No excuse for excuses
After waffling on harassment charges against a longtime colleague, Rep. Nancy Pelosi now wants Rep. John Conyers to resign after a first-person account of his pressuring a woman for sex. It’s the right call, though overdue, on the latest claim on the wildfire topic.
Pelosi’s turnabout underscores several realities. Insider politics trails the media and business worlds in punishing offenders. Personal ties can overrule stark warning signs of trouble. The ingrown world of elected officialdom is built for self-protection, and needs changing.
Almost daily, the list of men facing detailed accusations is growing, as is the roster of departing males in fields from TV to entertainment to tech. “To the people I have hurt, I am truly sorry,” stated Matt Lauer, one of the broadcast world’s most successful and highly paid figures. His scripted words could easily have come from other prominent figures knocked off their perch.
Beyond the chase for details and a fuller picture of each revelation, there’s room for serious reflection and change. The political world for all its vaunted openness hides harassment to an astonishing degree. Panels hold private hearings, legal settlements to muzzle complaints about predatory behavior tap taxpayer funds, and serial offenders are tolerated for too long.
California’s Legislature is ventilating the issue in a major way. It’s outsourcing the harassment by hiring a law firm to handle claims and inquiries. But that step follows a failure to approve whistle-blower protections for women in the statehouse ranks. For four years, protections for women bringing harassment claims has stalled in the Legislature. Without such guarantees, staffers risk retaliation in their careers, according to the idea’s sponsor, Assemblywoman Melissa Melendez, a Riverside County Republican.
The Capitol establishment is feeling justifiable heat for the failure to respect and protect female workers. Assemblyman Raul Bocanegra, a San Fernando Valley Democrat, has resigned after a string of misconduct charges. State Sen. Tony Mendoza, a Los Angeles County Democrat, was stripped of prime committee posts after testimonials that he pressured women for sex.
The reckoning isn’t complete. This top-line world of political figures can only be one level of a churning subsurface where women in everyday jobs endure harassment. The bravery shown in better-publicized cases should encourage them to speak out at last — and for workplace cultures everywhere to get the message of zero tolerance.