This column is a perfect example of "whataboutism." While your at it Maureen what about JKF and FDR's infidelities? What about Thomas Jefferson's transgressions. Here's a what about for you Maureen, what about Trump being accused of sexual harrassment against 16 women. Read this from the New Yorker:
https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/listening-to-what-trumps-accuse...
2
Hey Maureen, it's OK, you can stop now, Hillary lost.
She's retired and you no longer need to bring her up in connection with every scandal in America.
Sen Franken has apologized deeply and believably, Ms. Tweeden has accepted that apology, so what is exactly your point.
38 witnesses say Roy Moore was inappropriate with children, and you are equating Sen. Franken's stupid pic and conduct with that.
You are so terribly wrong, and BTW the Clintons have nothing to do with any of it.
181
Well,I'm willing to forgive Clinton and Weinstein and Franken for their transgressions.....it's obvious that they're all simply too low bred to know any better
12
Sometimes the sanest reaction to an insane situation...is Insanity.
2
Wow! A Maureen Dowd column that I agree with. That doesn't happen very often.
15
Thank you for bring up the Weinstein-Obama-Clinton elephant in the room. It can’t be mentioned often enough, in my opinion.
Enablers.
31
Oh please!
"Bill Clinton ... certainly owed [Hillary Clinton] an apology..."
Yes, he did, initially. But Hillary quickly became his co-conspirator by bad-mouthing Monica Lewinsky, who hadn't started it all (Linda Tripp had) and simply told the truth when asked.
I'll never forget the Clinton family's departure for their annual vacation on Martha's Vineyard in August 1998. Hillary publicly reported that Bill had just told her, for the very first time, that Monica Lewinsky's allegations were true. Hillary said she was shocked -- shocked -- to learn this.
I remember well my reaction:
"You're shocked to learn that Bill was really fooling around with Monica Lewinsky? You may have been the very only person in the entire country who still believed him. After Lewinsky's grand jury testimony, the infamous blue dress (which had Bill Clinton's semen on it), and gobs and gobs of other evidence, how could you possibly have believed, until then, that the affair hadn't happened?"
36
The "President" of the United States continues to Fritter ...on Twitter.
8
Where to start? Ms. Dowd's claim, cloaked in rhetorical questions, that Hillary would have covered for Harvey Weinstein, et. al.? That not divorcing Bill made Hillary his enabler? (If those whose spouses strayed have no option but divorce, the courts would be backed up for a decade.) The "lynch mob" of Anita Hill, who was essentially commanded to testify before Congress, then condemned for doing so? Why a lynch mob then, and righteous female rage against male predation today? That we should have accepted all the right wingers' accusations about President Clinton's sex life, despite their credibility problems, while they were also accusing the Clintons of theft, murder, treason, and lately adding witchcraft and sex slavery?
Ms. Dowd has a point rattling around somewhere in all this, but it's hard to tell if it's "Hang 'em all!", or simply "Hang the Clintons! It's all their fault!"
54
"First, with Clarence Thomas, a feminist lynch mob tried to kill off a conservative Supreme Court nominee over sex when the real reason they wanted to get rid of him was politics."
What a creepy thing to imply. No Maureen, perhaps you were confused about the difference between "sexual harassment" and "sex," but Anita Hill was not and neither were any of the feminists supporting her.
Since you are older than I am and you know perfectly well that there was NO sexual relationship between Anita Hill and Clarence Thomas, there was only a boss sexually harassing a woman who worked for him, I wonder why you are now trying to suggest to a new generation of readers that this case was similar to Lewinsky/Clinton? That was an affair - there was a sexual relationship between them. It was highly inappropriate, stupid and exploitative of a young person's inexperience, but not criminal.
70
Bill Clinton was no different than Weinstein, and Hillary was the bulldog hunting down any woman who dared to complain about Bill's sexual adventures.
Compared to them Trump is a Saint!
27
This is the first time I've heard that opposition to Clarence Thomas boiled down to a 'feminist lynch mob!' Thomas was Hill's boss. the head of the EEOC, the office specifically charged with defending people against discrimination. His evident mistreatment of Hill was a violation of everything his office stood for. He'd been declared 'unfit' by the Amercian Bar Association and the hearings brought out his psychological and moral unfitness. Famous for his disdain for racial quotas, Thomas then cynically pulled out the race card, calling Hill's charges 'high-tech lynching.' Senators Spector and Biden did all in their power to bury Hill and reward Thomas.
If, as Dowd claims, opposing Thomas was all 'politics' why did Biden and the Democrats conspire to shove Thomas onto the court?
37
Not all women are honest, and not all men are pigs or weasels. And if someone's life is going to be virtually ruined, there should be proof, or at least a a handful of accusers, and a behavior pattern. Franken forced one kiss and took a dumb joke photo. That's not enough in my opinion.
53
Dowd's use of "Clintonian tact" left me wondering if she meant to use "tactic" or "tack" or actually meant it positively, as "tact" is a virtue.
12
Maureen Dowd, telling it like is is, as usual.
15
Why are bleeding heart liberals so dumb?
This is exactly what Trump and his spin masters want - focusing on something that happened 20 years ago
Get a grip and move on. Focus on today and the damage Trump and his bunch of lunatics are doing to our country
52
Happy days are here again! Just when it seemed Ms. Dowd wasn’t going to be able to write about the Clintons anymore.
31
I can't justify the poor behavior that men exhibit towards women but I can offer an idea of why there is a degree of disrespect among (some? many? most?). There is a dirty little secret among men regarding women. If you walk down any street, you can see a multitude of businesses that cater to a theme of making women look good: hairstylists, ateliers, clothing shops, shoe shops, perfume, tanning salons, weight loss clinics, jewelry stores. All serve as a de facto collection of wholesale businesses dedicated to the retail business of making women look flawless.
Flawless is a big theme with women at least as much as advertising suggests.
Now, I suspect if you are a woman reading this you might be thinking 'This is ridiculous, I'm not like that' but these businesses are open and thriving. Someone must be shopping there.
Men, by and large, do not get up each day thinking that they have to walk out the door looking 'flawless'. If they did, and if they catered to all the wholesale businesses mentioned above, I suspect women would think that they were fools with misplaced priorities..
Well, here's the dirty little secret: (some, many, most) men think women ARE fools for just this reason. Am I trying to excuse the really poor behavior such of Al Franken? Not excuse, but explain. Google Leann Tweeden, images and take a look at the first 20 or 30 non-scandal photos and tell me why that's what is prominent in this woman's life. Why those photos are the ones that explain who she is?
28
You Americans are funny (I’m European, a Swede), I don’t know how many American opinion pieces (ok, mostly conservative) I’ve read now where the writers basically equate Ms Clinton’s role as a wife to an accused predator to a predator himself - Mr Trump. Trump is the president, Ms Clinton was a candidate. She constantly gets dragged down by the scandal that surrounded her husband in 90’s - what a double standard you have. It wouldn’t happen in any European country, of that I’m sure. Also, this piece has a strange way of making an argument, the first half is basically implying that we indirectly should thank Mr Trump for making sure that feminism now is a top priority. The same case could be made for Judas in the Bible - for, after all, who would Jesus Christ be without the traitor at his side!
57
Please! In the age of Trunp, is any behavior really unacceptable as long as it meets political ends. The Republican congress is accepting of the most sexist racist, sexually predatory and may I add, absolutely mad president ever. All the rhetoric on both sides of the aisle is almost totally for political gain.
As soon as the next big story comes along, sexual harassment will lose it's luster As for Bill Clinton and Hillary neither do hold office now and they keep being brought up to counter Trump's behavior.
