I can honestly say that I didn’t see this one coming. Bush 41 groping women from his wheelchair while making a “David Cop-a-feel” joke. (One random link out of many.)
Frontotemporal dementia? He’s 93 years old, and (so far) there are no such complaints about his behavior from when he was younger.
For what little it is worth, he is of an era where bottom pat/pinch was considered normal. It doesn’t sounds like it is really on the same scale as Weinstein at all.
I don’t know. If he isn’t senile, he wouldn’t know better than to make a “David Cop-a-feel” joke and fondle a stranger’s bum?
It doesn’t have to be as bad as Weinstein to still be bad. Groping women who don’t consent is wrong. It’s appropriate for anyone to publicly talk about being groped if they so choose. Doesn’t mean Bush 41 is the worst monster in history, but it does mean that he groped a woman and can reasonably be criticized for it.
I’m sorry, but this sounds like utter crapola to me. Old guy in wheelchair with limited arm strength touches someone’s bum because he can’t raise his arms up high. Then, in order to cover for this embarrassment, makes an off-color joke. He’s over 90. Good God.
I am very, very sensitive to assaults that go on against women every day. I have no doubt that pretty much every single woman has been sexually assaulted in one form or another.
But this? Overblown bullshit, that is (IMO) designed to get an actress publicity. It also helps to shit on the very worthy “Me Too” campaign. It diminishes it. It makes REAL victims less likely to be believed.
I can’t wait for the next celebrity to claim she was “sexually assaulted” because she’s pretty sure that a famous person thought of her in a lewd way once.
Jimmy Carter might be that famous person. He did a Playboy interview where he said: “I’ve looked on a lot of women with lust. I’ve committed adultery in my heart many times.”
http://content.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1859513_1859526_1859518,00.html
God that Phyllis Newman was one hot little number.
I’m sure he does know better, but his impulse control might be slipping. Dementia & senility are a spectrum, really. It’s a slide, not a step.
I appreciate the Ex-Presidents Club doing disaster fundraising together but it might be time to get 41 a seat at Prince Phillip’s table.
It’s not the crime of the century, but God knows why you’re trying to spin it into something else. Bush has acknowledged it and apologized for it.
It’s two women now, so don’t be surprised if others come forward.
This. My eighty-year-old father suffered from Alheimer’s in his last years. A lifelong believer in civil rights and judging by the content of one’s character, mocked the Hispanic accent of a caregiver (out of her hearing) in an attempt at humor. I was shocked and disappointed. In a clearer-thinking moment later in the day he apologized. The best people lose access to their better nature to dementia.
Granted, I don’t have the experience and wisdom of a nonagenarian, but if I were to accidentally touch a woman’s breast, the next thing out of my mouth would be a profuse apology, not “I bet you didn’t know I could juggle melons!”
Nor do you have the gray matter of a nonagenarian. Wait and see what you actually do at that age, rather than tell us what you will do.
Things change with time, and so many of those things are out of our control.
I’m sure they will. Including some who have never met Bush in their lives.
What bullcrap is this? Your attempted excuse that it wasn’t assault didn’t fly, so now you’re going with the women made it up?
If I had to guess, I would say it’s not (directly) dementia. Rather, that as men get older - especially when they get really really old - they are seen as less threatening and less sexual generally, and can thus “get away with” things that they wouldn’t have been able to pull off when they were younger. The same actions are simply interpreted differently and in a less sinister manner. But conversely, many men of that age lament their lack of perceived virility which feeds this attitude.
So I’m guessing that Bush was trying to play it both ways. Take advantage of his age-related ability to get away with it on the one hand, and suggest in a joking manner that he was still this Big Old Lecher on the other. Bad move, as it turns out.
Possibly his judgment might be a bit impaired as well, which would itself play into the above.
Try reading for comprehension, instead of for an OMG GOTCHA!
I say combination of those two. He has impaired impulse control and his behavioral conditioning back when he had it together was different to begin with, as in to not look upon it as serious business. Now, this is explanation, NOT justification, of course.
(I wonder however, in view of this, if Lt. Bush in WW2 at a liberty port was all over the barmaids’ asses. )
As a liberal and a feminist, I’m done with it. She accused him, he admitted it and apologized without trying to weasel out of it. He gets some slack for being 93 with Parkinson’s and most likely mental deficits.
Help my comprehension. I read this:
as suggesting that woman will falsely accuse him of harassment. Did you intend some other meaning? If not, why do you think it is important to raise the possibility of false accusations here? Do you think it is a common problem, and potentially related to the two accusations already lodged?