51 Comments

• cillowen | Aug 01, 2012, 09:09 PM EDT

  looking for a family to use as a family

• cillowen | Aug 01, 2012, 09:08 PM EDT

  test ................................................

• cillowen | Aug 01, 2012, 09:08 PM EDT

  test

• Martin T. Quinn | Jul 21, 2012, 03:47 PM EDT

  Every one is looking for a family to use as a family to use as the new Masai. Can it be that people in there search are overlooking the one family that is the most important. There own.......

• Martin T. Quinn | Jul 17, 2012, 07:17 AM EDT

  McNamara31 You should red a bit more. Kennedy escalated the readiness of US first strike forces while aware that the USSR forces were stood down. General Jack Catton CO 822d Air Division stated that 'the Russians were so thoroughly stood down, and we knew it...We were never further from nuclear war than at the time of Cuba, never further.' Kennedy was posturing at the time... trying to make himself the big man. He continued to threaten to invade Cuba using the Soviet missiles and planes as the excuse, but don't forget, it was Kennedys' policy to invade Cuba even before he knew about the missiles. Castro asked the SOviets for the missles to prevent any US invasion. The Russiuns used unpublicised channels to provide a get out to Kennedy... that was the removal of the Jupiter missiles from Turkey. You are correct that McNamara suggested no action cause at the time the US had approx 3000 nuclear weapons capable of hitting USSR while USSR had 300 that could hit the US. Kennedy was a posturing bully.

• luxefaire | Jul 16, 2012, 06:35 PM EDT

  we would much rather get over the bush crime family, but apparently that is not an option, as they have already been bought and paid for by the internationalists who really do not have Americas best interest in mind....to the contrary, they are just carrion feeders, and they have done their best to destroy what this country is about...they all do not speak fluent spanish for no reason, don't you know? Project elephant herd, and electronic mind control are just a few of the predations they have introduced here....they are the errand boys of israel, and are also mormon pawns. Money and conflict are their gods. It looks like they will illegally be appointed (jeb and mitt, mitt and jeb, my prediction from 3 years ago still stands) in the whitehouse, by hacking the electronic voting machines or by whatever means of cheating they can come up with, it is their forte...goodbye America, one book was good enough for you....b

• Sheilah | Jul 16, 2012, 02:33 PM EDT

  well thankfully, we're not all fair weathered friends - Jeb Bush's daughter Noelle was arrested for drugs and sent to rehab for repeated use of same - his wife was arrested in Fl for failing to report net worth of items she bought in France- one of the Bush sons was forever banned from banking in USA for fraud in Texas banking - why should we forget the Kennedy's - many children of famous people get into trouble - in politics, in Hollywood, etc etc.

• McNamara31 | Jul 16, 2012, 12:49 PM EDT

  @Schon... Do a bit more reading on the subject. My facts are right. Khrushchev and Kennedy were in dialogue. The heads of the American military were pushing Kennedy to make a strike. It was because Kennedy and McNamara both kept "cool, rational" heads, that nuclear disaster was avoided. At the time, their were 162 missiles positioned in Cuba (at us) and Castro told Khrushchev to give him the "go ahead" The truth is Kennedy and Khrushchev (both) went against pressure from their military leadership and avoided the crisis. Also years later it was learned Kennedy had agreed to withdraw the U.S. missiles from Turkey which had been the major reason for contention in the first place.

• cavan61 | Jul 16, 2012, 11:32 AM EDT

  Mr. Roberts, you've stated the unpleasant truth. The baby-boom generation of Kennedys is not as great as their parents. Although the boomers were blessed with wealth, connections, and public goodwill, they are not the source of Irish pride that their parents were. Although I could make excuses for them (eg., the assassinations of JFK and RFK) it would be best to simply let them fade into obscurity. Most of them seem to be avoiding publicity as much as possible.

