Maybe America has lived through so many political sex scandals, one more fails to grab us. But clearly the double standard remains. Clinton is the most popular Democrat alive today. Lewinsky, 38, lives with struggle and ridicule. Alford arrived at the White House a year-old virgin kissed just once β in eighth grade.
In pictures taken then, she looks like a baby-faced middle-schooler in modest cardigan sweaters and pearls. She writes that JFK got her tipsy, escorted her into a White House bedroom and quickly had sex with her. Worse, he allegedly later asked her to perform sex acts on his aide Dave Powers and his brother Ted. Still, the trashing of Alford is well under way.
All but pummeled by Walters, Alford said she wrote her story now both because she did not want some other biographer to tell it for her, perhaps erroneously; and because her secret had haunted her, taking a terrible toll on her marriage, which failed, and her psyche.
Alford, while not blaming Kennedy, tries to explain how easily she fell for the most powerful man on earth. My bet: Many would do just what she did, then pay an awful price. By Margery Eagan.
