Imagine if Chappaquiddick from 1969 had been covered up. Let's try for 1968 to see a parallel, plus just how deeply Mitt Romney believes in lying.
You'd like to hope that Romney and "extreme conservatives" worship friendly old Ronald Reagan. But no way. Their idols are Richard Nixon and his Rat-Frackers.
That's Nixon and the worst of CREEP: Donald Segretti and G. Gordon Liddy. The Plumbers, the inept burglars. Ehrlichman and Haldeman, the "German twins." Those guys. They're the basis for the GOP cult of lies. And yet Romney's longest running big lie, generated same year as Nixon's campaign against Hubert Humphrey, is falling apart.
Enter center stage: Bishop Jean-Félix-Albert-Marie Vilnet
You betcha...... he's French. (Say it "vill nay.") He is indeed Mitt Romney's nightmare.
More on this mess plus how Mitt Romney is destined to become historically unforgetable, a Patron Saint of Slime below the fold........
Bishop Jean Vilnet was the driver of the other car in Mitt Romney's fatal accident back on June 16th in 1968. Romney has been lying about what happened that Sunday for 44 years. Telling his gawd-awful lie about that crash is the single longest running project of Romney's life.
In 2014, Mgr Vilnet will have been a Catholic priest for 70 years.
The "drunk priest" named "Albert Marie" of Mitt Romney's imaginative fantasy about that 1968 accident has been spread around to his own family, to the families of the other Mormons involved, New York Times, The Guardian, Washington Post, Boston Globe, to Michael Kranish and Scott Helman for their book, "The Real Romney." That person does not exist. Never did. Photos at foolmoon dot com and elsewhere prove it. Bishop Jean Vilnet was injured in the crash and he can be seen in hospital at Bazas with his right arm bandaged.
Bishop Vilnet, then 46 years old by American count, was not drunk, not speeding, and not out of his own lane. He was driving along and Romney hit him.
That 1968 accident took place when Mitt Romney ignored painted roadway lines and went head-on into an on-coming left turn lane, opposite the post office at Beaulac, France. Concrete traffic separators were added later on. Good piece of engineering, that, but too late for Mrs. Leola Anderson. She died of her injuries as she was the sixth person in a five passenger car, so she had no seat belt.
Mitt Romney claims over and over that he was blameless for that accident.
Romney's view could well have been obstructed, particularly if a car or a truck ahead of him had slowed to make an acute right turn into Rue de la Poste. That is when being careful matters. Aggressive driving, guessing where the road goes can get someone killed. That is exactly what happened.
Romney's "drunk priest" lie bamboozled Mrs. Anderson's family (including her husband, Mitt's boss, Duane Anderson) and over the next 44 years the lie, itself, got a life of its own.
Bishop Vilnet has led a remarkable life. He was bishop for Saint-Dié at the time of the accident and later served at Lille. If he wasn't walking with labor protesters, he was getting the cathedrals at both cities competed. He wrote the church law standard that enabled in vitro fertility treatment for Catholic hospitals. The list goes on and on. He was Pope John-Paul II's first personal emissary to Cuba. (A verbal report of that meeting had him "charming the socks off" of Fidel Castro.) This effort led to a practical normalization, many Church projects in Cuba, and the Mother Teresa of Calcutta meeting that led to opening four of her missions. Life in Cuba is somewhat different and much earlier because of Father Vilnet. Early on, as a priest, he taught canon law.
Mgr. Vilnet was elected head of the Council of Bishops of France. He is an Officer of the Legion of Honor. A life of service. He is 90 years old. (Mitt Romney says that "Albert Marie" is dead. Guarantee you, somebody somewhere with the two names Albert and Marie is dead.)
Even Richard Nixon didn't lie like this Mitt Romney. Romney is a dead lock for one title: Patron Saint of Slime.
Who else ? "Even Hell has its heroes." Same for the GOP. Same heroes.
(And by the way: let us anticipate, graciously, Rush Limbaugh doing a three-hour long rant on this one. Ya-ya-ya-ya-hoo !!)