Those who gives Kennedy a pass over the events at Chappaquiddick have not read the accounts of what happened.
He spent more time trying to cover up what happened than rescuing Mary Jo Kopechne. He tried to get his friends to lie for him and went so far as to swim back to the mainland so he would be seen at the hotel where he was registered. He then tried to smear the officer who investigated it.
All his political accomplishments lay at the foot of this legacy. He deserves a burial at sea (at night) in the trunk of 1967 Olds 88 pushed off the deck while nobody is watching.