**barbaro** · 05-06-2008, 10:55 PM

Robert F. Kennedy was before my time, but I've read his very long biography and I've always been a bit curious about him. Probably because he died young, and he was gaining momentum in an election during such a turbulent time in US history. Any thoughts, comments, opinions, on RFK? Maybe none of us were around at the time. He was assassninated 40 years ago, this week.

In Memory Of Bobby

Forty Years Later, Jeff Greenfield Recalls The Remarkable Life And Tragic Death Of A Political Icon

Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, seen here in March 1967, came from a family of wealth and privilege with a reputation for toughness, even ruthlessness, but emerged during his shortened life as a moral voice against injustice, poverty and war. (AP Photo)

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(CBS) Robert Francis Kennedy … RFK … was assassinated 40 years ago this coming week. Few Americans will ever forget the shock of that night, and what it would mean. Among those working in Bobby Kennedy's presidential campaign was Jeff Greenfield, now our Senior Political Correspondent. He offers a very personal recollection of a man who spoke to so many in so many different ways.

He has been gone almost as long as he was alive, and from a distance of four decades, Robert Kennedy is often seen as a player in a pageant: heir to a murdered President from America's most famous political family … a tumultuous presidential campaign in a tumultuous political year that ended on the floor of a hotel kitchen in Los Angeles.

But why, so many years later, are the memories still so sharp, the loss still so painful?

Photographer Bill Eppridge said, "I don't know of a single person who affected me the way he did."

Veteran CBS News correspondent Roger Mudd said, "There was about Robert Kennedy a perpetual sense of outrage. As a reporter, it was something to behold."

"He had the ability to speak out of his soul, out of his gut," said Congressman John Lewis, D-Ga., "and people believed in him."

… including a 24-year-old speechwriter fresh out of law school.

I make no pretense of neutrality; I worked on Kennedy's Senate staff and on his presidential campaign, and still regard him as the most remarkable political figure of my lifetime.

But the question you're entitled to ask of people who believe as I do is, why?

He came from a family of wealth and privilege with a reputation for toughness, even ruthlessness, that began with his campaign against labor boss Jimmy Hoffa in the late 1950s. It was a reputation he could not or would not explain.

Entire: In Memory Of Bobby, Forty Years Later, Jeff Greenfield Recalls The Remarkable Life And Tragic Death Of A Political Icon - CBS News

**sabang** · 06-06-2008, 08:46 AM

Originally Posted by Milkman

Few Americans will ever forget the shock of that night

The assassination of JFK shook the world. Outside of the US, the RFK job didn't get much attention, we just thought imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.

**barbaro** · 06-06-2008, 09:16 AM

Originally Posted by sabang

Originally Posted by Milkman

Few Americans will ever forget the shock of that night

The assassination of JFK shook the world. Outside of the US, the RFK job didn't get much attention, we just thought imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.

I've read that RFK stated he's send American troops to Israel, and this was the reason why Sirhan Sirhan killed him. I've been googling to look for these statements. I'll post them if I find them, and if I don't I'll edit this post.

**barbaro** · 06-06-2008, 09:22 AM

Here's a snippet. Lots of website articles on this. I'm not sure on the accuracy, although Sirhan was motivated by RFK's stance on Israel.

Sirhan, a Christian Arab born in Jerusalem, had moved to California as a teenager and was 24 when he shot Kennedy. “My only connection with Robert Kennedy was his sole support of Israel and his deliberate attempt to send those 50 bombers to Israel to obviously do harm to the Palestinians,” he told David Frost in 1989. . . .

Link: Political Mavens » Robert Kennedy martyred for Israel

**blackgang** · 06-06-2008, 09:45 AM

He was just another Lying Lawyer of the super mofia Kennedy clan out of Mass. and with ties back to the Mafia rumrunning when Old Joe made most of his money.
Was a full fledged Politician and had already served as AG under his brother and would have made a piss poor prez.
If he was such a hot shot legal mind I wonder why he couldn't have brought charges again his brother Ted for the killing of MaryJo Kopecnic [sp]

**barbaro** · 06-06-2008, 10:09 AM

Originally Posted by blackgang

He was just another Lying Lawyer of the super mofia Kennedy clan out of Mass. and with ties back to the Mafia rumrunning when Old Joe made most of his money.
Was a full fledged Politician and had already served as AG under his brother and would have made a piss poor prez.
If he was such a hot shot legal mind I wonder why he couldn't have brought charges again his brother Ted for the killing of MaryJo Kopecnic [sp]

Yeah, I do think he's put on a pedastool because of his looks, and being assassinated during those turbulent times, let alone when he was a potential contender for President. And like the rest of the entire extended Kennedy family, there was crooked connections.

