ONE YEAR AGO TODAY: Democrats speechless as scandal engulfs Virginia’s leaders.

With Virginia’s top three elected officials engulfed in scandal, fellow Democrats were rendered practically speechless, uncertain of how to thread their way through the racial and sexual allegations and their tangled political implications.

Gov. Ralph Northam’s career was already hanging by a thread over a racist photo in his 1984 medical school yearbook when a woman publicly accused the lieutenant governor of sexually assaulting her 15 years ago, and then the attorney general admitted that he too wore blackface once, as a teenager.

But they made it go away, by pointing out to the media that if they resigned, a Republican might wind up in power. Once that happened, the press coverage vanished overnight.