Yesterday when I got to the office, I expected the die-hard Republicans to be at a loss to defend the House leadership. Oh was I wrong. The first comment from them was "Clinton got away with worse." Typical. So I just went to work and repeated this mantra - it will all be over soon, the Dems will take back the House in November surely, it will all be over soon, etc. It's the only thing that gets me through the day sometimes.
Then today I read Howard Kurtz' column. Now, I don't usually read his column, but for some reason I did today. Maybe on other days he's not so "infuriating." More below.
Howard said in his column
Cone of Silence on the Wapo page:
Now I don't want to come down on 16-year-old kids (though some are now as old as 21) who must have been intimidated by the whole thing. Indeed, the power imbalance between a big-shot member of Congress and a lowly page is part of what makes this infuriating.
So, he doesn't want to come down on 16-year-old kids, but then he does! He wrote later:
Of course, the kids who didn't say anything were just part of a cone of silence that protected Foley.
Let's blame the victims why don't we!
But the most "infuriating" thing is this. Mr Kurtz recognizes the power imbalance and that it is "infuriating." Good, that's exactly a great point to make. This is clearly a case of someone in power taking advantage in a sexual manner of someone he exerts influence over. Isn't there a name for that? We'll get to that in a minute.
Mr. Kurtz next says:
I really wish journalists would stop using weasel words like "inappropriate" to describe [the alleged Foley IMs]. They're not inappropriate, they're sickening.
Exactly true, sickening. So Mr. Kurtz, I really wish journalists would stop using words like "infuriating" to describe a situation where someone tries to exert their power over an employee in a sexual manner. Let's use the correct term shall we? Sexual Harrassment! Call it what it is! And are you insane? Sexual Harrassment is a crime where the victims often do not report incidents for fear of exactly what you did - being blamed. How can you expect 16 year old children to come forward and report sexual harrassment when many adults are afraid to do so?
Is it just me, or does anyone else see that the press is missing the sexual harrassment thing here?