McCain's Chappaquiddick?

On Huffington Post: McCain may have been involved in a serious car accident in 1964 with a passenger who was injured or killed. Vanity Fair has requested an expedited FOIA requiest, which the Navy has denied:

The first request for information concerning duty assignment logs to Portsmouth Naval Hospital -- where McCain was allegedly brought after the accident -- came in the form of a Freedom of Information Act request on August 28, 2008. The Navy acknowledged receipt of the request and advised that it had located the relevant information a few weeks later, only to deny the FOIA on grounds that it didn't prove an "imminent threat to the life or physical safety of an individual" or satisfy the criteria of "a breaking news story of general public interest."

"The patient admission record logs that you seek are exempt from release," wrote G.E. Lattin, Deputy Assistant Judge Advocate General, "as information in personnel and medical files, as well as similar personal information in other files, that if disclosed to a requestor, other than the actual person in which the information is pertaining to or next of kin, would constitute a clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy."

NS News Service and Vanity Fair appealed the decision and asked for expedited treatment of the case, as the end of the presidential election loomed. But the Navy denied that request as well.

In itself, I don't think this is that politically damning, based on the electoral reaction to GWB's DUI and Ted Kennedy's Chappaquiddick incident - in other words, we probably won't see any negative movement in the polls. But it comes at a bad time. With only a week left, and down in the polls, McCain needs to win every possible news cycle with his message. This only detracts from that. It might well be enough to put the final nail in his campaign coffin.