The Senator: My Ten Years with Ted Kennedy

And there is a lot of dirt on Ted Kennedy to be sifted through by Richard Burke, who was a close, personal aide of Ted Kennedy for 10 years.Roger Mudd had a lot more on Ted Kennedy than he actual put on the air in that famous interview in 1980 where Ted could not articulate why he was running for president or defend his "personal" life.Recently, a book by Mimi Alford detailing her affair with JFK in the 1962-1963 time period came out. Mimi describes the sexual antics of JFK and even describes the time that JFK told her to fellate Dave Powers (which she did) and Ted Kennedy (which she did not). Mimi also describes JFK forcibly giving her "poppers" which are some sort of sexual stimulant drug. Mimi was age 19 at the time of her affair with JFK.Which brings us to the parallels of the Ted Kennedy/ "Pam Farmer" affair that is described in detail by Burke. "Pam Farmer" is a crytonym for an actual 17 year old cheerleader/intern that Ted Kennedy had an affair with. "Poppers" and cocaine use where also described by Richard Burke as part of Ted Kennedy's corrupting of this woman.[Richard E. Burke, "The Senator," pp. 133-135]"As soon as I could, I collared the Senator at his office. "Are you sure you know what you're doing?" I asked. "Yeah, don't worry," he reassured. But there was a familiar grin on his face. "She is awfully young," I warned. "And I'm not so sure she is going to keep her mouth shut." The grin spread to a full-blown smile. "I don't think she is intern material," I snapped, exasperated. He retorted, "I'm the boss." I spent much of the following summer keeping Pam, our bubbly teenage intern, under control. She fell head over heels for the Senator rather quickly and, just as quickly, became upset and jealous about his other relationships. "She turned to me as a confidant, freely admitting that she and the Senator had slept together, and detailing how the Senator had turned her on to coke and the joys of poppers. The only time she balked was when he tried to get her in bed with himself and another woman at the same time. "That was just too much," she whispered in her southern drawl.[Richard E. Burke, "The Senator," pp. 133-135]

Being deeply interested in the political life of late sixties and seventies of the last century(mainly because I was in the age of 18-30 at that time) I find this book very inspiring.The Kennedy family of John, Robert and Edward represented a great hope for us, people living behind the"iron curtain" at that time.The story itself is written in a interesting way coming gradually from the ideal view into the reality, exatly as ourgeneration did.

Reads like an expose'. Details of Senator Kennedy's life as a romancer of women, drug use and political deals. Author was very close to EMK for many years, obviously felt let down by the experience and lets it all go. No one emerges from this recounting without more than some tarnish on their shield.

fast shipper. As advertised

Hard to read and it was strictly dialogue

What can I say? Read the book - and understand Congress!

Is this book gossipy and tawdry (about both "The Senator" and "The Author")? Yes.Is it worth reading? Not really.Rick Burke was an assistant to the leading Democratic senator in Congress for 10 years. Did they both put in long hours? Yes. Did Kennedy "play hard" (booze, women) in his free time? Yes.Did it ever seem to hurt his efficacy as a senator, even according to Burke, the harshest (supposedly Democratic) critic of him that I've read?No, it didn't. Kennedy doesn't miss votes, doesn't fail to take his "bag" of study materials home every night and master them, is always prepared for the vote, working for that consensus that gets our laws passed. Doing a great job for the state that elected him and beyond that, for his country and to perpetuate the things that his brothers also believed in.I nearly gave this book "1 star" because, seriously...10 years at the center of government? With the top Democratic senator in the nation? Working for a DECADE on the issues of our time? And THIS is the book you write?Talk about wasted opportunities!But I gave it "2 stars" because it does present a critical view of Kennedy, balances out the hagiography, by showing his personal failings (booze, drugs, sex) while still trying to be a loving and available father figure to the huge Kennedy family, and a great advocate for Americans who desperately need someone who is trying to make laws to help them (okay, Burke doesn't spend much time on any of that political stuff. I just put that in because, well, that's MOSTLY what Kennedy did. He was a champion of workers, the poor, women, minorities of all kinds and he worked for peace and stood up for causes that others wouldn't.)A HUGE problem with this book is the sleazy impression it leaves when it ends--even though Kennedy's life and career went on for 20 more years--a time during which he really settled down personally with his happy marriage to Vicki Reggie and he fought on against the war in Iraq, the Patriot Act, supported Obama's candidacy at a crucial time (and earning the wrath of Bill Clinton in the process, when he could have stayed on the sidelines), and kept fighting for health care which he called, "the cause of my life". The way he came on stage to speak at the 2008 Denver Convention, with terminal brain cancer, was just...well, there are no words (and none that I'd want to use to describe my feelings about that night would be found in this book. The author, if anything, seems short on idealism, in spite of his protestations to the contrary.)I don't care for this book, but I'll say this: for all his faults, Ted Kennedy was a great man. It will take a better writer--and, in my opinion, man--than Richard Burke to judge Ted Kennedy for history.

Richard Burke, who worked for Ted Kennedy for 10 years in the 70s and early 80s, paints a disgusting portrait of the senator.

I'm glad I bought this book off the $1 table at the used book store. Ordinarily I pass my books along, or sell them back to the used book store, but I threw this one in the...

Despite this book's title "The Senator", for me it was more a portrait of how author Richard Burke endured myriad life changes resulting from close proximity to a major...

Unfortunately, I believe I am familiar with the actual Pam Farmer story. During the summer of 1974 I dated a seventeen-year-old debutante named Pam who was interning at Kennedy's...

First of all, I had some bias prior to reading this book. I knew of many of the antics of the Kennedy family through acquaintances and visiting the compound once but with the...

I am a die hard Kennedy fan and this is one of my favorite Kennedy books to date; however, you will appreciate it more if you have a background in "Kennedy history" which helps...