Va. gov. case a rush to judgment?
Democrats see only black and white in push to top Trump
WASHINGTON — It took days for Democrats to call on Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., to resign in 2017 amid allegations of sexual misconduct, weeks for them to push Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn., to resign amid mounting allegations of improprieties.
For Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam, it took less than five hours for the shocking revelation that his medical school yearbook page included a picture of men in black face and a Ku Klux Klan costume to evolve into demands for his resignation.
Democrats have adopted a zero-tolerance policy in the age of Trump, working with almost laserlike precision to oust the president and shedding any perceived obstacle to defeating him in 2020.
While President Donald Trump has stretched the limits of what Republicans can say and do with impunity, he has limited what Democrats are willing to sweep aside among their own ranks.
“We’re in a new era, a new age,” said Bakari Sellers, a former South Carolina state lawmaker who is African-American. “Would we have moved as fast if Hillary Clinton were president? I don’t know.”
But there is also a quieter concern that the party has come to react too quickly. Some of Franken’s supporters are still bitter over how the end of his career played out, and several senators have said they regretted pushing him to leave office.
The new atmosphere can catch the most seasoned politician off guard. The accused feel denied any sense of due process. Supposed allies turn into enemies. And, they argue, Republicans are refusing to play by the same rules.
“I think there’s a rush to judgment that is unfair to him,” Joe Lieberman, the former Democratic vice presidential nominee, said Monday on CNN about Northam. “One, he says he wasn’t in that picture. Two, I think we ought to fairly ask him, did he know the picture was on his page of that yearbook. And then three, really, he ought to be judged on the context of his whole life.”
“I think he deserves a chance to prove what really is his essence,” he said. “Not to rush him out of office, unfortunately for political reasons.”
But Lieberman is in the distinct minority as his former party is newly animated by women and nonwhite candidates and voters, who have provided the ballast for swift decisions.
The race to judgment marks a remarkable shift for the party. It took decades for Democrats to grapple with President Bill Clinton’s indiscretions, and opinions on the matter still vary.
Sen. Robert Byrd, DW.Va., filibustered against the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and was a onetime member of the Ku Klux Klan — two things for which he later apologized — but became the longest-serving senator in history before his death in 2010.
Now, hints of scandal trigger quick demands for resignations across the country.
In North Carolina, top Democrats, including Gov. Roy Cooper, called on a Democratic state lawmaker to resign last year amid allegations of sexual harassment. The lawmaker, Duane Hall, refused to resign but was handily defeated in a primary a few months later.
Democrats say the environment has shifted, and requires new strategies. Information travels at a rapid pace, and activists have new platforms on social media to express their displeasure.
Campaign advisers say they are pelted by questions from reporters to respond to the latest scandal, so a lack of action stymies efforts to focus elsewhere. Democrats insist that, both to counter Trump and maintain favor with their key voter groups, they must claim the moral high ground.
“If we’re going to carry the message and carry the call forward, we have to make sure we’re holding ourselves to account,” said Guy Cecil, chairman of the Democratic super PAC Priorities USA. “I reject any idea that we’re not holding our own people to a higher standard. You cannot call on a Florida secretary of state to resign for black face because he’s a Republican and let our party get away with it.”
“I don’t think there’s any question that Trump’s racism, Trump’s xenophobia, Trump’s sexism has made many people more aware and made their sensitivity more heightened,” he said. “And I think that’s a good thing.”
Democrats also say that calling for purity in their own party allows for a sharper contrast with Republicans who strongly support Trump despite accusations against him of sexual misconduct by more than a dozen women and the varied insults he has leveled against minorities.
“I can’t deal with the racism of Donald Trump and Steve King if I’m afraid to call out my own,” Sellers said, referring to the Iowa congressman who has defended white supremacy. “It lends credibility to his racial transgressions if you’re not willing to cut off your own cancer.”