Posted on 09/10/2001 4:15:19 AM PDT by krodriguesdc
Gary and Chandra and Ted and Mary Jo
An adulterous member of Congress, a missing girlfriend, a cover-up...
Close to midnight on July 18, 1969, Massachusetts Senator Ted Kennedy ran his car off Dike Bridge on Chappaquiddick Island.
He escaped from the submerged car and swam to safety, leaving behind Mary Jo Kopechne, who'd worked for his brother Robert and with whom Ted had had a sexual relationship. Kopechne died, after possibly spending several hours trying to free herself from the car.
Kennedy told friends what had happened, and two of them accompanied him to the scene where they tried unsuccessfully to dive down to the car. Kennedy reportedly wanted to claim he'd never been in the car, and that Kopechne had been driving by herself.
Remember, Kopechne was probably still alive during this time.
It's undisputed that the accident wasn't reported to the police until the following morning, about 10 hours after the fact. Kennedy claimed he'd only then realized what had happened, because he'd been in shock. He was anything but forthcoming during the subsequent investigation -- but then, a Kennedy in eastern Massachusetts in the 1960s pretty much didn't need to be.
Bottom line: Kennedy got a two-month suspended sentence and a year's probation (for a much fuller account of this case, please click the link in the left-hand column)
Thirty-two years later, Ted Kennedy remains the senior senator from Massachusetts.
So now you have Gary Condit, adulterous congressman from California, with a missing girlfriend... He claims he answered all questions asked him by the police and FBI, but it would be difficult for even his most loyal supporters to claim he's offered up all possible information.
The question is this, though: Unless it turns out that Gary Condit murdered Chandra Levy in cold blood, what has he done that even remotely approaches what Ted Kennedy is guilty of?
One of his "girl friends" (Condit loves quickies just like Bubba) .... she says he had a plan to dispose of a body. She also claims to have been afraid of retaliation by him. I think Condit will face prosecution for obstruction of justice and destroying evidence.
Condits apparently was premeditated murder (whether actually carried out by him or someone else), followed by a well-planned coverup (i.e., "no evidence").
"Teddy, Teddy, I think I'm pregnant..."
"Don't worry, Mary Jo, We'll cross that bridge when we come to it..."
He also reportedly used that time to attempt to get his cousin, Joe Gargin, who was at the party and was also one of those who went back with Kennedy to the scene of the accident, to take the rap. Gargan refused.
It's a bit hard to tell since the victim's body has been well-concealed, but Condit's situation does bear a certain resemblance to the murder of another congressman's sexual companion... in which, of course, no murderer was ever convicted and the senator's name was mostly kept from any public attention.
-archy-/-
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