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It was the girl's father, prominent businessman and Kennedy contributor Paul Verrochi, who confronted his daughter about the affair, after being told of it by neighbors, according to press reports. Despite an upbringing that included a uniformed chauffeur, Verrochi's daughter began baby sitting the Kennedy children when she was at the local middle school. According to longtime Cohasset resident Dan Collins, the two families were such good friends that "Michael Kennedy would call her parents and say they were going to be out late and that she should just sleep over." The teenager ended the relationship shortly before leaving for Boston University last fall.
Joe's scandal didn't have to happen. He had got divorced in 1991 with no electoral downdraft. As Irish luck would have it, he had married a woman much like the woman who married dear old Granddad: silent in the face of a raw pursuit of power and pleasure. When the marriage ended, Sheila didn't utter a peep, not even asking for alimony. For the sake of the children, she stayed in the Boston area, moving into a rundown house in Cambridge, which she renovated. When Joe soon took up with an aide in his office, Beth Kelly, Sheila said nothing; when he married her, Sheila wished the couple well.
But being a Kennedy means never having to leave well enough alone. Joe wanted to remain in the church, so he was willing to say that because he'd lacked "due discretion," he had never really been married. When Sheila got a curt notice of the annulment proceeding from the Boston archdiocese, she proceeded to fight. In an interview she explained that nobody "has ever been able to convince me that an annulment was in the best interest of the children, so the argument that was used to keep me in line before didn't cut the mustard this time."
Another Massachusetts politician, Senator John Kerry, married to 57-varieties heir Teresa Heinz, shocked his former wife of 12 years in November when she was notified of his annulment filing. And although Senator Edward Kennedy won't say whether his first marriage was annulled, he did take Communion at his mother's funeral and maintains that his "second marriage had been blessed by the church."
Like a recession, a scandal is best early in an election cycle. A Globe/WBZ-TV poll last week found that Joe Kennedy was viewed negatively by 39% of voters. In the 1994 Senate elections Ted Kennedy's negatives were above 50%, yet he easily won re-election, thanks in part to a second marriage that restored his soul.
Local analysts believe Joe will regain his lead, though without Michael as campaign chairman. A year from now, Michael and the Baby Sitter and Joe and the Annulment will have joined Amy and Joey and Donald and Marla in the landfill of tabloid dreck. And to paraphrase Senator Kennedy's speech at the Democratic National Convention in 1980, the teeth still sparkle, the hair is thick, and the dream will never die.