Perhaps when the dust settles there may be some lasting change, but I wouldn't hold my breath
18
Bill Clinton's sexual depredations were without a doubt, sickening and disgusting. But, the real reason he should have been convicted in the Senate was the fact that he lied to a Grand Jury. A much more serious charge than sexual indiscretions. And, as only the second sitting president to be impeached in over two hundred years of our republic, if he had had any character at all, he would have resigned. But then, horror of horrors, theoretically, we could have had Al Gore as president for ten, long years. That could have been a real nightmare.
15
It's sad but telling that Hillary's legacy seems to have boiled down to enabling her husband to philander. And that an opinion piece titled "The Hillary Effect" is illustrated with a photo of Bill Clinton. In the end, it's still a boys' club, on both sides of the aisle and in the reporting and commenting that "enables" it.
40
All of these powerful men and their behavior towards women lead to the current cultural inflection point..or watershed. Much like the arc of this country's slowly raised consciousness resulting in the elimination of slavery, giving women the right to vote, ending Jim Crow, providing Medicare, and Social Security...there was a continuum of events which resulted in attaining the larger goal. In this case it's women's right to be free of sexual harassment not just embedded in law but embedded finally in the overall consciousnesses of the country. Anita Hill was instrumental, Bill Clinton and Bob Packwood's disgusting behavior resulted in minor changes in awareness, but Trump was somehow given a pass for his disgusting behavior. Simutaneoulsy, the worm kept turning. Along the continuum, the pigs in Hollywood represent the lancing of the boil and drainage of the pus. Now, finally, comes the opportunity for the conversation to draw distinctions between the acts which are clearly career ending and those that are low level, forgivable, and not representative of a pattern of misconduct. The men stayed in the driver's seat until the tipping point a few weeks ago. Now, all that has changed. Awareness has been permanently raised and the past is a kind of flotsam and jetsam....i.e., Hillary lost to Trump...Bill's past acts to a certain extent may have done her in, who's on first, what's on second.
2
I am really curious about the power SEX has over human beings and probably
every other species. It is the most universal biological activity there is, yet
humans seem ti have never come to terms with it.
6
Bill Clinton already paid a high price for his behavior in the 1990s, and Hillary by association. Let’s stop litigating his behavior all over again. Who benefits?
21
Ms Dowd, if I may, this column is playing right into the hands of Trumpism and its "leader." Let us put to rest the past...it's done, it's over. Instead you need to refocus and aim your sharp words to this scandal of a president. For you see, in spite of Bill Clinton, Trump is of his own making. From what I have learned, he is a corrupt, amoral, adulterer. He is our country's Symbol-in-Chief, the wretched man whom are future adults may think they need to emulate.
I, like you, am a woman, a product of the 60s and 70s. I will defend our rights to the day I meet my Maker. But age has taught me that we need to triage, so to speak, in politics and life in general. And because of this barely human POTUS, he and his sycophants, we are in a moral crisis.
24
What's missing from the column and comments I have read so far is any mention of the original politician granted a pass, Ted Kennedy. He was undoubtedly following in his brother's footsteps, but then nobody in the general public knew of JFK's predations until much later. Ted killed a woman and was elected and repeatedly re-elected Senator. But he was a good liberal.
The first time a sexual accusation from the past was used against a public figure was Clarence Thomas. By contrast the accusations against Clinton were of relatively recent vintage, and I disagree that the motive was purely political, as was definitely the case with Judge Thomas.
What I think is really disfiguring society is the toleration of accusations over 10 years old. At that point truth is no longer an issue, you are just seeking revenge and are enlisting/conscripting us in your cause. But we don't know the truth and shouldn't be swayed by a report kept silent for so many years. The accused has no way to defend themselves, and the passage of years SHOULD make the accusation not-creditable.
11
I've said it before and apparently I have to say it again: the American system of morality and ethics has come down to the following statements:
1. It's not a crime if *I* do it; it's a crime if *you* do it. For "I" you can substitute "a member of my party" and for "you" you can substitute "a member of the other party".
2, Get results and everything else is forgiven. Not only do the ends justify the means, they justify everything.
3. If you are rich/famous/powerful/can get the best lawyers, your actions will not have consequences.
And considering that Trump's strategy these days seems to be that of a man accused of murder who gives as his only defense "The guy next door stole a loaf of bread!", what are we to make of all this? Orwell's prophecy came true, but instead of "All animals are equal but some are more equal than others" it became "All animals are equal provided they agree politically. If they don't..."
4
Hypocrisy:
Allegations against Moore, Moore has to go.....NOW
Hard evidence against Franken. Franken gets to stay.
I am disgusted by everyone's behavior but mine own. Or my political soul mates.
Thank God hillary didn't win.
11
It's always interesting to speculate but Clinton will always get a pass from his base because "those were different times". It is disgusting. People are not that stupid, but some politicians are that arrogant.
8
It is nauseating to see that a heinous crime like sexual assault is now become a political tool to go after people. Both parties are just shamelessley doing it. Aren't we ashamed as a nation? I am.
8
It seems to me that almost everyone has lost a sense proportion here.
Comparing Al Franken & his obviously lame-- and misplaced-- "joke"
with Ray Moore and his decades -long actions with young women is absurd.
Anyone who looks at that picture should know Franken was making a stupid joke. Aside from everything else, he was gesturing to the photographer &
laughing. And the shadows (to me) indicate he was not even
touching this heavily padded woman. While most females have experienced
unwanted actions from various men in their lives , I doubt if many flipped
out when some guy made a crude gesture when said woman was in a semi-snowsuit and the action was being photographed. This was, as far as is known,
a single incident occurring when Franken was a comedian on a USO tour.
A definite error --but NOT enough to have him drummed out of the Senate!
The Bill Clinton matter involved a multi-year series actions and participants--
surpassed (in this current scandal) only by the appalling patterns of the odious
Weinstein and "Judge" Moore. Let's deal with MAJOR sexual advances. There are certainly enough to compel the media's current focus.
17
It's creepy, isn't it? Like many others I am disgusted with the shenanigans of the powerful against the less powerful - I have two daughters and two sons - and I don't want them to ever be used by their bosses or others who will have power over them.
I agree that it's not about political advantage: it's about behavior and good old-fashioned morality. We need to teach our children from an early age each other's value and integrity. And a good foundation of Martial Arts.
6
I am a 71-year-old liberal Democratic feminist with a long road behind me of fighting for basic rights and respect for everyone. In my adult lifetime, I have sat=in at lunch counters with African-Americans, advocated for LGBT rights and the fundamental respect for women that a pro-choice stand implies. There has been success; there has been painful failure. But of all these, the most intractable is the right of women to be seen as full human beings. Misogyny has been inherent in all the other social movements. In both the Civil Rights and the Anti-War movements of the 1960-70's, the men marched, the women made coffee. It seems as if every few years the harassment and intimidation of women is rediscovered and everyone is shocked and horrified.
What is that about? We've covered this, folks. Shape up. Act right. Fight for everyone's rights and try not to forget women again.
9
If the Equal Rights Amendment had passed back in the 70s, maybe this conversation would have already been resolved. Ironically, it wasn't men who crushed the movement, but rather the likes of Phyllis Schlafly.
10
Once more we are led down a rabbit hole; an irrational, frenzied debate that takes us back to Bill Clinton, and re-contextualizes his behavior into 2017. Retroactively he should have resigned, the Clinton's should have been purged. Hillary continues to be at the root of the country's problems.
None of this helps, none of this gets us anywhere.
Let's deal with the problems at hand: Trump, Moore, and Franken.
Trump has acknowledged his behavior in the tapes and vilified his victims. Moore has both denied his behavior and accused his victims. Franken has taken responsibility and apologized for childish behavior that was distasteful but doesn't even come close to the transgressions by Trump and Moore. To suggest that FRANKEN resign is absurd. Let's face it, nobody is going to resign.
