Sex and the Senior Senator

Are a candidate's private peccadilloes public property?

The mere mention of Edward Kennedy's social life is enough to make an editor's head throb. Little matter that he and his wife Joan have lived apart, at her behest, for two years. Every rumored dalliance poses a journalistic dilemma: Are a candidate's personal peccadilloes legitimate issues in a presidential campaign? The old rule -- such indiscretions are off-limits as long as they do not interfere with official performance -- has been breaking down in the wake of Watergate, Wayne Hays and Wilbur Mills. A new standard may evolve as the presidential campaign unfolds. Says Boston Globe Editor Thomas Winship: "We haven't yet thought out how far bedroom activity takes you into legitimate journalism."

Any hope that the question could be avoided was dispelled last week when Michael Kinsley, editor of the New Republic, resigned because Editor in Chief Martin Peretz killed an article about Kennedy's alleged womanizing. Said Kinsley: "My impression is that it was not the substance of the piece that bothered Marty, but the concept of discussing people's personal lives in the New Republic. " Peretz curtly offered that it was not "the right kind of piece for us."

The 3,000-word article, by New Yorker Staff Writer Suzannah Lessard, does not attempt to document any amatory adventures. But it asserts that the gossip is true and suggests that Kennedy's philandering is a "latent issue" that will surface as the electorate struggles to get the Senator's character in sharper focus, and offers her own instant analysis: his behavior represents "a severe case of arrested development, a kind of narcissistic intemperance."

Almost every newspaper and magazine profile of the senior Senator from Massachusetts routinely mentions his reputation as a Lothario, but up to now no reputable journals have published any exhaustive investigation into the matter. "In this day and age," says Boston Herald American Editor Donald Forst, "I don't think that a story about a public figure having a relationship with a woman other than his wife is all that significant." Most editors agree that news judgments must be made on a case-by-case basis. Says Bill German, managing editor of the San Francisco Chronicle: "I try to measure these stories by the everyday and common standards. Are they correct, pertinent, newsy and fair?"

Predictably enough, Kennedy's presidential bid has also revived press stories about Chappaquiddick. his 1951 expulsion from Harvard for cheating and anything else that might illumine his character. Last week New York Times Columnist William Safire dredged up a 1958 reckless driving conviction: as a law student at the University of Virginia, Kennedy tried to elude a pursuing police officer, Safire reported, then was found hiding in the front seat of his car. Safire concluded: "When in big trouble, Ted Kennedy's repeated history has been to run, to hide, to get caught and to get away with it."*

The Washington Post has an investigative team looking into Chappaquiddick, and the Washington Star this week offers three full pages on the subject. Kennedy came under tough questioning about Chappaquiddick and his troubled marriage on ABC's 20/20 magazine show last week, and again in a CBS documentary, Teddy, aired a few days later. On both programs, he fended off his inquisitors with elliptical candor, contriteness and stock answers that sometimes strained credibility. (CBS's Roger Mudd: "How was it you could possibly have turned right?" Kennedy: "The difference between paved and unpaved for anyone who lives on Cape Cod or visits the island, the roads are indistinguishable.") Kennedy's willingness to talk about Chappaquiddick may have blunted public interest in the matter, but his love life remains titillating. In the New Republic, of all places, Writer Henry Fairlie last month recounted a Washington dinner party where, "for a full hour and a half, 14 talented and interesting men and women talked of nothing but the sexual activities of Edward Kennedy." Says T.R. Reid, who covers Kennedy for the Washington Post: "It seems to me that if people are talking a lot about Chappaquiddick and his personal life, I should report it."

* Safire was aided by a reporter at the Charlottesville, Va., Daily Progress on the story, but he could have got most of the details on page 51 of James MacGregor Burns' favorable 1976 biography, Edward Kennedy and the Camelot Legacy.

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