Commonplace for Massachusetts' senior senator to provide aid and comfort to America's enemies

To Hell with Ted Kennedy

By Jerry A. Kane
Saturday, August 29, 2009

If Dante Alighieri were alive today, to which of the four regions of Circle 9—the circle of treachery—would the thirteenth-century poet assign Ted Kennedy?

In Dante’s Inferno the regions of Caina, Antenora, Ptolomea, and Judecca are distinguished from one another by the particular offenses committed by the souls who inhabit them. The designated region for politicians who betray their country is Antenora, tailored to suit the offenses committed by the departed leftist lion Democrat.

Although it has become commonplace for Massachusetts’ senior senator to provide aid and comfort to America’s enemies and to accuse her President of secretly plotting and then deliberately starting an unnecessary war in Iraq, the earl of the waitress sandwich went a wee bit over the top when he collaborated with the Soviet KGB at the height of the Cold War to undermine a sitting President.

“In May 1983, the KGB ... reported to their bosses on a discussion in Moscow with former Sen. John Tunney. Kennedy had instructed Tunney, according to the KGB, to carry a message to Yuri Andropov, the General Secretary of the Soviet Communist Party, expressing Kennedy’s concern about the anti-Soviet activities of President Ronald Reagan.

The KGB reported ‘in Kennedy’s opinion the opposition to Reagan remains weak. Speeches of the President’s opponents are not well-coordinated and not effective enough, and Reagan has the chance to use successful counterpropaganda.’

Kennedy offered to ‘undertake some additional steps to counter the militaristic, policy of Reagan and his campaign of psychological pressure on the American population.’

Kennedy asked for a meeting with Andropov for the purpose of ‘arming himself with the Soviet leader’s explanations of arms control policy so he can use them later for more convincing speeches in the U.S.’

He also offered to help get Soviet views on the major U.S. networks and suggested inviting ‘Elton Rule, ABC chairman of the board, or observers Walter Cronkite or Barbara Walters to Moscow.’â€