**GooMaiRoo** · 06-06-2008, 11:07 AM

Originally Posted by Milkman

I've read that RFK stated he's send American troops to Israel, and this was the reason why Sirhan Sirhan killed him. I've been googling to look for these statements. I'll post them if I find them, and if I don't I'll edit this post.

A bit of research on RFK's murder led me to some very troubling questions.

1.) Prominent LA coroner Thomas Noguchi reported powder burns in back of RFK's ear, suggesting a shot from less than 2 inches away. This contradicts reported eyewitness accounts, all having Sirhan standing face-to-face with RFK and never getting within a foot or two of him.

2.) Shane O'Sullivan's original photographic evidence shows three very interesting and shadowy operatives in the Ambassador Hotel that night who had absolutely no reason to be there.

Re-Open RFK assassination

3.) Stanislaw Pruszynski's audio tape, recorded during the shooting, suggests five more shots than Sirhan had in his revolver:

New evidence challenges official picture of Kennedy shooting | Science | guardian.co.uk

4.) The bullet holes in the kitchen pantry doorframe, circled, photographed and identified but ultimately ignored, suggest a 2nd gun. Officials stopped counting after 8 bullets were accounted for. Photos are in the following link:

Robert Kennedy Assassination

A reasonable, open-minded person who studies the above evidence would find it hard to conclude that Sirhan acted alone. RFK was a rock star, Obama doesn't approach the electricity that Bobby created during his run for the presidency. I'll never forget my beautiful junior high school Spanish teacher who I had a serious crush on, in tears that morning after RFK was shot. I was to young to grasp JKF's murder in 1963, so June 5th, 1968 was the day the music died for me.

**Norton** · 10-06-2008, 01:06 PM

Originally Posted by blackgang

If he was such a hot shot legal mind I wonder why he couldn't have brought charges again his brother Ted for the killing of MaryJo Kopecnic [sp]

He was dead.

**Redneck** · 10-06-2008, 01:39 PM

I recently read Gore Vidal's autobiography. He was close and friendly with all the Kennedys, but couldn't stand Bobby. His view was that behind the PR machine, Bobby was a ruthless man, only interested in ambition and power, (and a serial adulterer)

**obsidian** · 10-06-2008, 01:44 PM

Originally Posted by Norton

Originally Posted by blackgang

If he was such a hot shot legal mind I wonder why he couldn't have brought charges again his brother Ted for the killing of MaryJo Kopecnic [sp]

He was dead.

your response, blackgang?

(hehehehehe)

**raycarey** · 10-06-2008, 03:58 PM

Originally Posted by Norton

Originally Posted by blackgang

If he was such a hot shot legal mind I wonder why he couldn't have brought charges again his brother Ted for the killing of MaryJo Kopecnic [sp]

He was dead.

too funny.

555555

**blackgang** · 10-06-2008, 06:44 PM

Originally Posted by Norton

He was dead.

Thats right, he was dead about a year on the wrong side of her murder by ol Teddy Baby wasn't he.
My mistake.. But it makes no difference really as far as a Kennedy ever standing up for what he done.

**Jet Gorgon** · 11-06-2008, 06:13 AM

^ Careful. Caroline is out there trying to find a veep candidate for her hero, BO.

**barbaro** · 11-06-2008, 07:21 PM

Here's a brief 2 minute speech RFK gave about the nation's GDP and how it's measured. It's kind of abstract, but interesting nonetheless:

**GooMaiRoo** · 12-06-2008, 09:21 AM

Originally Posted by Milkman

Here's a brief 2 minute speech RFK gave about the nation's GDP and how it's measured. It's kind of abstract, but interesting nonetheless:

That was profound stuff. Nowadays there's a lot of talk among progressives about the distribution of America's GDP, but we rarely talk about its quality. It was amazing how RFK got such a tremendous response from the powerless without talking down to them.

**attaboy** · 15-06-2008, 10:58 AM

He (RFK) served briefly on the staff of the Senate Subcommittee on Investigations, chaired by Senator Joseph McCarthy. Kennedy's investigative work confirmed reports that countries allied with the United States against Communist China in the Korean War were also shipping goods to Communist China, but did not imply, as Senator McCarthy often did, that traitors were making American foreign policy.

Robert F Kennedy Memorial

Originally, RFK was a conservative Democrat but his views changed after he spent time visiting inner city blacks living in poverty.

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