The distraction posed by this debate is important but has lost focus and has become disheveled. It is yet another deflection taking attention away from the Trump administration and it's efforts to undermine democratic norms in this country. Let's refocus on protecting ourselves from the tax bill...
25
So why does Trump get away with his serial adultery, sexual harassment, unwanted advances and assaults? Why are Trump's misogynist statements and actions overlooked and forgiven even by the evangelicals who give him an 70-80% approval rating?
This intriguing question was raised in our little local newspaper the other day here in northern Utah, where the majority religion is LDS. 61% of LDS voted for Trump, which was far less than their support for Romney and GW Bush. They don't like Trump and are experiencing cognitive dissonance over their deep-seated conservatism versus Trump's behavior.
So after briefly reviewing Trump's actions and that of several other transgressors, including B. Clinton, the answer in the newspaper article was:
Because Trump is Trump and gets away with things that no one else does. And that is a very interesting political question and is now our national problem.
I think they meant Trump has a charismatic personality, which is considered the lowest level of leadership and sometimes very dangerous. Certain people have a personality that has an extraordinary ability to communicate at an emotional, irrational level.
During the Reagan era, I was at a psychology conference where a renowned psychiatrist talked about Reagan's charisma and seeming magical power over others, where people respond on a deeply emotional, primitive level bypassing rational and critical thought processes.
We need to understand this before 2020 and we voters do any more harm
10
If it wasn't important enough to bring up before the statute of limitations ran out, it's not important now. If there wasn't enough evidence to prove it then, there isn't enough evidence to prove it now. If it isn't proved, it didn't happen.
4
I think your article is excellent because it points out how difficult it is not to think of each instance in political terms. (One comment actually stated Moore is the only Republican abuser and trump, naturally, is innocent.) Yet, in the current atmosphere, it concerns me that all harassment is considered the same. There is no doubt that instances of all levels of harassment are prevalent in politics and some abusers should serve jail time rather than hold public office. But it's somewhat disconcerting that other heads will roll because of the vagaries of who comes forth, who doesn't and why.
4
Henry Kissinger famously once said "power is the ultimate aphrodisiac". Society needs to eradicate the predatory entitlement behavior of the men who harbor and exploit this belief. We also need to quash the actions and sanction the inaction of men and women who know the truth and enable sexual predators. We must remember, though, that all foolish interactions between men and women are not equal to the systemic knowing misconduct of the super predators. Equating all as equal will lead to no one ever casting a stone against the most exploitive. But saying that the Senate should not make predatory misconduct "political" is to trivialize the safety net function of the hearing process and to deny that politics motivates political institutions to bring forth ugly facts when the rest of society has failed to determup to that point.
2
Probably 90% of my own commentary on political articles is railing against partisansh, left or right, because it warps and contaminates almost everything. There really is very little difference between the two parties in terms of tactics and strategy - hyperbole, dishonesty and character assassination. Susan Fowler could take for granted during the Obama terms that good people were in charge, but that's exactly how conservatives feel now - even when they don't like Trump. And what was a good thing - the revelations about Weinstein being a springboard for women to feel the courage to come out about abuse they've experienced, will probably be turned into a bad thing by Ds and Rs who will reduce it to a campaign tactic.
1
Perhaps I would understand Hillary Clinton better if she were honest about who she is, not the performance she gives us as a politician. I don't think it's easy for any person in public life to live in truth and stand by their word.
7
I have no reason to doubt the increasing public claims from women who say they were sexually accosted in one form or another. And it’s very clear to me that in a male dominated society, taking sexual liberty with women is commonplace, particularly in uneven power relationships.
However, in this frenzied, untested and highly charged environment of public accusations of sexual inappropriateness, there is a very real danger of irreparable harm if an accusation is false.
There is as yet no way to timely test truthfulness of public sexual harassment charges levied, particularly when the events charged are outside statutory time limits for criminal charges. Guilt or innocence is purely in the court of public opinion.
Moreover, are all charges equivalent?
In these cases the principle of due process can be seriously eroded. It seems that this danger is particularly true given the pent-up anger, frustration, and powerlessness that women feel about this issue. It is even more paradoxical given that women have routinely been denied due process when it comes to sexual harassment.
However, assuming that all charges are true and all denials as false is a dangerous place to be.
7
What a relief to finally see this topic being discussed. Is the boil being lanced? I'm not so sure. The question is - can the debate be sustained long enough to protect the still-invisible multitudes outside Hollywood and the corridors of political power?
1
Looking at this with an ocean between us, I am again astounded by the American reflex of politicizing everything. Now it is the sordid tale of male lechery and the objectification of women.
Usually it is about abortion, gun possession and the concomitant violence, the ineptitude and gross unsuitability of political(!) appointees to top-tier functions in government, all of which are issues that have by-and-large non-existent in Europe.
With scant exceptions, abortion is sees as a medical procedure that is, as are all medical procedures regulated, but not a moral or a legal issue. The very real moral aspect is to be dealt with at a private level, not by the lawmakers.
Guns have no place in private hands, unless the prospective owner can demonstrate a real need, in which case he/she will be issued with a limitative permit, that needs regular renewal.
And, yes, people who want to head the professional branches of government must be approved, but, again by-and-large, the shortlist will consist of individuals with relevant expertise and a proven track record. There are slip-ups, but these are few. For sure, affiliation with a party, even the one in government, will not protect anyone in the face of gross misconduct or incompetence.
So, Maureen Dowd's article is truly disappointing. All this flies in the face of good government and undermines the trust of the people in their institutions. And trust is key to democracy's brittle success. A slippery slope indeed.
101
The biggest political break Hillary Clinton ever got was the Monica Lewinsky scandal. Prior to that, she was such an unpopular First Lady that she was sent around the globe on goodwill trips, often accompanied by Chelsea. Remember?
Gill Clinton survived and Hillary, now the humiliated wife, had her second break when Sen. Patrick Moynihan announced his retirement. A large field of NY democrats were preparing to run in what would have been the usual fractious NY primary. Hillary waltzed in, announced she was going to run and all contenders melted away immediately. What politician is dumb enough to run against the sitting President's aggrieved wife?
And that's really "What Happened" back then.
9
Sex? How about power?
Age 25 or 26 is the latest a man's frontal lobe matures. That area of the brain is responsible for predicting future consequences from current decisions. But those that crave reassurance, whether from feelings of weakness or an overwhelming sense of narcissism have difficulty controlling their compulsions.
A woman's shapely breasts can provoke normal desires that become prurient in the mind of transgressors like Weinstein. To them another male's biceps or smarts might signal threat. If an attractive female is in a particular circumstance the Weinstein's might strike.
Not in the cases of those mentioned, but in other "office" instances simple miscommunications issues between sexes, may take place.
4
Sorry, but no amount of deflection and obfuscation is going to hide the facts this President has admitted ON TAPE that he sexually assaulted women.
He should have been disqualified from ever being a candidate, let alone elected into office.
Where is your column on that ? *crickets*
23
Maureen forgot to mention Donna Shalala’s defense of Bill, she was part of that illustrious crowd as well.
6
“First, with Clarence Thomas, a feminist lynch mob tried to kill off a conservative Supreme Court nominee over sex when the real reason they wanted to get rid of him was politics.“
No, most of us wanted to get rid of Thomas was because he was and still is a lech. I rallied against him in a quiet, dignified setting that was hardly a ‘lynch mob’ and we struggled against that nomination. I even had that bumper sticker that said ‘I believe Anita’.
10
Maureen, this is a really sound piece of writing. It’s easy to vilify those you hate and praise the glory of those you love. In the last election this natural human tendency put many of us in the terrible position of either abstaining or voting for a self-absorbed elitist. Would we pick the woman? The man? The Republican? The Democrat? Or someone who couldn’t possibly win? In the end, most people either went with party loyalty or chose the candidate they felt stunk the least, or at least one known to have a handle on reality. Others managed to convince themselves there was a great choice, leaving their friends and family concerned about their sanity.
