I have been reading that many wonder whether such a flawed person could have been re-elected so many times in the age of the 24-hour news REcycle.

I would like to believe that we recognize that we all have flaws and moral failings.  It is hypocrisy that we cannot abide. And maybe, too, the lies that seek to cover up the hypocrisy. 

Sen. Kennedy was human and so he is flawed.  He was born into wealth and into the closest thing this nation has to an aristocracy.  He lost his brothers by violence, two of them by assassination.  The dreams and hopes of a mourning nation broke his shoulders.  He also is responsible for the death of a young woman and possibly two passengers on a private plane.  He was the adult at a drinking party where a rape occurred.  He had affairs and abused alcohol. 

He never pretended to anything other than a flawed man and he used his wealth and name to do good for others.  He didn’t use others to create his wealth and name.  That is why his political career would have survived the 24-hour news REcycle.