When it comes to the issue of porn star Stormy Daniels, we should welcome the media’s and the Democrats’ newfound interest in the treatment — and mistreatment — of women by powerful political figures.

Never mind that whatever relationship Daniels had with President Donald Trump was consensual and ended a decade ago. Nor that there doesn’t appear to be any evidence that Trump broke any campaign law regarding the apparent $130K “keep quiet” settlement reached only days before the election. Poor Ms. Daniels — the value of salacious stuff about Trump has skyrocketed now that he is president, so Daniels wants out of the nondisclosure agreement that she willingly signed. She sold cheap, and now wants more.

Even if no laws were broken, the Dems and the media insist that, well, it’s the optics. This just looks bad. As one CNN pundit/Democratic strategist put it, “Paying off a porn star is presidential?”

Democrats rate President John F. Kennedy one of the country’s best presidents. Kennedy’s popularity remains despite the revelations of his reckless and dangerous sexual misbehavior during his presidency. The Democratic icon partied with hookers at the White House and bedded a mobster’s girlfriend. The Chicago Tribune’s Joan Beck, in a column, discussed The Dark Side of Camelot, a Jack Kennedy exposé by former New York Times investigative reporter Seymour Hersh. Beck wrote:

Many of the charges in The Dark Side of Camelot are now familiar: Joseph Kennedy stole the 1960 election for his son. JFK used the Secret Service to sneak women into the White House when Jackie was away. He botched the invasion of Cuba, leaving brave men to die while he played games of political expediency. He repeatedly tried to have Fidel Castro assassinated. He took huge doses of amphetamines regularly from a feel-good doctor who later lost his license.

Some of Hersh’s accusations are less familiar: Kennedy suffered from venereal disease for 30 years, apparently infecting and being re-infected by the prostitutes and starlets he used to satisfy his insatiable appetite for sex. … A threat of sexual blackmail had to be defused by giving a $6.5 billion defense contract to General Dynamics. …

“In private, Kennedy was consumed with almost daily sexual liaisons and libertine partying, to a degree that shocked many members of his personal Secret Service detail,” writes Hersh. “The sheer number of Kennedy’s sexual partners and the recklessness of his use of them, escalated throughout his presidency.”

About Bobby Kennedy, his friend Richard Goodwin said it was a “Kennedy family tradition” to philander, but that Bobby was “much more selective and limited” compared to older brother John.

What about another Democrat icon, Ted Kennedy, hailed in death as the Lion of the Senate, even with the long record of his reckless sexual misconduct?

This is from a 1990 GQ article called “Ted Kennedy on the Rocks”: “A former mid-level Kennedy staffer, bitterly disillusioned, recalls with disgust one (now ex-) high-ranking aide as ‘a pimp … whose real position was to procure women for Kennedy.’ The fellow did have a legitimate job, she says, but also openly bragged of his prowess at getting attractive and beddable dates for his boss.”

GQ also detailed one incident in a restaurant’s private room:

As [waitress Carla] Gaviglio enters the room, the six-foot-two, 225-plus-pound Kennedy grabs the five-foot-three, 103-pound waitress and throws her on the table. She lands on her back, scattering crystal, plates and cutlery and the lit candles. Several glasses and a crystal candlestick are broken. Kennedy then picks her up from the table and throws her on [drinking buddy Sen. Christopher] Dodd, who is sprawled in a chair. With Gaviglio on Dodd’s lap, Kennedy jumps on top and begins rubbing his genital area against hers, supporting his weight on the arms of the chair. As he is doing this, [waitress Betty] Loh enters the room. She and Gaviglio both scream, drawing one or two dishwashers. Startled, Kennedy leaps up. He laughs. Bruised, shaken and angry over what she considered a sexual assault, Gaviglio runs from the room.

As to President Bill Clinton, the late British left-wing writer Christopher Hitchens, in No One Left to Lie To, claimed that three women have made “plausible” allegations of rape by Bill Clinton.

Juanita Broaddrick, on “Dateline NBC,” claimed that Clinton, then-Arkansas attorney general and gubernatorial candidate, raped her. She further alleges that Hillary Clinton, shortly after the alleged rape, verbally intimidated her, implying that Broaddrick better keep her mouth shut — or else. At a political event two weeks later, Broaddrick claims that Hillary approached her: “She came over to me, took ahold of my hand and said, ‘I’ve heard so much about you and I’ve been dying to meet you. … I just want you to know how much that Bill and I appreciate what you do for him.’ … [Hillary Clinton] took ahold of my hand and squeezed it and said, ‘Do you understand? Everything that you do.’”

To paraphrase, rape is presidential?

COPYRIGHT 2018 LAURENCE A. ELDER