The upshot is, some people treat others badly. Men who grope and denigrate women – take Donald Trump, for example – are not bundles of charm and charity with men either, unless they have a use for them. Look at Mitch McConnell and John Kelly, formerly respected and feared individuals who look like groveling fools around Trump, simply because he’s got the power. Sex is just a more personal kind of violation.
When we look at the replies to this article, bets are that they’ll point strongly in one political direction or the other. Awful Obama for hugging Weinstein, even though he knew nothing of his predatory activities. Awful Clarence Thomas for his offensive jokes about, if memory serves me, pubic hairs and such.
As Mark Twain said, “Get your facts first, and then you may distort them as much you please.”
4
Hillary Clinton was so bad she lost to Trump.
Before, her handling of health care reform tore into Bill Clinton's presidency at midterm.
Stop the Hillary anything. She's done enough destruction.
Lots of people want a woman president, but not Hillary. Period.
Just stop the Hillary garbage. Stop it now.
14
It fascinating to see how liberals, masters of moral relativity try to dissemble events to achieve moral clarity. Their constructs are as valid as an Escher drawing.
7
I’m unsure counterfactual thinking—what might have been—works with the Clintons and their sex scandals. One thing, however, I believe for certain: Monica Lewinsky, once the history books are updated, will be rightfully seen as the mature one in the affair and her mantle of being “that woman”will crack to expose Bill Clinton for the sexually flawed man he was. Lewinsky has born the brunt of Bill and Hillary Clinton’s sexual-political misdemeanors for too long.
8
The "inconvenient truth" is that the Clinton's were the perfect sexual predator/enabler -- a team focused on accumulating both power and riches. If it took trampling a dozen or so woman along the way; well, the ends justify the means.
When faced with the facts, the Left's response is to, of course, change the topic. Tax reform, Trump, Ray Moore.
Anything but looking in the mirror and the Democrat House of Card's couple.
7
Reposition the parenthesized double exclamation points after the closing quotation mark and before the period, while you're at it.
1
: “The Al Frankenstien picture is really bad, speaks a thousand words. Where do his hands go in pictures 2, 3, 4, 5 & 6 while she sleeps?”
It takes one to know one. Not hard to see where the "President's" mind goes.
5
Poor Maureen Dowd. She violated the cardinal rule of New York Times readers I suppose. She tried to find a silver lining - that predators of all political stripes appear to be getting the public repudiation they deserve - rather than that dark cloud of one of them being in the White House.
I had to go down to the 14th "Readers Picks" to find the first comment that focused on what Maureen Dowd said about the issue rather than going after Maureen Dowd and defending HRC.
Let's be honest with ourselves, had she won, Weinstein would not have metastasized and #MeToo would never have gotten the traction that it now has and hopefully never will lose.
We are stuck with DJTVL. Occasionally, let us focus on how this trial will make us stronger and better. Thank you Maureen.
3
It’s clear that Bill Clinton was a serial adulterer, and was sexually harassing women before marriage. As for his behavior with Monica Lewinsky — she was clearly a willing participant in that sex (and yes, oral sex, is SEX, you know); who also knew Clinton was married. Don’t excuse his behavior, especially the disgrace it brought to his office; don’t excuse hers, either. Many presidents have been known to have affairs (I.e., consensual sex outside marriage;, not condoning it, but it seems to me that is between them and their wives. When it is harassment, when a man in power is abusing that power and coercing women, touching them without consent, it’s assaultive. No matter party affiliation, or Hollywood status, or current title — as in POTUS.
5
There’s much more evidence/truth to Hillary’s statement about a Right Wing Conspiriacy then accusations that Bill Clinton did anything worse than have consensual sex with another adult. The reason is that the Right is a well funded movement, people do things that get them money. Destroying the Clintons was one of the main objectives, accomplished with the help of people like Maureen....who wasn’t even on the payroll? Muddying all issues by false equivalency is another, Franken did one stupid thing while Trump was recorded boasting about how he assaults women all the time?
4
Politics, all politics, like pedagogy is a seductive art.
1
Dear Maureen Dowd, It's 2017 not 1996. And we should be talking Trump, Trump, Trump,. Trump, Trump, Trump, Trump, Trump, Trump, Trump, Trump. Special Investigation of Donald Trump, etc. I did not see enough about Donald Trump or the people currently in power or anything reasonably topical in your op ed column. What you wrote feels to me like a pointless exercise bordering on abusive rhetoric of a topic that is beating a very very dead horse...ie, a distraction. Thanks & for the love of all that is good and just please be the change and not the distraction.
7
Hypocrisy is hypocrisy.
4
Hillary is the worst person to be called any kind of defender of women. She sought to destroy Bill's victims, conveniently ignored Weinstein for his money and Anthony Weiner for Huma's sake.
Trump was "tried" in the Court of Election 2016. The plaintiff in that case could not produce any physical evidence for the "locker room talk" other than yanking a 13 year old tape out of mothballs in an attempt to "show" assault on women. If, indeed, Trump were such a threat to women, why wait 13 years to play a tape when you're "oh-so-concerned" over someone's behavior? Had Trump never run, we'd have never heard the tape by the "horrified" opponents that "only want to protect" women.
11th hour accusations are rightly suspicious. Whether or not they're true, the timing is terrible for credibility's sake.
Hillary really thought she was going to destroy Trump over the tape and frolic her way to the Oval Office.
Problem was, Hillary is the type who'd have made Harvey Weinstein the "war on women Tzar" and everyone knows it. Now if only Hillary would shut up once and for all and quit making a (further) fool of herself.
10
There is a difference between poor judgement (Franken), and the rest named in this article who are sexual predators. Don't let the predator handlers and spinners create a false equalization between the two. It dummies down the issue and muddies the waters. I expect more finger pointing headlines like Franken's to shift the focus from Trump, Weinstein, Moore, etc.
3
"Following the Clintons' lead, Trump dismissed the more than dozen women who stood up to accuse him of sexual transgressions as politically motivated liars."
Give me a break! Does Maureen Dowd really expect us to believe that Trump would have admitted to assaulting these women or would have been honest about anything without the prior misbehavior of Bill and Hillary Clinton? Oh yeah, that's the real reason all these predators did what they did and knew they could get away with it. When in doubt, blame it on Hillary.
3
We forget, at our peril, these three things...
1. People are innocent until proven guilty
2. Let voters decide
3. Respect and protect the processes
Stumpy and the far right are now content to destroy our institutions to corrupt the processes that keep us viable... and that, more than any surreptitious boob squeeze, puts us all at risk...
3
In order to accept your premise that sexual harassment claims are being treated differently on the right versus the left, one has to first accept that all accusations are valid and we are to suspend our powers of discretion. That is a ridiculous and dangerous mindset. That reckless line of thinking gives power to craven political hacks who would engineer false accusations to take down a political opponent, which leaves the door wide open to ruin the life of the target.
Ruining a person with false accusations is just as bad as sexual misconduct.
Critical thinking cannot and should not be suspended when there are such high stakes at risk. The following was written by an attorney who specializes in this field:
"Five forms of corroborative proof segregate strong from weak claims of sexual misconduct: 1/ physical evidence; 2/ intimate knowledge of the accused; 3/ contemporary corroborative witnesses; 4/ contemporary corroborative sharing of incident; 5/ corroborative pattern by accused.
In Franken, you have all 5 signs of a strong claim, plus confession. In Moore, you have a stunning NONE of the 5 signs of a strong claim, plus dubious timing (40 years late, eve of election) published by hostile paper, attached to partisan lawyer, and debunked parts of story."
