Trump, the Clintons, and sexual harrasment

[HurricaneDitka]

@QuickSilver

I see. So you’re an advocate for the zero tolerance policy when it comes to charges of sexual harassment by elected officials?

I don’t believe I’ve taken a zero-tolerance position in any of these ongoing discussions about sexual harassment. I actually thought RTFirefly’s suggestion would be an elegant resolution for Franken:

@RTFirefly

Here’s a suggestion.

If Franken resigns, his appointed replacement would only serve until November 2018, when an election would be held for his replacement.

So here’s the suggestion: let the people of Minnesota decide. Franken resigns, with the understanding that (a) he won’t be appointed for the vacancy created by his resignation, but (b) if the people of Minnesota vote him back in next November, it’s no harm, no foul.

A year on the sidelines seems to me to be a reasonable consequence for his actions. And if the people of Minnesota decide next year to extend that period, that should be their choice.

In the post that started this discussion, I wasn’t so much urging a zero-tolerance policy as poking fun at the idea that “the Dems ARE doing the right thing” by calling for an investigation by the ethics committee. They’re not, or at least, they’re not taking any sort of a tough stance against sexual abusers by doing it. They know, and you probably know, that the Senate ethics investigations is a dead end. It would amount to a slap on the wrist for Franken at most.

USA Today: Senate ethics panel has issued no punishments in 9 years

The Senate Ethics Committee released its annual report this week declaring that for the ninth straight year, it imposed no disciplinary sanctions against anyone in 2015. Since 2007, the committee has received 613 allegations of wrongdoing and has summarily dismissed more than 90% of them. Only 75 have had even a preliminary investigation.

The total of the committee’s discipline during the nine-year period is a half-dozen letters the committee has written to senators saying, basically, “you should not have done that.” …

These results raise “all kinds of red flags,” said Meredith McGehee, policy director at the non-partisan Campaign Legal Center. “It begs credulity that there have been no ethics violations worthy of disciplinary sanction since 2007 in the entire Senate. The fact is the Senate Ethics Committee has become the ‘dead letter’ office.”

…

“Senate Ethics has a reputation of being a black hole for allegations,” said Jordan Libowitz of the left-leaning watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. “Information tends to go into the committee and nothing comes out of it.”

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