Sexual harassment

Joe Biden’s stale postmodernism

Featured image Earlier today, John wrote about the accusation that Joe Biden touched Lucy Flores inappropriately when he campaigned for her back in 2014. I want to focus on the statement Biden’s team put out in response: Neither then, nor in the years since, did he or the staff with him at the time have an inkling that Ms. Flores had been at any time uncomfortable, nor do they recall what she »

Justin Fairfax’s accuser speaks

Featured image We now know who it is that has accused Justin Fairfax, Virginia’s lieutenant governor, of sexual assault. The accuser is Vanessa Tyson. She’s a professor of politics at Scripps College in California and a fellow at Stanford’s Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences. Tyson describes herself as a proud Democrat, which suggests (but does not prove) she has no motive to make false allegations against a rising star »

The #MeToo allegation against Justin Fairfax

Featured image As Steve discussed in a post below, Virginia’s Lieutenant Governor, Justin Fairfax, has been accused of having non-consensual sex with a woman in 2004. Fairfax admits he had sex with the woman but claims she consented. Fairfax also claimed that the Washington Post didn’t run the woman’s story because it found the story raised “red flags.” The Post, however, denies there were any such flags. The Post says it didn’t »

Cory Booker: No comment

Featured image This is an update on my post #WhatAboutMeToo?. I called Senator Booker’s office yesterday morning to ask his communications staffer for comment on the story discussed in the post. I was told that she (Kristin Lynch) was in a meeting but was given her name, email address and office telephone number. I forwarded a copy of my post with this message to her (including the post URL at the top »

#WhatAboutMeToo?

Featured image I have wondered why the #MeToo is limited to women complaining of sexual abuse by men. What about boys and girls and men and women who have been abused by male and female homosexuals, respectively? I have thought their cases should fall under the hashtag #WhatAboutMeToo? With the exception of the charges against Kevin Spacey, such cases seem not to have emerged in any context other than that of the »

“Concerned” Dems aren’t concerned about past sexual assaults by Dems

Featured image It’s amusing, in a sickening sort of way, to hear Senate Democrats say it’s unacceptable to have on the Supreme Court someone “credibly” accused of assaulting a woman 36 years ago, when he was in high school. Who among these “outraged” Senators has complained about serving with Democratic colleagues credibly accused of, and in at least two cases admitting to, assaulting women? Sen. Sherrod Brown’s ex-wife claimed that Brown threw »

Keith Ellison and Al Franken, compare and contrast [UPDATED]

Featured image Paul Kane of the Washington Post compares the reaction by leading Democrats to evidence of Keith Ellison’s domestic abuse with the reaction to evidence of Al Franken’s sexual touchings and harassment. He finds a disparity. In Franken’s case, Sen. Kristin Gillibrand forcefully called for an investigation by the Senate Ethics Committee within hours of the first accusation against the then-Senator. So did Sen. Kamala Harris. Both made it clear they »

Garrison Keillor, Horn Dog

Featured image One of the many prominent men swept up in sex-related scandals in the past few months was Garrison Keillor, long a fixture on Minnesota Public Radio and a favorite of liberals nationwide. MPR fired Keillor, but until now the only account of what led to the termination came from Keillor himself, who said that the only relevant incident was when he accidentally touched a woman’s back. Not surprisingly, many Keillor »

Garrison Keillor’s “erasure” — an update

Featured image Michael Barone takes up the case of Minnesota Public Radio’s erasure of Garrison Keillor’s “A Prairie Home Companion” and “The Writer’s Almanac” broadcasts from its website. Barone shares my unhappiness, and that of Rod Dreher, that Keillor’s work has been flushed down the memory hole because of the author’s sins. Barone notes that Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio was a criminal, quite possibly a murderer, yet he created great art. Indeed, »

Female Trump accusers seek congressional hearing

Featured image Three of the women who, in the Fall of 2016, accused Donald Trump of sexual assault have publicly called on Congress to investigate their allegations. The women are: Rachel Crooks, who accused Trump of kissing her on the lips without consent in 2005; Jessica Leeds, who accused Trump of moving his hand up her skirt decades ago; and Samantha Holvey, a former Miss North Carolina, who accused Trump of entering »

Garrison Keillor flushed down the memory hole

Featured image After Kevin Spacey was excised from the upcoming movie All the Money in the World (his scenes to be reshot with Christoper Plummer), I modestly proposed that Hollywood remove and reshoot Spacey’s scenes in Beyond the Sea and The Usual Suspects, and destroy all copies of American Beauty — that hackneyed attempt at a takedown of suburban America. This expungement, I said in jest, was the required remedy for Spacey’s »

If Roy Moore wins. . .

Featured image Senate Republicans will have decisions to make. First, they must decide what to say. Members who believe the most serious allegations against Moore and don’t think the passage of nearly 40 years matters should feel free to say Moore is unfit for the Senate and thus should resign. Once they say so, they will have done as much as Democrats did to John Conyers and Al Franken. And much more »

You knew this was coming, right?

Featured image Jay Kaganoff, writing in the Washington Post says: “Fellow conservatives, it’s time to call on Clarence Thomas to resign.” No it isn’t. The controversy over Anita Hill’s allegations against Justice Thomas has nothing material in common with the cases of Al Franken, John Conyers, or Roy Moore. First, Thomas categorically denied Hill’s allegations. Franken admits to some of the allegations against him. Moore admitted, at least initially, that he dated »

The expendable Mr. Franken

Featured image Democratic support for the tenure of Minnesota Senator Al Franken in office died on the vine today. First Senator Kirsten Gillibrand stepped forward to call for Franken’s resignation. Her call was followed by other Democratic women senators with the exception of his colleague Amy Klobuchar, whose help was unnecessary to the task at hand. However, she had been among the first Senators to call for Franken’s case to be remitted »

Warnings about Weinstein went unheeded by Team Hillary

Featured image The New York Times has produced a long piece by five — count them, five — reporters about Harvey Weinstein’s misdeeds. When it finally rains, it pours. The Times reports that two major Hillary Clinton supporters — Lena Dunham and Tina Brown — warned the campaign about Weinstein’s visibility at Clinton functions. Dunham claims she told a campaign staffer: I just want you to let you know that Harvey’s a »

Sexual harassment or hurt feelings?

Featured image Rep. Al Green, a Democrat from Houston, is a member of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC). These days, he’s crusading to impeach President Trump. The “reckoning” for accused sexual harassers, including CBC founder Rep. John Conyers, thus comes at a bad time for Green. A decade ago, he was an accused sexual harasser. The accuser was the director of his Houston office, Lucinda Daniels. The two had sex together. That’s »