We need to be thinkers and not get caught up in the hysteria.
3
Not many make an issue of what I thought was reason for Bill Clinton to resign after the Lewinsky incident: his flagrant abuse of the Oval Office bestowed on him by the citizens of the United States. When we entrust one to be our President, that person has basic obligations to conduct himself befitting the honor, prestige, importance of the office. To nip back into the pantry for a sexual favor with an intern, even if with mutual consent, is total disregard of office and an abuse of the residency provided the person we elect to the nation's highest office. It surprises me that the hollowed Oval Office could ever be regarded so casually for one's deviant pleasure. Such arrogance and spite are maybe not grounds for impeachment but are reasons for resigning from office for the honor of the nation. It would be the decent thing to do but dismissing the incident (e.g., Albright, Steinem) we lowered standards that only now maybe stand to be corrected.
6
Sexual assault should be a non-partisan issue.
2
Obviously this is the case. People who voiced these doubts during the primaries were shouted down as sexist (!!!) for pinning Bill's crimes on Hillary. That there would be a sexual predator in the White House regardless of who won almost certainly drove down turnout and diminish the power of the accusations against Trump (again, something foreshadowed in the primary). Perhaps that, too, was just people finding a justifying excuse, but it was still a valid criticism.
False equivalencies! Bill Clinton was impeached and lost his law license. Clarence Thomas, irrelevant of the politics, was a sexual harasser. Roy Moore ignores the Constitution, and refuses to address his actions beyond faux "ten Commandment" hypocrisy. Al Franklin was a foolish comedian, not pervert. Hillary chose to stand by her man, which I disagreed with, and has paid the price in needless slander. That we got 45 over her is a national disgrace based on basic requirements needed for the job of President. Perhaps you could focus on the devastating tax bill, destruction of the EPA and education under the current Cabinet Secretaries, focus on issues.
9
Ms. Dowd, let us put to rest the life and loves of Bill Clinton. Okay? If you persist, however, let your readers be reminded of LBJ, JFK, and even FDR. And, for goodness sake, to even imply that B Clinton influenced the behavior of Trump is absurd. Trump on his own became the amoral, lewd, adulterous narcissist he is today. He needed no "mentor"...to this woman it is in his DNA to be exploitive and disgusting when it relates to the opposite sex. Actually, for that matter, he behaves similarly as mentioned above to any and all humans who dare to oppose him.
Please do not waste your talents as a journalist on the past. As they say, "It is water under the bridge." Rather use your words to focus regularly on that debauched individual now living in the White House. And think about those young boys and young men as to what is being taught to them. How do you think they will turn out by emulating this president of the United States?
15
"they told me that feelings of frustration and disgust at having an accused predator in the White House " They must have been talking about Bill Clinton being back as the first gentleman.
2
Ms. Dowd, you claim Trump has “politicized”this? Is that like a joke or something? This whole thing has been politicized by the media, the New York Times included, since day one. Even the Weinstein affair was politicized from day one as various journalists bent over backwards to ID him as a big contributor to Democratic Party causes. And for you Ms. Dowd, in particular, to say the president “politicized” it is nothing short of the pot calling the kettle black. And feminists everywhere have been shamelessly exploiting these sex scandals, to advance the political causes of women everywhere. Deny it if you want, but everyone, other than rabid feminists themselves, can clearly see this from how they bask in the glory, and gloat in the ruination of the reputations, and careers, of humiliated men, now painted by them, one and all, as “sexual predators.” Yes, they’re happy, like those who dance on the graves of their enemies, about the lives of these men being ruined by women - and they just can’t conceal their joy!
1
Maureen's article is as honest attempt at truth as I have seen on this subject. The partisans are only ever interested in talking about the transgressions on the other side and how the person on their side's case is "different". The feminists and the Christians that support this type of behavior are the worst hypocrites.
4
Re Moore and Franken:
The same people who complain about moral relativism turn around and show themselves unable to make a moral distinction between an admittedly crude prank on a colleague, and repeatedly seeking romantic/sexual relationships with underage girls half the guy's age. Both are bad but if you can't tell the difference either you are loopy or you're lying.
9
Am I the only one who sees the difference between philandering and groping? Clinton was a notorious philanderer. What % of marriages have one partner who’s a philanderer? Right. I don’t care who someone is having sex with. But I do care if someone is assaulting women. Please don’t confuse the two.
7
Are Melania and Ivanka also enablers? Are all the American people enablers of sexual assault for electing Donald Trump as President?
7
Bill Clinton thought he got away with his misconduct. If his wife had been elected he would be protected. Now, he stands alone, no more feminist leaders, noted Hollywood stars, Political stars to shore him up. Before this enormous social upheaval plays itself out he will have to answer the hard questions about his sexual misbehavior's while in the Oval office. Few will want to protect him this time around.
6
I normally enjoy reading Ms. Dowd, but not this article. It is a pathetic attempt to link our current POTUS is a very roundabout and hard to follow way to the failings of the Obama's. The very premise of the article is suspect, not to mention the assertions that follow. Pure speculation at best by Maureen Dowd, and I would assert that it is poor speculation at that.
6
I see the next line of Trojan Horse Republican attacks is to go after Joe Biden through Anita Hill.
If Obama gets to pick Clarence Thomas's replacement, Joe won't run.
Reading Michelle Goldberg,Mo? To remotely equate Al Franken with Bill, Donald and Roy Moore is absurd. And Bill has been out of office since early 2001. Stop beating, the horse is dead. There was a political trial in 1998 of Bill. Not guilty or something like that. How about a focus on Donald, the current president who has an extensive sexist past. And Roy Moore, with his fixation on and abuse of teenage girls. And more importantly, this Russian thing, a little more serious than Bill's lies on sex, no? Focus Maureen, focus.
7
Another article about the obvious to most of us who weren't liberal partisan and hacks. Except that Trump is quilty of nothing but locker-room talk. There is no parity here. The political agenda still dominates. Hillary the enabler one of the good people? Laughable. Traitor to Bill's victims (anything for power) and Weinstein pal for whom she would have covered. Period. Trump is boorish, but he is more ethical than the whole lot -- and Liberals can't see it.
4
It’s all relative. Bill C’s assaults on women, and having sex in the WH with an intern were defended by anti Gop voters. The Clintons gained support as martyrs to their obsessed Gop enemies.
Realistically, Bill C was given a pass in more than sex. He collaborated (colluded--no?) with Gop to dump crucial Great Depression Era bank regulations. This opened the way for law flouting leading to the 08 crash.
We gave Bill a pass for dumping vital anti monopoly laws for media, opening the way for the Gop mouthpiece Fox News empire to grow & dominate media, its fake news molding our politics across the land.
We sure love Obama now, but he wasn’t criticized enough for letting bank crooks go unprosecuted, after they wrecked he economy---then, putting some of the masterminds in his cabinet.
Our treasured Obamacare under Gop attack? But Obama passed a Gop designed expansion of insurance, that used our taxes to prop up excessive profits by the medical industry. Classic election campaign finance by big insurance/pharma.
It’s all relative. Some say Franken’s sex assaults are nothing VS Roy Moore’s. And compared to our authoritarian, destructive Trump, the Democrats wear halos.
As Trump injures and insults our democratic institutions so blatantly, then the Democrats look great, or at least not bad, by contrast? Yes, in much media commentary.
Slippery ground. We must hold on to objectivity & ethical standards----about sex abuse, and political abuse of the public.
1
Oh dear, a lot of words to say that morality, power, justice and politics create a complex world; that hypocrisy is what other people do and practicality is what we do; and that Maureen hates the Clintons as much now as she ever did.
