‘Icons’ took pervy deal, ran with it
After liberal women gave Bill a pass over politics
And Matt Lauer makes five. Well, as of this writing, anyway. Al Franken, Charlie Rose, John Conyers, Louis C.K ... wait — what? Garrison Keillor just joined the Creep Club, too? Make that six.
How forlorn — no, make that “woebegone” — Dem- ocrats must feel today. Liberal men are being knocked down by their bad behavior faster than Eastie row houses.
Why?
I am a firm believer in Natural Truth No. 1: All Men Are Pigs, All Women Are Insane.
However, it does seem that liberal “icons” as Nancy Pelosi put it — these public men of the left have a disproportionate sexual harassment problem. Why is that?
Well, call it the Clinton effect. Progressives spent 20 years defending Bill Clinton and denying his bad behavior, all because they supported his politics. Remember feminist Gloria Steinem’s “one free grope” op-ed in 1998?
Or Nina Burleigh of Newsweek magazine?
“I would be happy to give him a [what Monica already did] just to thank him for keeping abortion legal,” this advocate for women wrote during the Clinton scandal.
Well, guess what, ladies, when you tell guys that their politics make their pervery OK, some of them take you up on the offer. Garrison Keillor wrote what now appears to be a self-serving op-ed defending Al Franken in the Washington Post yesterday: “There is talk of resignation. This is pure absurdity, and the atrocity it leads to is a code of public deadliness. No kidding.”
That’s how lifelong liberal icon Garrison Keillor refers to a serial groper being pressured to resign: an “atrocity.” Any surprise that a guy who thinks this way just got handed his “perv pink slip” by public radio?
(Tip for NPR: Want fewer harassers? Hire some conservatives.)
(Tip from
NPR: No thanks, Michael. We’d rather have harassers.)
The point is, Garrison Keillor’s attitude was the attitude of virtually every American liberal from 1998 to today.
Yes, there are men on the right who have treated women badly. President Trump has a lifelong history of low-rent lasciviousness. Alabama evangelicals may well elect a U.S. senator who targeted young teens for his (ahem) “laying on of hands,” as Pentecostals put it. But try to find a Washington Post op-ed or Newsweek cover story defending them? Or even suggesting their situations are nuanced, or bemoaning a “code of public deadliness.” You can’t. And did anyone else notice that the phrase “due process” magically appeared on editorial pages across America after Al Franken and John Conyers got caught? That’s because every randy Republican, from “almost-speaker of the House” Bob Livingston in 1998 to Fox News fallen star Bill O’Reilly today, knows that if they engage in bad behavior and get caught, there will be political hell to pay from the press. Or, perhaps, their fellow Republicans.
Back in the day people like Livingston (admitted adultery) and U.S. Sen. Larry Craig (owning up to an unusually “wide stance” in the airport men’s room) were pressured out of office by their fellow Republicans. That era ended with Trump.
Yesterday on Boston Herald Radio, Republican state Rep. Geoff Diehl, now a U.S. Senate candidate, was defending Roy Moore and supporting his decision to remain in the Alabama Senate race:
“Roy Moore’s been elected several times and I’ve never heard these allegations before,” Diehl told Herald Radio. “They are allegations, nobody’s admitted anything … As long as they’re allegations I think [Moore] is making his decisions based on what’s best for the people of Alabama.”
For every horrified Massachusetts Democrat reading this, Republicans have a two-word rebuttal: “Ted Kennedy.” OK, two more: “Bill Clinton.” And soon enough, two more: “Al Franken.” Who, I predict, is not going anywhere.
Why should he? He merely took the deal liberal feminists offered: If you’re liberal on your political positions, you’re free to coerce women into any other “position” you want. Now the rules are changing? C’mon, liberals — they’re your rules. Give your guys a chance to catch up.