Comments

1
"Rep. Jim Jackson"

Do you mean Rep. Jim Jacks?
2
I am male, and I have witnessed sexual abusers in positions of authority get the preferential treatment. Specifically, a researcher at my former workplace (a biotech facility) was accused of long-term sexual harassment by a female underling not long after he had ascended to the highest Administrative office of the facility. Staff like me only heard about the accusations through back channels - obviously the hush machine was at full power. It wasn't long before the researcher's abrupt (and lucrative) resignation/retirement was announced and a happy cover story was cooked up about his departure for a company-wide email. No lawsuits, no discipline, no reprimand, no comment, no publicity, no newspapers that would hurt outside donations - take the money you didn't earn and leave quietly. I also learned later that the facility reached an undisclosed settlement with the victim, who has never gone public. Oh, by the way, the facility is NON PROFIT.
3
The minute a party starts prioritizing survivors over political expediency, accusations will destroy every candidate of that party until either the party is destroyed or they roll back that policy.
4
This is spot-on. Al Franken must resign immediately.
5
All true and relevant.
6
Thanks for the balanced perspective -- extremely unusual for the complicit hacks whose prose this outlet usually publishes.
8
@7 Oh there are stories I've heard, believe me.

But the point is they ALL have to go. No more tolerating this bullshit. Left. Right. They ALL have to go.

The left has been shamefully slow to come around on the issue of sexual harassment. But it is sloooowly coming around.

The right hasn't and won't until they are forced to.

Therefor, the political problem is going to be that the right will ALLWAYS justify it among their own. And the left will always tear itself apart over it. And the right will exploit that. So once again in the short term the left will get hamstrung.
9
Year Zero.
10
This is beginning to feel like a purge. Good luck after you cut your base in half. I’m sure you think you’ll be better off without them.
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@10 It is a purge. Things are so ossified there is no other avenue for change. The end of empires has always been messy.
12
Sadly, this is not a new story in the Northwest. The worst two were Brock Adams (D) and Bob Packwood (R). Gary Little (suicide) was the most tragic. Mike Lowry's career was damaged by stories of his escapades. (And then there were the innumerable stories about Senator Magnuson, especially as regards alcoholism.) It's no mystery: political life is stressful and often attracts insecure, domination-addicted personalities. That's a dangerous combination, especially as many politicians learn that preaching rightist religion or liberal social reform can mask psychological issues and make one seem a hero too valuable to vote against. Sexual harassment training and a zero-tolerance approach can help, though, and I think things will improve as a result of these scandals. Improvement is already happening. Keep it going.
13
Out of curiosity, is there a spectrum when it comes to this stuff, or does a grope = rape? I just don't know if I should be condemning Al Franken as the Hillside Strangler yet, or perhaps as a normally good guy who took a joke too far and has apologized for it?

Also, are we allowed to wonder where maybe a bit of thicker skin could be helpful when life serves up these curveballs? I think we've all been kissed by someone who was more into it than we, if we were at all, but we probably didn't seek therapy for it.

Due to the potential of kneejerks, I am obligated to confirm that I do not support rape or sexual assault of any sort. I am just genuinely curious if we are allowed to ponder the above, or if it's a zero-tolerance kind of thing where there is no gray area, and instead it's just rape and GTFO .
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@13. You’re going to have to come to grips with the fact that it’s a feelings based system now. Dan Savage jumped the shark the other day by coining the phrase “meaningful consent”, because regular consent just isn’t good enough anymore.
15
Stolen from 'blip' from another Stranger Slog:
"Anyone who thinks dems can just ignore what franken did or that the old rules still apply does not understand what is happening right now. This isn’t just a social media #trend, it is a cultural reckoning that has been decades in the making, and it’s just getting warmed up.

As women take on more leadership roles, the old boys networks will be dismantled and none of the rules we have become accustomed to will apply anymore. This will happen in relatively short order because it has been building for decades, and it has been kicked into overdrive by the election of president pussygrabber.

To put it in more concrete terms, democrats are effectively the women’s political party, so they have no choice but to hold their offenders accountable because without women they have nothing. This is even more true now than before. In VA, 12 of the 14 seats that were flipped were won by women (all 14 seats were formerly held by men). You can expect to see more of this in the next few years." --blip

So true.... It's time for Senator Al, the Gropin' Alabamian and Mein Trumpfy to gtfo. Clean house. Clean slate. This may be the best Opportunity women get for a cultural Sea Change.

May I humbly suggest you Women-folk grab the proverbial bull by the proverbial horns and wrest Power whilst the wresting good. Disaster politics, I believe they call it. Want a turn at the Top? Take it....
16
The Stranger continues to resent how Seattle's voters delivered a beat-down to the Stranger-endorsed candidate in our Mayoral election, and elevated the Murray-endorsed candidate to replace him. At least this time their choice of moralizing scold is inadvertently funny: an academic complaining bitterly about how we plebes and our so-called voting rights are impermissibly causing trouble for her and her fellow elites.

She begins by wallowing shamelessly in the delight of a revenge fantasy:

A reckoning has finally come for all of us, and it is poised to take down powerful men once believed invincible in their fields.

After a brief pause to wipe the drool off of her chin, she gets her hate on allowing evidence to determine judgments:

Perhaps the best example of selective blindness to sexual misconduct is Democrats’ eagerness to ignore allegations against former President Bill Clinton. At least five women have accused Clinton of sexual assault or harassment, but his inner circle and supporters dismissed his accusers as unreliable and sexually promiscuous.

The lawsuit filed by one of Clinton's self-proclaimed victims was thrown out of court for lack of merit, but not before producing the interesting spectacle of the plaintiff's witnesses vouching for the character of the accused. (It also gave us Monica Lewinsky's tale of pursuing Mr. Clinton so she could eagerly have consensual sex with him, which also proved annoyingly inconvenient for portraying him as an maker of unwanted advances.)

But we local voters are also guilty of not rushing to judgement, and of allowing mere facts to do their inevitable and irreparable damage to the carefully constructed -- and thus precious, sacred, and inviolate -- narratives of victimhood:

While it is surprising that Murray refused to step down for so long, more puzzling was the scarcity of Democratic and liberal leaders pressuring him to do so.

That's because leaders of a political party were foolishly listening to Seattle's voters, who did not call for Murray's resignation, and who have now elected his endorsed successor in a landslide. Had they been listening to Seattle's chattering political class, who swallowed the accusations whole with a gullibility so complete it should be painful, they would also have demanded his resignation. Alas, our popular skepticism won out over our elite's presumption of guilt. (Who the heck do we think we are -- citizens of a democracy or something?!?)

Maybe her next essay can inform us impertinent voters on the unforgivable evils of trial by jury.
17
Do we apply this same reckoning to other infractions of any age?

Please wait...

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