6
What I find hilarious as a Trump Supporter is that you elitists keep saying the same thing to other elitists instead of actually trying to change the minds of Trump supporters like myself or willing to at least see the Trump supporter side of things instead of calling us insulting names.
5
Yes, tact and tack. Maybe you forget the ic.
But tack is appropriate here. Because somehow
I am still upset over guns which were used to kill
and maim children and other innocents. I am still
upset over Puerto Rico not having electricity for god's sake.
Tack is correct. We sailed off into sexual abuse, sexual assault,
and sexual pranks. I just wished this kind of huge outcry
would get the Second amendment repealed.
Where did that boat sail to? Maureen, whenever you
get some time away from your C file fascination, please move
on down four letters to G. Get the Guns out of America.
8
I've never been able to buy Hillary as the "Woman's candidate". She has been a constant supporter of our oil wars that have killed and displaced millions of women across Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria.
6
How lucky we are that Bill Clinton is not in the White House.
4
Alexander Hamilton faced a sex scandal, FDR side stepped one as did JFK. Without Linda Tripp, there would have been no Monicagate.
Nixon became a paranoid drunk; Reagan sat in the Oval office with mild cognitive impairment.
Rather than pretend all such sex violations simply disqualify a politician's fitness to lead- why not look at the most essential features as well - judgment, reasoning, knowledge, wisdom, temperament as well as moral behavior and impulse control.
9
nice article but where were you during the presidential election?
2
I live in fly over country and I watch the liberals twist themselves into pretzels over Bill and Hillary. Hillary lost because everyone saw right through her. She is a bitter vile woman that would kill her own to get to the top. The conservatives held their nose and voted for Trump for a couple of big reasons. One is the WALL. Immigration was out of control. The laws on the books were not being followed Since Trump is in office, it has a least slowed and seems like it is not so out of control. Granted the border agents are upset because the Obama minions still block the agents from deporting many many more. But at least trainloads of people coming across are not thumbing their nose at the rest of us. And second, the Supreme Court. Kennedy will retire probably in November. That gives another conservative on the Supreme Court. And a third reason, in my mind, is that people in flyover country believed that Obama never really loved America. And before the attacks begin, hear me out. He apologized and bowed to leaders everywhere. He was sorry America was great and said so. He said we needed to be humbled and taken down a peg because of our arrogance. That is why Trump got elected. He never apologized for America. Trump has fought all his life to be accepted by you liberals. In flyover country, he was welcomed relief.
8
"If Hillary were in the Oval, would some women have failed to summon the courage to tell their Weinstein horror stories because the producer was also a power behind the Clinton throne?"
3
Maureen, use your investigative skills to expose the Members of Congress who used the Hush Fund, $17M YTD, to settle their sexual misconduct.
5
What Clinton did was wrong, no doubt about it. But to infer that his transgressions paved the way for Trump and the like requires quite a stretch of the imagination. I am a man, men by nature are pigs. It is a hormonal thing that derives from the male dna. We all have to fight sexual impulses from the time we reach puberty until the day those hormones no longer have any persuasion over us. We are taught from the time we are old enough to understand that our impulses do not give us the right to demand sex whenever our hormones are talking t
2
I'm not surprised by the breadth of this sexual harassment/assault problem, and I think it's become worse instead of better in the last few years. As our society has become more coarse, it has become easier for sexual predators to justify their actions. After all, if you believe Republicans are all a bunch of knuckle dragging apes that deserve to be mocked, or if you believe Democrats are all a bunch of Commies, then what's to stop you from objectifying women, boys, etc? You can't just relax the rules of good behavior in some areas of society but expect good behavior to prevail in others.
Take a look at what passes for 'entertainment' in television. It's very common to see men slapped, kicked, hit, etc by women. It's very common to see women's sexuality objectified by men. Children see murders on TV dozens of times a day.
If we want to stop sexual harassment, we need to do more than pass laws against sexual harassment, we need to soften the way we treat each other in all aspects of society.
2
If this election had been fought over sex scandals NEITHER Hillary, nor Trump would be in the office and we'd have a president Sanders...... You are asking would you rather have Bill's enabler over Donald - perhaps you should be asking would you rather have Bill's enabler over a man himself accused by more than a dozen women of behavior ranging from crude to rape (and one was only 13 at the time).
1
Blessed be those who work to finally cleanse not only the Democratic Party but the left itself of the nauseating hypocrisy of the Clinton era. Let feminists never again defend or enable any man who so consistently and blatantly abuses women. In fact sincere apologies from the likes of Gloria Steinem would be appreciated.
Let no one of either party, or if any creed or faith, attack accusers.
Please let this be the time of change, when wrong is wrong, finally and forever, amen.
5
Rape is not "retrogressive behavior". Rape is a violent heinous act for which Bill Clinton was never prosecuted.
2
Nothing better illustrates the negative, nasty mindset of the majority respondents to this article than the ranking of readers picks which accompanies it. Not only do they not like the exposure of the Clinton's; they also don't get the message.
4
President Clinton has been investigated, tried and has paid the price for his sexual indiscretions.
Ms. Dowd should instead be using her poison pen to go after her buddy Trump, who now occupies White House, and has never been held accountable for his sexual misconduct and assault.
7
Clarence Thomas was not a credible witness in his defense of Hill's allegations.
But some of us wanted him out most because he would be a thoroughly unexceptional, knee=jerk conservative judge who would sit on the Court for decades. He was Bush the Elder's legacy. It stank then, and it stinks now.
5
Ms. Dowd's stating that a "feminist lynch mob" was trying to derail Clarence Thomas's nomination to the Supreme Court is the height of absurdity, and she should definitely apologize to Anita Hill. Didn't Dowd see all of those men at the hearings ganging up on Hill with their ill-informed questions? Dowd also has a very thin knowledge of feminism in the US. It's actually huge and varied, and does not consist of just a few leaders. There were, in fact, many well-known and less well-known feminists who criticized Bill Clinton not just for his affair with Lewinsky; they were even more outraged by so-called "welfare reform" that continues to hurt at-risk women (and which has made a lot of pimps rich in the intervening years). Andrea Dworkin was very outspoken about this. But Dowd knows very little about American feminism, and it shows.
Meanwhile, kudos to all in the #MeToo movement--maybe some of that slow-moving evolution will speed up a bit now.
5
"Once more, politics is clouding the issue of sexual harassment."
And Maureen Dowd only adds to that cloudiness by rehashing this 'Bill Clinton' story from last century. Half the electorate doesn't know Bill Clinton from Harry Truman. He'd be completely forgotten by now -- if he weren't Hillary's husband. So when the alt-right brings up Monica Lewinsky, it's just a way to squeeze some more mileage out of Hillary Hatred.
Aside from "I Hate Hillary" political fever (which still burns a year after her defeat only because Hillary is a woman), Bill Clinton is no more relevant to a 21st century debate on sexual misconduct than Henry VIII. So this Dowd article is nothing but politics
We can revisit the Lewinsky scandal when we debate whether to build statues of Bill Clinton. Until then, the savvy, politically neutral response when the alt-right trolls Bill is: "the American people and Congress resolved that issue last century."
4
Maureen conflates the following situations. Can you see the difference here? Do differences matter?
Clinton had sex with Monica Lewinsky, a consenting adult, age 24
Moore is accused of serial pedophilia
Trump is accused of serial sexual assault (and even bragged about doing it in a recording).
Franken is accused of doing, well, I don't know what he was doing. One unfunny and quite unfortunate sexual "joke"
No matter what your political persuasion, you should be able to parse the seriousness of these disparate events. Whether you think men like this should be politicians is up to you. The country has elected a confessed serial sexual predator as its current president. Alabama may elect the accused multiple assaulting pedophile for the Senate.
