Stormy Daniels and Ted Kennedy

The Democrats are trying to make something out of Donald Trump’s alleged dalliance, twelve years ago, with porn performer Stormy Daniels. I wrote about it here. Frankly, I don’t think anyone cares.

But the story is interesting because it raises questions about what, in our era, constitutes a scandal. Trump’s long-ago romps with Daniels–assuming the stories are true–don’t qualify. There is one person, of course, who has a right to be outraged and probably is, but Melania doesn’t work for the Washington Post or the New York Times, and what she makes of the story is none of our business.

Worst case, Trump paid Stormy Daniels. But he didn’t kill her. That distinguishes him from the Liberal Lion of the Senate. If you want a scandal, and a cover-up that succeeded to a remarkable degree, look no further than Chappaquiddick. The Democratic Party conspired to cover up Ted Kennedy’s crime–manslaughter, in a particularly vile form–to preserve his political viability, at the cost of an innocent young woman’s life.

To this day, most people have no idea what the Chappaquiddick scandal was all about. That is how successful the Democrats’ cover-up has been. Most Americans assume that Kennedy was guilty of drunk driving and negligently causing the death of Mary Jo Kopechne. But the truth is much worse.

Several books have told the real story, but the movie Chappaquiddick may finally blow the lid off the Democrats’ cover-up. Based on the trailers, it apparently will tell the truth: that Ted Kennedy, after driving off a bridge into Poucha Pond, escaped from his car but made no attempt to save Miss Kopechne. That Kopechne didn’t drown, but eventually suffocated for lack of oxygen as she waited for Kennedy to rescue her. That Kopechne could have been saved if Kennedy had simply called the local rescue squad. That Kennedy was such a self-centered coward that he left Kopechne to die, concerned only for his own political future. That instead of calling for help, he walked back to the house where his party was still in progress. That when he arrived, he tried to convince his cousin Joe Gargan to say that he had been driving the car. That he never did call the police to report the accident, but rather spent the night trying to concoct an alibi. That the Democrats fixed the legal process so that Kennedy would pay no meaningful penalty for the death he callously caused. That Kennedy pretended to have been injured in the accident in order to excuse his cowardice, and wore a neck brace to Kopechne’s funeral to further that lie.

There have been more disgusting human beings than the Liberal Lion of the Senate, but Kennedy was very near the bottom of the scale. Yet he remained a hero to Democrats until the day he died, forty years after he killed Mary Jo Kopechne. That is what I call a scandal: not only Ted Kennedy’s manslaughter–frankly, a charitable characterization–but the Democratic Party’s decades-long cover-up.

Donald Trump should take no grief for whatever he did years ago with the still-alive, still-flourishing, and reportedly financially better-off Stormy Daniels. If I were Trump, every time a reporter tried to ask me about Daniels, I would respond by talking about Chappaquiddick.

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