Michael Beschloss (presidential historian) said something troubling on MSNBC

[Lancer]

He was talking with Andrea Mitchell earlier today and said "I would not have said this out loud a few days ago," but Ted Kennedy's offices routinely received death threats all the time at a fairly constant rate. They never stopped.

That anecdote just brought me up short. From the way Beschloss said it I assume that this was not common knowledge. Given the level of hatred of the RW whackjobs right now, I wouldn't be surprised if there had been an escalation of threats against Teddy in the last year or two, even though the poor man was dying. It was the fact that the level and number of threats against him had evidently remained unchanged for decades that I found profoundly sad.

Anyone else hear this? What did you think?

[Rob Gregory Browne]

1. It's disheartening, but

it doesn't seem to take much to get a death threat in this country. Years ago I had a friend who was a TV newscaster in Hawaii. Never said a controversial word. And even HE got a very serious death threat. And nobody ever knew why.

But I can tell you that it scared the hell out of him, so imagine what Kennedy had to live with...

[eleny]

2. I also heard that,

Too many out there who have only brief encounters with sanity.

[alsame]

3. I heard that earlier. The Kennedys have been hated by the

right wingers for many years, they seem to symbolize everything that is loathed by the right.

I would bet these threats have been coming in for years, not just recently.

I also suspect some sickos wanted to be the one to take down the last remaining brother.

[aquart]

4. I'm not even slightly surprised.

[Echo In Light]

5. It's scary when you realize the degree of blind fury hatred some harbor for people of peace

[gratuitous]

6. Considering the right wing's cottage industries

Pumping out the hate and demonizing the Kennedys, I'd be shocked to find out that Ted hadn't received death threats for decades. Republicans like to do their killing by remote control, and turning up the crazy heat is just one way among many they get others to do for them what they're too gutless or squeamish to do themselves.

[xchrom]

7. if you're a kennedy...

:shrug:

[Doctor_J]

8. Right wingers are a bunch of terrorists

led by their leader, the obese, drug-addled pedophile. One difference is that Limpballs is too much of a coward to do anything himself - he won't even debate in the open. But many of his followers are terrorists who probably would act on his incitement.

[Gold Metal Flake]

9. I think we should take the RW threats as seriously as they wished that we would.

When the prisons are filled not with drug offenders but with weak, pudgy, underemployed, basement-dwelling keyboard commandos for their death threats, I gotta assume the number of such threats would decrease. Then maybe we could return to civilized discourse.

[undeterred]

10. That is shocking but it makes sense.

Kennedy was probably the most visible "liberal" and most right wingers are too stupid to know the name of more than one or two Senators. Just imagine how bad it is for the Secret Service right now.

[nadinbrzezinski]

11. Death threats are a common occurrence for VIPs

it is a constant of life. Some get more of them, some get less.

Right now Obama has gotten more than bush did. Two reasons, he is a Democrat, and he is black.

But chiefly he is a democrat.

And I was not shocked or surprised. I worked a couple details as an EMT and I learned this from a security man. He said, one thing you risk when you enter the public arena is a violent death. This was in Mexico, but this is a rule of thumb world wide.

[Hekate]

12. The man had a bulls-eye on his back. It's why I would never vote for him for President...

There is a wide streak of mean nuttiness woven through the American national character. I'm sorry to have to say that...

I simply thank whatever gods may be that THIS Kennedy male died peacefully at a ripe old age.

Hekate

[Parker CA]

13. I heard that in addition to Tweety the other night saying how Teddy drove a different route to the

capitol building everyday so as not not create any patterns. I wasn't aware of the ongoing threats, but Tweety went on for a few mins about how Teddy really faced many of them until the day he died.

[Uzybone]

14. He has been recieving them since JFK was assassinated.

Its sad, but he was probably used to them. The RW is an angry hateful animal.

[orleans]

15. i believe it. it was one of the things they/he had to put up with for being

a liberal--and a great one.

the right fringe couldn't stand him.

[Joanne98]

16. They're terrorists.

[maxpower]

17. Haven't those wackjobs done enough

to destroy our country. I am not an angry man, peace first and foremost. But my patience with the fuckers is wearing thin. Just wait until one of their own is taken from them.