If it fits your political agenda that the other two are equally guilty, well, have at it. To call Hilary Clinton an enabler is despicable. Bill is out of office. Franken will probably be driven out by the purist Dems; one legislatively good guy out. And we'll still have Trump and probably Moore.
13
A suggestion: Let's reserve the term "lynch mob" for real lynch mobs, not metaphorical ones. To do otherwise is offensive to the memory of all those who suffered at the hands of the real lynch mobs.
6
Does the arc of history bend towards justice?
4
Once again, the moment a Maureen Dowd column appears, the Clintonistas man the barricades. Personally, I'm glad for the Clarence Thomas reference. What happened to Anita Hill is long past due for relitigation.
6
"Once more, politics is clouding the issue of sexual harassment."
No, babe. Sorry.
Once more, sexual harassment is clouding the issue, by far the more existentially threatening to our republic, of our current politics.
Trump loves you for stoking the distracting hysteria of sexual harassment.
Try to see past your own immediate self-interest and focus on the larger, more fundamental picture, Maureen. The Times has given you a bully pulpit; use it more responsibly and effectively. You're a smart girl; you can do it.
8
"First, with Clarence Thomas, a feminist lynch mob tried to kill off a conservative Supreme Court nominee over sex when the real reason they wanted to get rid of him was politics."
Motives are irrelevant. Clarence Thomas has always been morally as well as intellectually unfit to sit on The Court. That he sits in Thurgood Marshall's seat still makes one gag.
9
Yes, let's address all three branches of government:
The Supreme Court—re-evaluate Anita Hill's testimony and allow the three corroborating women and more that were not heard to be heard. And let old Orrin Hatch talk about "the pubic hair on the coke bottle" again. And let Clarence Thomas RESIGN in disgrace.
The Congress—continue on both sides of the aisle. If Roy Moore is elected, out he goes. And hearings about Franken is just the beginning.
The Executive—if the Democratic Party had rightfully condemned and disgraced and disowned the bankrupt-of-character William Jefferson Clinton, we wouldn't have had the disastrous mess with his enabler, Hillary Rodham, and we could currently have a President Bernard Sanders (who would have handedly beaten Trump). Next IS Trump; let's re-hear the 15 women and any more that want to come forth—and REMOVE the serial groper, harasser, abuser, and con man.
8
Clarence Thomas could have been "attacked" because of his politics or his sexual deviance. Doesn't matter. The criticism was clearly on target either way.
2
The Clinton/Trump situations have another common denominator, a distant First Lady.
Anita Hill testified that she was the repeated recipient of unwanted sexual advances in the work place. Monica Lewinsky, by her own words, pursued the President. "Grabbing women by the pussy" is fairly interpreted as a unwanted advance. Get the difference? It's really not that hard to understand. Just listen to what they say.
20
Aaaaannnd ... Ms. Dowd is back to bashing Hillary, her true comfort zone.
Thank goodness we elected Trump, after so many months (years) of Dowd calling out Hillary at every opportunity, so that we can have a conversation about the women are mistreated while simultaneously destroying the country.
I'm sure that when Trump hands everything over to Russia, American women will be much better off in the end.
8
It s profoundly offensive to mention Clarence Thomas in the same breath as Bill Clinton. Clarence Thomas was never a predator, he never did anything offensive and he was falsely accused by Anita Hill of nothing.
After Democrats were unable to derail his confirmation based on false accusations, they supported Bill Clinton despite his being a lying predator.
7
Don't pay attention to that Tax Bill behind the curtain.
Maureen Dowd
19
Really? The US has finally started to take sexual assault seriously -- and faced with the fact the members of their own were obviously guilty, the Left has stood up and said "not acceptable." Weinstein, Spacey, Oreskes -- all have been rightfully abandoned by former supporters, and their careers are over. Meanwhile, we have a President who has been accused of sexual assault by 17 women -- 17 -- and the response of Ms. Dowd is... to wonder if we should go back and re-examine the Clintons. Really?? News flash: Bill is no longer President, and Hillary lost the election. Meanwhile, an alleged sexual predator is the President. Wouldn't it be possible to shine the spotlight there for just, oh, 5 minutes before going back to Clinton-bashing?
22
Yes, Bill Clinton was in "consensual" relationships with Paula Jones and Juanita Broderick, and Kathleen Willy. How quickly we forget.
8
Hillary, really? What did the Clinton's do to Dowd that she cannot catch a cold without somehow blaming it on the Clintons?
15
In a worthy Anthony Horowitz teleplay, you will find misdirection, deception, interrogation, accusation and resolution. In this political Who done it, Hillary and Donald are the main characters, and their liberal and conservative supporters co-star. The crime: fraud. The Suspects: Russians, DNC, Donald Jr., and Manafort; The misdirection: Uranium and Comey; The Deception: Refusal to release tax returns.; The Accusation: Trump is a sexual molester and predator and Hillary enabled her husband's sexual indiscretions; The Interrogation: the Special Counsel Investigation. And then we arrive at the resolution. The resolution will come in two forms. First, Americans will vote in Alabama next month and eleven months later, many more Americans will vote and deliver a verdict; and Second, indictments will be issued by the Special Counsel and when that occurs, the story will reach its climatic end.
4
You can't compare Anita hill to bill Clinton. Sorry. Like comparing a more of dust to a mountain. Liberals and the NYTimes, et al, protected the clintons. Period. The hypocrisy is only outdone by the rationalizing.
4
Title and subject of Dowd's column should be Sweet Home Alabama and should provide an in depth analysis of how the people of Alabama keep looking the other way and supporting Roy Moore, including investigation of possible deep and burning hatred of the Clintons and the origins and foundations of this hatred.
6
Hillary gets blamed again. Even in absentia.
9
“If Hillary were president...”
If ifs and buts were candy and nuts,
Then every day would be Christmas.
5
You got the evil president you wanted. Should we be thankful for him destroying the environment. Empowering dictators. You own what he is doing. Congrats.
19
A disgusting legacy of hypocrisy and victim shaming. Way to go Democrats....
7
Time for some Republican-Fox-Trump "Whataboutism" here.
What about Tweeden's acceptance of Franken's apology? What about Franken's contrition and support for a full investigation? What about Trump? What about Clarence Thomas? What about Barbara Ehrenreich's full throated anger in regard to working women, "Nickel and Dimed" women, who are harassed most working days of their hard lives? What about some thought and nuance before you put the needle in the same groove, Dowd?
17
Thanks, Mo.
1
So now we get Ayatollah Mike Pence, who wants to use federal funds earmarked to fight HIV instead to be used to convert gays into straights. Oh and, bye-bye Planned Parenthood, all women are "Mothers" or perhaps Handmaidens.
At least there will be something to write about.
8
Only MD could find a way to blame Hillary for the actions of these men.
22
Reading this largely incoherent piece, Maureen Dowd would have us believe Clarence Thomas deserves a place in the same sexual predator category as Bill Clinton. Clarence Thomas was accused by Anita Hill solely of verbal sexual harassment, Certainly not good, but it pales in comparison to Clinton who is accused of sexual assault (and rape) by various women and who, while Governor of Arkansas, used state troopers to procure and sexually assault women.
7
there are very few women in north america who have NOT been touched, patted, rubbed up against, hugged too aggressively, grabbed or kissed without consent. And if a woman has been raped all of these action feel like precursors to rape. Whether the rape actually happens, the unwelcome touch causes an alarm. None of these men (and the millions of others) deserve our protection and excuses. Sadly, the misbehaviour on the part of the men and their protective wives has made it difficult to remove politics from complaints. Hillary was both loyal and stupid and damaged other women. And now, in Alabama, folks choose to vote for a pedophile rather than a democrat. Is that what we have come to? Better to assault a child who is born than vote for for a democrat might vote to allow women choice? yuck, america,
5
Good God. Only Maureen Dowd could write an entire article on the sins of our politicians and not even mention the 17+ women accusing President Trump of assaulting them. She chooses instead to focus (surprise!) on the Clintons. Reminds me of Collins’ hilarious obsession with mentioning Romney’s dog, except hers was funny and brilliant. Dowds, just sad.