• Schon | Jul 16, 2012, 08:54 AM EDT

  Yo McNamara31, get your facts right. It was Kennedy that brought the world to crisis with his standoff between himself and Kruschev over the Cuban missiles debacle. It was Kruschev who was the big man and stood down. It was Kennedy that authorised the Bay of Pigs fiasco and then withdrew support for the action, after the landings! It was Kennedy policy of involving the US in Vietnam, the policy that Lyndon Johnson continued to his personal regrets. Kennedy was too busy screwing people, literally and figuratively, to be an effective leader. His da bought him the Presidency. The same da that urged Roosevelt to support the Nazis.

• mayoman | Jul 16, 2012, 08:53 AM EDT

  Patrick Roberts is better than this tripe.

• hillofcroghan | Jul 16, 2012, 07:00 AM EDT

  What an idiotic article, and to propose the Bush's as exemplary, dear god.

• IrelandNorth | Jul 16, 2012, 05:27 AM EDT

  Citizens of the United States of America (USA), and the Republic for which it stands, need to dispense with a residual peculiarly Anglo-centric need for a first family. USA is a Republic, for God's sake, not the 13 colonies of a megalomaniacle English king. Time to grow up politically, guys, unike the terminally infanticised Angles and their imperialised British franchisees. After all, it's a bit rich for Irish-America to be reimporting a system of political family surrogacy which their ancestors fought so hard to rid Ireland from.

• McNamara31 | Jul 15, 2012, 09:46 PM EDT

  Such Crapola! Mr. Roberts should go back and read the accounts of how two Irishmen saved the world from nuclear obliteration in October 1962. One was John Kennedy (and the other Robert McNamara) The Kennedy's are like all families, a combination of saints and sinners however the Kennedy legacy is filled with far more good than bad. And an Irish paper should realize that.

• DaisyBright | Jul 15, 2012, 08:31 PM EDT

  "Camelot"- the misguided and exaggerated symbol of the Kennedys has been in a downhill slide since 1963. It had nowhere else to go did it? Many of the family's current members look to be concerned solely with whatever press they can get, good or bad and while a few appear to lead productive and low-profile lives,it is RFK's kids who are providing the bulk of the current tabloid fodder. Bad choices, thinking they are above the law perhaps- lots of reasons. I don't believe Americans feel they need a royal family though and have grown beyond tired of the Kennedys. It would be best for the country and that family if they just went away for a few decades.

• irishpjk | Jul 15, 2012, 08:27 PM EDT

  wtf Thank you Patrick you are one of the very few writers to address the real problem with the Kennedys; themselves. As you can see from the comments people still find excuses for them, you will also see that their hatred for George Bush is as blind as or as stupid as their love of the Kennedys. Back when JFK ran for office I was taken in by him and his party I loved both, but I could just look the other way for so long.

• Ianous | Jul 15, 2012, 07:29 PM EDT

  Soon as the family started mixing with non-irish blood they went downhill.

• seanaci | Jul 15, 2012, 06:59 PM EDT

  There's something pathetic about the citizens of any republic - Ireland or the USA - "needing" a first family. Anyone who feels the need of being a subject can move to somewhere that has a monarch. As for the Bush family - their fortune is based in part on profits from "dealing with the enemy" as the Guardian reported in 2004. "George Bush's grandfather, the late US senator Prescott Bush, was a director and shareholder of companies that profited from their involvement with the financial backers of Nazi Germany. The Guardian has obtained confirmation from newly discovered files in the US National Archives that a firm of which Prescott Bush was a director was involved with the financial architects of Nazism. His business dealings, which continued until his company's assets were seized in 1942 under the Trading with the Enemy Act, has led more than 60 years later to a civil action for damages being brought in Germany against the Bush family by two former slave labourers at Auschwitz." At least the Kennedy money came from bootlegging and politics - good ol' American traditions.

• Moirann16 | Jul 15, 2012, 06:57 PM EDT

  Really?? You say that Dubya did right by his country? That would be a negative. Rather, the most important thing to realize from the Kennedys and other Irish is the wholly insidious effect of alcoholism. Once we stop mandating that it be part of the national psyche, the better off we will all be.

