The Senator: My Ten Years with Ted Kennedy

National Review, Nov 30, 1992 by Suzanne Garment

The Senator: My Ten Years with Ted Kennedy, by Richard Burke (St. Martin's, 328 pp., $23.95)

A PERSONAL assistant to Senator Edward M. Kennedy in the late 1970s, Richard Burke left his job after he was found to have faked death threats to himself and an attempt on his own life. Now, after business failures and bankruptcy, Burke has written an expose of his years with Kennedy. Why should anyone believe this guy? Burke addresses the problem cleverly by admitting that he told all those lies. But he says it was the booze-soaked, drug-laced, womanizing years with Kennedy that made him crazy and desperate enough to do it. Burke reports that Kennedy not only drank but used cocaine regularly, at least once with his children, and slept with one blonde after another--or, when possible, two at a time. Burke says he wanted to quit his job but was afraid of angering the senator. Finally he snapped and began conjuring up those phony threats. When his emotionally disturbed state was exposed, he had his justification for departing. Burke admits that Kenned, s decadence was limited in scope; the senator was a loving father and often acted out of real political principle. In other words, Kennedy's life, even in Burke's telling, was less disgusting than Burke's decision to write about it. Burke says that even before publication, Kennedy's friends began a carapaigu to discredit his book. This time around, it is hard not to sympathize with them.