Ted Kennedy in the #MeToo era

Maureen Callahan writes in the New York Post about

one of the most grievous miscarriages of justice, one of the grossest abuses of wealth and political power, and one of the most ill-deserved second acts in modern American history: July 18, 1969, the night a probably-drunk Ted Kennedy drove off a bridge at Chappaquiddick and left a young, adoring campaign aide named Mary Jo Kopechne to die in about three feet of water, her horrific death a slow agony — one that took hours — as she doubtless waited for her hero, the young and virile Ted, to run for help.

Instead, he stumbled back to his hotel room, called down to the front desk to complain about noisy guests, and went to sleep.



So when it comes to significant anniversaries, the way the media marks them matters — if they’re marked at all. It’s hard to believe, in the #MeToo era, we’re not reckoning with the night Ted Kennedy left a young woman to die and truly did not care, who panicked only when he realized this might cost him a future presidency, who walked right into a lifetime Senate seat and a lionization that extended to a eulogy, delivered by President Obama, that called Ted “a champion for those who had none.”

Tell that to those who loved and survived Mary Jo.

Read more here.