T. Belman. We are getting like the Muslims. It seeems we have morality police running around the neigborhood to impose a certain conduct. I don’t like what is happening. I didn’t know that groping was a crime or that anyone accused of it has to be ostracized from society or Congress. All society should do is prosecute any alleged crime such as rape. The shame involved for the perpetrator is a serious penalty itself. Just outing someone as a groper is enough to shame them. Demanding that they resign from life or Congress is asking way too much. If the people feel that he is unworthy of their voite next time around he will be put out of office by the will of the people.
I think that the only reason that there is such moral outrage now particularly by Democrats is that they are setting the stage to force Trump to resign based on allegations of sexual harrassment. Even if all accusations levied against him are true, I still wouldn’t call for his removal. I did not vote for him because of his treatment of women. I voted for him because of his platform. How he treated women, taken at its worst, would not have changed my mind. Some men are boors and invade a women’s space. Does that disqualify them from office? I think not though I believe such actions are a blemish on his character which may or may not motivate enough people to vote for him. That’s OK.
By BETSY MCCAUGHEY, PHD, FAMILY SECURITY MATTERS.
New York’s Senator Kirsten Gillibrand is spearheading a McCarthyite purge of sexual harassers from Congress, throwing the nation’s capital into turmoil. What counts as sexual harassment? Good question. Men accused of boorish gestures or vulgar remarks face the same disgrace as outright rapists. And never mind if the accusations lack proof and the accusers remain anonymous.
Consider the charges dredged up again this week against President Trump. You heard them last year when he was campaigning for president. One accuser, Jessica Leeds, said that more than 30 years ago Trump groped her on a plane. But reporters were not able to confirm the flight, date or even year the incident was supposed to have occurred and couldn’t track down one witness to support her story.
The same was true with the other accusers. No facts.
No wonder the public dismissed the claims and elected Trump.
Monday, Leeds and two other accusers reiterated their old, unsubstantiated charges at a press conference. In response, six Democratic senators, including Gillibrand, are calling for Trump to step down from the presidency. It’s as if the #MeToo movement lessens the standard of proof and makes due process unnecessary.
That’s what’s happening in Congress. Take the anonymous former campaign worker who’s accusing Rep. Ruben Kihuen, D-Nev., of touching her thigh twice, making her feel uncomfortable. Kihuen denies it, but House minority leader Nancy Pelosi commends the woman for coming forward (anonymously?) and demands that he resign.
What about Kihuen’s right to a fair hearing and the presumption of innocence? Pelosi and the sex vigilantes are all too ready to toss due process in the wastebasket.
Gillibrand conceded Senator Al Franken, D-Minn., was entitled to a Senate Ethics Committee investigation, but last week, she was out front bullying him into resigning. That’s like saying the accused is entitled to a fair trial, but let’s execute him first.
Same thing happened to John Conyers, D-Mich., who insisted on his own innocence and at first rejected calls to resign. Ultimately, he was forced out on Dec. 5.
Franken’s alleged to have forcibly kissed a fellow actor, and touched several women inappropriately during photo-ops. One accuser says when “we posed for the shot he immediately put his hand on my waist, grabbing a handful of flesh. I froze. Then he squeezed. At least twice.” That’s it?
Rep. Blake Farenthold, R-Texas, is accused of bantering that he had “wet dreams” about a female staff member, who says she was fired for complaining about it. Farentholdt denies it. Yet Republican Mia Love, R-Utah, striving to keep up with sex bully Gillibrand, is calling on Farenthold to step down immediately, without a House Ethics Committee hearing.
Then there’s Rep. Trent Franks, R-Texas. Distressed that he and his wife can’t conceive, he asked two office aides to bear his child as a surrogate, offering one of them $5 million. Last week, House Speaker Paul Ryan, not to be outdone by the sex vigilantes on the left, demanded Franks resign for his blundering behavior.
A fair penalty? Since the Civil War, only two members of Congress have been expelled, both for multiple felonies like bribery and tax evasion. Even New York Congressman Charlie Rangel, found guilty of 11 counts of violating congressional ethics rules in 2010, was only censured, not asked to resign.
Only once did Congress threaten a member with expulsion for sexual misconduct. In 1995, the Senate ethics committee voted to expel Senator Bob Packwood, R-Ore., after reviewing 10,145 pages of evidence, of “habitual pattern of aggressive, blatantly sexual advances” and destruction of evidence. They had the goods on him.
Sexual harassment holds women back. Good riddance to it. But in the zeal to right that wrong and to preen as defenders of women, politicians are trampling American values – due process, the presumption of innocence and enacting penalties that fit the crimes. These are too precious to lose.
Betsy McCaughey is a former lieutenant governor of New York and the author of “Beating Obamacare.” Her website is here: http://betsymccaughey.
For six decades the democrats were comfortable with abuse of power, abuse of women and denial of justice. Now that they have lost power, they want justice!!! What a joke! They have no idea what moral high ground means for they have NO code of ETHICS. Hypocrisy is their MO. The right is not off the hook either. But a tiny less guilty.
The left knows only one thing: Alinsky MO 24/7/52.
She’s an opportunist, a former “blue dog” democrat who wants to run for President, and panders to the radical left to do it. She started out as pro-Israel and has been gradually moving into the anti-Israel camp. She co-sponsored the Taylor Force Bill and then voted against it, she supported the Iran Deal. I am in NY where you have to change your party affiliation a year in advance to vote in the next year’s primary, Oct. 15 is the deadline and then it takes effect after the next November election. Right after voting for Cruz in the Republican primary and before voting for Trump in the general election, I had wanted to vote for Huckabee — the only candidate who said that all of Judea and Samaria was an inalienable part of Israel, that Israel has a stronger claim than the U.S. does to Manhattan — but he was no longer in the running, I switched my party affiliation to democrat so I will have the opportunity to vote against Gillibrand twice next year! She’s clearly another Hillary Clinton in the offing.