• Deidra47 | Jul 15, 2012, 06:11 PM EDT

  Jeb Bush's kids have problems....the daughter is an addict and has been in and out of treatment/even stole a prescription pad from a doc so she could get her prescription drugs for abuse/son has had problems with the lae for being a peeping tom. George W may have sobered up but it doesn't appear he went to any kind of rehab to get to the source of why he drank and popped pills too and that makes you a dry drunk/because of his addictions he really didn't servee honorably in the service by missing his weekends and disappearing during those days he was to report to duty. His girls were def. party girls but they did clean up well. So lets not give the impression every thing is wonderful with the Bush famuly.

• mcbreen | Jul 15, 2012, 05:57 PM EDT

  If this GOP rag would have reported GW Bushs AWOL during Vietnam, or Neil Bush's 50 million-dollar debacle with Silverado bank, then it would be harder to make the case that you make. When you have real power, the right-wing tabloids remain silent as to your faults.

• mcbreen | Jul 15, 2012, 05:53 PM EDT

  This sleaze-bag publication showed it's stripes when a few months ago it even tried to make the case that Newt Gingerich was somehow Irish.

• milton dunn | Jul 15, 2012, 05:18 PM EDT

  thgis is a family that is dirty all the way from joe his wife and befor

• Nicopernicus | Jul 15, 2012, 04:46 PM EDT

  The writer got exactly what he was after. People who responded with a stuck CAPS lock got the worst of it.

• Fearbruscar | Jul 15, 2012, 04:40 PM EDT

  Early on, I learned not to argue with an idiot.

• christilcaugh | Jul 15, 2012, 04:39 PM EDT

  Sadly, people in power seldom think beyond their own wants. We did not know much from that first Kennedy generation because the press mostly stayed quiet. Power simply corrupts.

• alisaann | Jul 15, 2012, 04:24 PM EDT

  the BUSH FAMILY has done MORE to HURT this country, then to HELP it....they got us into wars, we had NO business in....lied about things...their wars were ALL ABOUT MONEY & OIL....the GOP don't care about the POOR...they want to TAKE things away from people....bush got osama's family out of the country on 911, when ALL flights were grounded. alisa

• irishamrep | Jul 15, 2012, 04:14 PM EDT

  @c3lt1cl4dy you are absolutely right about that! And as far as heros or first families it's the quiet gentle heroes I admire. I assure you! God bless you and rest your soules Superentendant McCrossen and Captain James Reynolds!

• alisaann | Jul 15, 2012, 04:12 PM EDT

  forget it....IRISH AMERICA will NEVER stop LOVNING the kennedys, no matter many feel they should be forgotten....they will ALWAYS be america's ROYALTY....the kennedys may have their personal problems, BUT they've done ALOT OF GOOD for people as well. alisa

• c3lt1cl4dy | Jul 15, 2012, 03:46 PM EDT

  In the Bible we see curses lasting 4 generations. Curses are real, unfortunately. I believe the Kennedy's need to reflect on their faith and and request a healing of the family tree from a priest who knows what he is doing. I have seen families healed in this way. We all need to put more faith in God, not in Hollywood, fame or fortune.

• irishamrep | Jul 15, 2012, 03:31 PM EDT

  Believe me the Irish in America don't look to the Kennedy's as the first anything, not for a vey long time! Thank Ted for that one! In fact in the exclusively Irish neighborhood I grew up in they couldn't stand Joe Kennedy he made his money on the backs of the poor. There all a bunch of left wing, screwed up loons!

• irishamrep | Jul 15, 2012, 03:07 PM EDT

  There's no need for an Irish-American "royal" family full of sentimental myths. I do admire Jackie, though, especially after leaving the White House. She was not perfect, especailly in regard to Onassis, but she was a traumatized (yet brave) widow at that time. She worked hard to raise her children as decent, grounded rich kids. As did the Shrivers. The young Shrivers are doing fine, and they do not have the curse of the Kennedy name. ... Joe Kennedy was a monster in how he ran his family, and Rose Kennedy retreated into piety, so it's a wonder any of them turned out OK.

