On sexual blackmail of public figures:

Boston Herald trashes National Enquirer

It took a long time, but the main Massachusetts newspaper the Boston Globe reported on August 14 2008 that an alleged girlfriend of Ted Kennedy has won a lawsuit against the National Enquirer for saying Kennedy had a "love child" back in 1984. DNA tests settled the question back in 1985, but stories continued to bubble as recently as 2006.(1)

It was the same reporters who are now writing about Rielle Hunter and John Edwards. Hunter's father was infamous for a mafia connection to insurance scams aimed at electrocuting racing horses.

We are used to thinking of the Boston Herald as a sensationalist paper selling crime stories, but the Boston Herald does have limits. The Boston Herald responded to the John Edwards story today:

"When John F. Kennedy was president, he slept with, among many others, a big-time Chicago mobster’s moll. Talk about blackmail opportunities.

"But barring some police action that made such indiscretions public, the press then did not report on adulterous politicians, even presidents. What they knew, they ignored. The personal was not political, and was deemed unfit to print.

"We were all better off."(2)

The Herald columnist's opinion is the harshest backlash against the Edwards scandal that we know of so far.

In other news, the Democratic National Convention is going to pay tribute to Ted Kennedy, who may not have much longer to live because of brain cancer. In addition to parting words, we may wonder about the equivalent of deathbed confessions.

Notes:
1. http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/years/2008/0811081teddy1.html
2. http://news.bostonherald.com/news/opinion/columnists/view/2008_08_17_A_little_infidelity_never_hurt_U_S_/srvc=home&position=also
3. http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2008/08/16/rielle_hunter/