Cloudy With a Chance of Sexual Assault Allegations

The Congressional Office of Compliance released a stunning report on Thursday detailing the cost and quantity of sexual assault and harassment claims against members of Congress over the past 20 years.  Since FY 1997, more than $17 million of taxpayer money has gone to pay off plaintiffs in more than 250 cases.  Not surprisingly, this document does not list the members of Congress implicated in such scandals; therefore, we the people lack the ability to hold them accountable.       

 

Just like I would really appreciate it if the feminists would pay for their own G.D. birth control, I would really appreciate it if members of Congress would pay for their own G.D. legal settlements.  We could have probably balanced the budget by now if touchy-feely members of Congress had spent their own money to pay off their victims.  It would also certainly help Operation Balance the Budget if members of Congress would pay for their own G.D. healthcare.  Congress has an exemption from Obamacare, remember?  While widespread sexual misconduct allegations have plagued other powerful industries such as Hollywood and Academia, at least they don’t use taxpayer money to pay their legal bills.  Only in the swamp would such a monstrosity take place.       

 

It looks like the Senate Ethics Committee will have its hands full next year.  Senators on both sides of the aisle want to look into Minnesota Senator Al Franken after LA radio host Leeann Tweeden released a picture of him touching a sleeping Tweeden’s breasts while on a plane ride home from a USO tour eleven years ago.  Tweeden also alleges that Franken “put his hand on the back of my head, mashed his lips against mine and aggressively stuck his tongue in my mouth.”   Franken apologized for his actions, saying that the picture “was intended to be funny but it wasn’t.”  Franken will not likely face any immediate consequences for his actions; as the Ethics Committee has not expelled a member of the Senate since the Civil War era. Unfortunately, the Ethics Committee has developed a reputation as nothing more than what Seth Meyers referred to the prospect of a Trump Presidency as: a joke.  Although Dana Perino correctly predicted that Harry Reid would announce his retirement and that an unexpected Supreme Court Vacancy  would shake up the race for the White House, it looks like her prediction that Franken will run for President missed the mark.  Because of the new sexual assault allegations, Franken may not even survive his re-election bid, due to take place in 2020.  Republicans could actually win a Senate seat in Minnesota; President Trump only lost the state by about a point last year.       

 

Franken’s fellow Democratic Senator Bob Menendez may also have to undergo an ethics investigation of his own as he faces allegations of bribery and corruption.  The Committee had already begun investigating Menendez but dropped the probe due to a criminal investigation.  That investigation ended last week when the trial against Menendez ended with a mistrial.  Ten jurors voted in favor of acquitting the New Jersey Senior Senator; while the other two voted to convict.  Menendez would have likely faced expulsion from the Senate had the jury found him guilty.  Menendez’s term in the Senate expires next year.  He may face a primary challenge while his defeat in a general election to a Republican challenger in deep blue New Jersey seems unlikely but not impossible.  Even if the Senate did decide to expel him, a Democratic Governor would likely get to appoint his replacement; as Republican Governor Chris Christie’s term expires at the end of next month.  For all the talk about how Alabama’s Republican Senate Candidate Roy Moore does not meet the ethical and moral standards of the United States Senate, you could probably say the same thing about many sitting members of Congress.  Just for fun, I decided to look into the mainstream media’s coverage of the Menendez scandal versus the sexual assault allegations surrounding Moore.  Not surprisingly, the media gave 40 times more coverage to the Moore scandal over four days than they gave to the Menendez corruption trial since it began in early September.  You could make the argument that they cover the Moore scandal more because sex sells but I think the media’s partisanship explains the difference in coverage more than anything else.  Should Moore manage to win the special election to finish Jeff Sessions’ term in the Senate, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has said that he will face an ethics investigation “immediately after he’s sworn into office.”             

 

Congress’s approval rating may soon approach zero as more of its members continue to grapple with sexual assault allegations.  Pollsters don’t typically ask people how they feel about Hollywood, but the folks in Tinseltown would probably earn low approval ratings from the American public as well.  After all, it was the revelations about Movie Producer and major Democratic donor Harvey Weinstein’s numerous misdeeds, including rape, that set off a domino effect leading other women to accuse famous men of sexual assault and/or harassment. 

 

The decision of some Democrats to finally hold Bill Clinton accountable for his sexual improprieties seems like opportunistic virtue-signaling at this point.  Ann Coulter made a great point when she said, “I think it’s fantastic that the Democrats have finally come out against race discrimination.  Any day now, maybe they’ll support Reagan’s dismantling of the Soviet Union.  Perhaps 100 years from now, they’ll be ready to champion the rights of the unborn.  It would be a big help, though, if Democrats could support good causes when it mattered.”  While Coulter correctly predicted that the Democrats would eventually see Russia as a national security threat, we’re still waiting on them to champion the rights of the unborn.  I have a feeling the Democrats would still be covering up for the Clintons had Hillary managed to win the election last year.  Never forget that in the battle between power and principle, power wins every single time. 

 

Neither party has clean hands when it comes to sexual misconduct.  Sex scandals of varying intensity have ended the political careers of several Republicans such as Bob Packwood, John Ensign, Tim Murphy and Mark Foley as well as several Democrats such as John Edwards, Eliot Spitzer, Anthony Weiner and Eric Massa.  The Democrats keep hoping and praying to the Gods in the Church of Liberalism that sexual assault allegations will cause President Trump to fall from grace but so far, the “Access Hollywood” tape serves as the only hard evidence against President Trump.

 

In an effort to avoid having any indiscretions made public as a result of the “drip drip drip” of sexual assault allegations, Ohio gubernatorial candidate Bill O’Neill (D) decided to tell the world about his more than 50 sexual encounters in a Facebook post.  I guess the term “proactive” has a whole new meaning.  After receiving quite a bit of backlash from his opponents on both sides of the aisle, O’Neill decided to delete the Facebook post.         

 

As Andrew Breitbart pointed out, “politics is downstream from culture.”  Until the culture changes away from one that constantly objectifies women, sexual assault and harassment will likely continue at workplaces across America.  Perhaps Vice President Pence’s practice of not dining alone with women other than his wife could become a trend setter.  Feminists can mock the Vice President all they want for his old-fashioned values but they should keep in mind that you don’t see anyone accusing him of sexual misconduct.   

 

I am currently compiling a list of the highlights and lowlights of 2017; these sexual assault allegations will certainly top the list of the lowlights.  For the next several weeks, the forecast calls for cloudy skies with a very good chance of sexual assault allegations.