• Fearbruscar | Jul 15, 2012, 02:53 PM EDT

  Over 58,000 young Americans lost their lives following Kennedy's, " . . .support any friend, oppose any foe" speech. JFK had his new Green Berets in Vietnam long before anyone cares to realize! So AlunPalmer you are right, 10 years in Vietnam with over 58,000 dead does not compare with under 5,000 in Iraq and Afganistan to date. BTW let's not forget that it was Richard Nixon, the man that was cheated out of the election by the Kennedy's, who finally got us out of Kennedy's Vietnamese folly!

• Chris1791 | Jul 15, 2012, 02:43 PM EDT

  The entire Kennedy clan is paying the price for all the people they have hurt over the years. AlunPalmer since Joe Kennedy made his hundreds of million on liquor he is responsible for the deaths of more people than the Iraq war. Alcohol related deaths in the US kill 75,000 a year times 90 years - so the Kennedy clan made their millions by killing 6,750,000 people so far. There has been less than 6,000 killed in both wars in 10 years. There is a reason the Kennedy clan is cursed. They power & money is based in evil. The Bush family has done more good for this country then the Kennedy family.

• borefield | Jul 15, 2012, 02:36 PM EDT

  I have never voted for a Kennedy, do not like the family and I'm sick of reading about their indiscretions BUT, cant IC find some other news to write about. You are a pathetic , sadistic lot especially, Cahir and you Patrick. Go back to school and study real journalism.

• AlunPalmer | Jul 15, 2012, 02:17 PM EDT

  Spoken like a true Republican. Any problems in the Kennedys' personal lives fall into insignificance when compared with the wars started by the Bush's. Not a good comparison atall.

• seagreen | Jul 15, 2012, 01:43 PM EDT

  Garbo 55 I do not care if Obama did or did not get Bin Ladin (personally I think he died in 2008) Thats what a Egyptian christian cargo supervisor told me in Iskanderun. It is your unbelievable attempt to disassociate him from anything that could be called positive. "the military got him" Who was supposed to carry out operations like that ? Senate staffers ? My car won't start, I can't get promoted in my job, I'm not getting laid. Why don't you just come out and say that you are scared to death that a black guy might get reelected instead of all the footwork. I'm not sure I like the guy, but give it a break, its Obama fault because the blender won't work !

• kilgara | Jul 15, 2012, 01:35 PM EDT

  Don't people understand by now that this is all media hogwash designed to "sell papers" as they used to say.In the 60's the Kennedys could do no wrong,now they can do no right. The truth is somewhere in between but the media love to build people up so that they can later tear them down and sell all this tripe to a naive public.Will it ever end?

• garbo55 | Jul 15, 2012, 12:52 PM EDT

  Susan724 you talk about Obama getting Osama. Really where is the proof? No pictures were released and they buried his remains at sea? You want me to believe that Obama got him show me proof and by the way if they did get Osama it was not Obama who got him it was the US Military who got him, lets give the credit to those who actually did it.

• Murph46 | Jul 15, 2012, 12:40 PM EDT

  dickmac -so following your logic ,Kennedys are Gods? What the heck are you smoking? Name a family with a bigger bunch of losers more than them!

• MegK311 | Jul 15, 2012, 12:05 PM EDT

  I have never been big fan of the Kennedys. The one good thing they did was start the Special Olympics. I will give them credit for that.

• dickmac | Jul 15, 2012, 11:39 AM EDT

  To take the name "Kennedy" out of the American vocabulary would be like taking the name of GOD out of religion.

• hermitTalker | Jul 15, 2012, 11:08 AM EDT

  John F Kennedy was a highly symbolic political personality as the first Catholic president and one who charmed the world with Jackie. All of us are all too familiar with those who are obsessed by the sexual antics of politicians to the extent that their accomplishments are judged by that alone, which is typical of the puritanical Anglo-Saxon culture. We all do selective editing of the memories we have of family, the old days and our political parties and our faith group. Some damned the Kennedys for sex, and still do the Catholic Church for its teaching and dwell on its past and present failures to damn it also. Thus neglecting the total person and his real and "symbolic" life, same with the Church, it is a whole lot more than the sum of its parts, even the saints do not explain its full symbolic cultural impact. Same goes for the Bush family, the untested Joe Biden is not really in that league yet, Reagan, and even Lincoln, and Wwashington. They were imperfect humans who represented the dreams and hopes of their age. The factual and the symbolic are inertwined, including revisionism of their actual accomplishments in law which are also subject to editing and redaction.

