Surprised beachgoers in Los Angeles are astounded to find President John F. Kennedy swimming on their public beach.. So were ten secret service agents charged with protecting him. Photo, Bill Beebe / Los Angeles Times.

Let me say up front, I literally, actually, physically did not vote for Trump for president so I would be hard-pressed to care less than I do about who he may or may not have boinked ten years ago, or even last week. That is an issue for him and Melania to work out. And, outside of the handful of people who vote for a president to be their religious leader, I suspect that 90+% of the population feels the same way that I do. That said, I’m not a fan of adultery. I’ve worked in places where it was sort of a sport. I’ve had friends burn down their marriages because they just couldn’t say no. I find adultery in politicians to be particularly problematic for one simple reason:  If a man will break the vows he made before God and cheat on his wife, then what chance do you have in your dealings with him? Engaging in this is a personal failing and a tragedy but the Stormy Daniels/Karen McDougal stories are not something I’m interested in learning more about. And really, what exactly did you learn about Trump’s character from this, assuming all the stories are true? I’d be willing to be the answer is “nothing.”

With that as a prelude, I’m willing to make a solid bet that no one at any on the networks flogging the story thinks it is important beyond the damage they think it may do to Trump. In particular, I’m looking at CNN.

JFK had a legendary love life. Did one of his affairs connect him with the mob? #TheKennedys Sunday at 9p on CNN. pic.twitter.com/HoxHQVSCmT

— CNN Original Series (@CNNOriginals) March 31, 2018

“Legendary love life?” Is that what it’s called this week? Legendary, like this from the story of his teenaged, let me say that again slowly, teenaged mistress while he was the president:

The president invited her for a personal tour. She got up, expecting the rest of the group to follow. They didn’t. He took her to “Mrs. Kennedy’s room.”

“I noticed he was moving closer and closer. I could feel his breath on my neck. He put his hand on my shoulder,” she recounts.

The next thing she knew, he was standing above her, looking directly into her eyes and guiding her to the edge of the bed.

“Slowly, he unbuttoned the top of my shirtdress and touched my breasts.

“Then he reached up between my legs and started to pull off my underwear.

“I finished unbuttoning my shirtdress and let it fall off my shoulders.”

Kennedy pulled down his pants but, with his shirt still on, hovered above her on the bed.

He smelled of his cologne, 4711. He paused when he noticed her resisting.

“Haven’t you done this before?” he asked.

“No,” she said.

“Are you OK?” he asked.

“Yes,” she said.

So he kept going, this time a little more gently.

“After he finished, he hitched up his pants and smiled at me” and pointed her to the bathroom.

Or this #MeToo moment:

“He had been guilty of an even more callous and unforgivable episode at the White House” during a noon swim. Powers had rolled up his pants to cool his feet in the water. “The president swam over and whispered in my ear. ‘Mr. Powers looks a little tense,’ he said. ‘Would you take care of it?’

“It was a dare, but I knew exactly what he meant. This was a challenge to give Dave Powers oral sex. I don’t think the president thought I’d do it, but I’m ashamed to say that I did . . . The president silently watched.”

There were at least six documented affairs while JFK was in the White House. Not “hit and quit it,” but actual affairs that lasted months. It is a safe bet there were at least that many before.

None of this excuses what Trump did. But it serves to point out that there is a standard here that is so out-of-phase that it can’t even be called double. You can’t criticize what Trump did–with any pretense at actually caring about the charges–while referring to JFK’s serial adultery and abuse of position as a “legendary love life.” It wasn’t. It had nothing to do with love or respect. He was an adulterer and a sexual predator.