• BippyBellito | Jul 15, 2012, 10:45 AM EDT

  I'm expecting you to suggest The Obama's. They are as corrupt as The Kennedy's. Your love affair with this Fraud of a President is beyond any normal infatuation. The Kennedy Fairy Tale pales in comparison with The Obama's. No one in the Kennedy Family (maybe Teddy) has been more narcissistic. Why Not?

• susan724 | Jul 15, 2012, 10:44 AM EDT

  bogsidebunny - don't forgot the "S" on the forehead - you know, for "S"tupid - I mean you now have Republican Romney who is dumber than a box of rocks and then yo had "W" who was so dumb that Romney doesn't even want his endorsement LOL! Oh, and then there is you - uh, then there is you who made the statement about "terrorists kicking"- can you say Obama got Osama??

• pickateer | Jul 15, 2012, 10:40 AM EDT

  The Kennedy's were, are and always will be nouveau riche trailer trash. The founder was a womanizing piece of dirt who made his fortune bootlegging booze and his descendents are no better. Never thought much of JFK when he was running for the Presidency, and time has shown my instincts regarding him and the rest of his ilk were correct. Hypocrites and phonies, nothing more! Even the second generation relations such as William Kennedy Smith and others like Patrick Kennedy are no better!

• susan724 | Jul 15, 2012, 10:36 AM EDT

  Patrick -oh pleeeeez, can you not find anything more interesting to write about rather than trashing the Kennedy family? Despite your jealousy, hatred or whatever it is that you have against them and, obviously, the Democratic Party,can you not give it a break? Even in 2011 a CNN poll the American people still rated John F. Kennedy as the most popular President in the last 50 years. He and the Kennedys will forever be American icons- it's a fact. So sorry no Republicans, other than the Lincolns, have achieved such status. Get over it! Rather than waste your time on such stupid topics, why not write about how "Ireland needs a new government and how the Irish dream has long since lost as next generations have screwed it up!" Oh, I forgot, you are in Washington, DC and not Ireland which explains it all!

• Fearbruscar | Jul 15, 2012, 10:32 AM EDT

  The Kennedy's are, and always have been, a bunch of skells! Old Joe schemed with his mob buddies to steal the election for JFK, who then proceeded to bang every broad he could get his hands on. JFK visited Ireland to rapturous applause and then came home to pen the Immigration Act with his brother RFK and his VP, LBJ, which halted legal immigration from Ireland for decades! Teddy Kennedy killed Mary Jo Kopeckne while driving drunk and left the scene, he was pure excrement! We Irish Americans don't need a first family and we surely don't need a freak show like the Kennedy's out in front. It is not we who keep them in the spotlight,but the media people with surnames that often originate in places other than our ancestral homeland. So maybe if you stop writing about these animals they will simply implode in privacy! Please mass media people, spare us the gory details of this traveling freak show and let them suffer in peace.

• micky74007 | Jul 15, 2012, 10:24 AM EDT

  What is this habit Kennedy's have of causing accidents and running away? Ted set the standard pretty high, but his family is doing their best to live up to his cowardness. PS-Joe Biden--really? All he is is obama's butt licker.

• torbreezy | Jul 15, 2012, 09:59 AM EDT

  Where do you get this "we" stuff? You are far too late in recognizing and acknowledging what reasonably intelligent people have known for a very long time . . .

• bogsidebunny | Jul 15, 2012, 08:26 AM EDT

  NOR THE OBAMAS. The United states needs a Conservative, gun-loving, tough justice, strongly comitted to terrorist exterminating family with extra "longevity" genitics.