21
Unfortunately but expectedly Dowd does exactly what she accuses others of doing, namely politicizing sexual misconduct allegations. The fact of the matter, there is no good evidence that Ray Moore did anything seriously wrong, so the jury is still out. The most serious allegation involved a yearbook now known to be forged by a lying witness. The other allegation is by a thrice divorced drug addict apparently involved in bankruptcy and IRS problems who has yet to show her face, speaking only through the Washington Post. So speaking to women at a mall is his big crime, 40 years ago. No, we still need to be fair to the accused. Bill Clinton was a serial rapist from the beginning and serially molested women even including multiple women in the White House. Let's get a sense of proportion and fairness that is not dictated by political wishes.......
4
Highly recommended reading ‘A 'Reckoning' For Bill Clinton? Don't Forget Starr's $70 Million Probe’ by Joe Conason. A link can be found at The National Memo.
I’m from Little Rock and lived there during the Starr assault. He and his minions went into every business the Clintons might have visited. He threatened the owners-brought some in for questioning, went through years olds record even threatened arrest if he felt they were not complying. After looking in every corner and under every rock he found nothing but a consensual B.Ths. includes the accusations of assault from numerous women. Paula Jones’s case was thrown out by a Republican appointed female judge. When Jones’s attorneys starting yapping about appealing is when Bill settled. There were always rumors Bill cheated on Hillary-stories of cheating not being a sexual predator- but figured rightly that it is between a husband and wife to deal with. MS Dowd has always had a weird snarky fixation on the Clintons. I thought after Hillary’s ‘lose’ she would start writing how the Republicans are turning our nation into a banana republic, plutocracy, theocracy, I don’t know take your pick-not another hit piece on Hillary.
10
Wives seem to fall into two camps when their husbands are abusers, they either pick up and leave, or stick around and deny. Secretary Clinton chose to stand by her man. Nothing wrong with that except she crossed the line when she viciously attacked his victims.
All democrats, feminists included, made a bargain with the devil when glossing over Bill Clinton's transgressions.
But Hillary's acceptance of Clinton priapic behavior was never 'standing by her man', but has always been standing by her ticket to power and her faux feminism was using some kind of feminist stereotype to guilt women into voting for her.
Fortunately, many of us have been very vocal critics of sexual predator Bill as well as enabler Hillary, so we can remain smugly satisfied when Hillary receives the opprobrium she undoubtedly deserves. It's not sexism, just knowledge of her character and history.
Billary is the worst thing that happened to the Dem Party and the sooner Democrats realize and accept that the better their chances of a rebound.
The Clintons were so toxic and they've transformed the former workers' party into something so unappealing and repulsive that Americans (and the electoral college) rather put a moronic, genitalia-grabbing reality TV host in the White House than the warmongering, corrupt, lying, dishonest, corporatist and cheating HRC.
"Kirsten Gillibrand and other liberals" now criticizing Bill are just opportunists leaving a sinking ship.
The Clinton cancer is still in the Dem Party..
9
Ms Dowd you sound like the old guy at the local bar that keeps blaming everything on the ex-wife that he divorced 30 years ago.
Hillary would not be tweeting about nuclear weapons, playing kiss-up with Putin or pitching the worse tax plan/entitlement heist fostered upon the American people since George III's team pulled out of NYC harbor in 1783.
12
How jejune of the racist Bannon to use the "shoot the messenger" as his feeble defense of gross predator behavior -- and hey, aren't these two people whom Bannon puts on a pedestal - Trump and Moore - aren't they claiming through their obvious lust for power that they're LEADERSHIP material? Oh yeah, sorta like Winston Churchill. Real statesmen. Parents, stay close to your daughters up when Trump and Moore are headed to town.
2
What to do now for all those Pink Ears. Bill the accused rapist and long list of underage assignations was a "no problem" back in the day, with even Hillary, it seems, because it continued from day one of their marriage. But now outrageous. Hypocrisy of expedience--classic DNC Politburo voters.
4
Funny how Dowd neglects to recount her own history with the Lewinsky-Clinton scandal: her endless snarky columns about Monica. It seemed to culminate with her story that once Lewinsky approached her and asked "Why are you so mean to me?" with Dowd replying miserably: "I don't know." (Heard that on Imus in the Morning.)
28
America lurches from one hysteria to the next.
If you've ever been in a theater production, you know things get kind of crazy. If you've ever seen a USO show, you know it's all about sex.
Remember Joey Heatherton? You think Bob Hope might have ever kissed Joey Heatherton without her consent?
Al Franken was a young comedian working on a USO show, rehearsing a scene with a Playboy bunny. So, a in the pheromone-drenched atmosphere of a USO shoe rehearsal, a girl got kissed against her will.
She said it was yucky.
I'm sorry it was yucky.
Sometimes, boys are yucky.
But it wasn't rape or assault. I guess that the specific Playboy bunny didn't know how boys can be, would have complained if she had to kiss a guy for a scene.
OK, so it wasn't Franken's best moment.
But this stuff has gone to far.
Ms. Tweeden is obviously enjoying the attention she's getting in the national spotlight and the boost to her LA radio career. Franken's a good man. He stole a kiss during a burlesque show rehearsal
Big Deal.
And now the ex-playmate is getting her 15 minutes; Franken has assumed the submissive doggie position and has spouted the correct feminist rhetoric; now let him get back to his work in the United States Senate.
Why does everything have to reach the level of hysteria in America? Joe McCarthy saw Commies hiding under his bed. And now sex is the big crime! 10 years ago it was cocaine. Outrage! Hysteria! America!
Long live Joey Heatherton!
40
Why does Maureen Dowd leave out Senator Menendez? Could some of these accusations and performances be misandry?
4
Too clever by half, Maureen--excoriating politicization while doing the same.
16
"If Hillary were in the Oval, would some women have failed to summon the courage to tell their Weinstein horror stories because the producer was also a power behind the Clinton throne?"
Yes.
"The Clintons and feminists were outraged when Thomas’s supporters painted Anita Hill as “a little bit nutty and a little bit slutty.” Yet that was precisely the Clintonian tact when women spoke up about Bill’s misbehaving."
Yes.
10
"First, with Clarence Thomas, a feminist lynch mob tried to kill off a conservative Supreme Court nominee over sex when the real reason they wanted to get rid of him was politics. "
Well, we see Maureen Dowd's politics are very mixed up. I take exception to the term "feminist lynch mob". I guess for Maureen Dowd Leeann Tweeden is part of a feminist lynch mob.
It took a lot of courage for Anita Hill to come forward and describe Clarence Thomas' behavior and state that Clarence Thomas was not fit to be a supreme court justice, and time has proved her right. He's been a right wing yes man and nothing more.
30
Dowd nails the hypocrisy and that includes many commenters who have a partisan view of sexual assault.
8
If anything good could possibly come out of the election of a thrice married, serial cheater to the White House, leading to anger on the part of many of us who have experienced abuse in our lifetimes, it will be that we are finally speaking out about that which we buried for so many years. My first husband cheated on me and bragged about it and said that the only men who didn't were just "too chicken." After my divorce I was shocked at the number of men who were married to my friends who offered to "take care of my needs." My current husband may or may not have cheated (sadly, I've never been sure) but he took great pleasure in our younger years of fondling my breasts in public and laughing about it. After one failed marriage I was all too ready to object quietly and otherwise not make an issue of it, especially because he was socially prominent and financially successful. I have encouraged my daughters and my granddaughter to stand up for themselves and not tolerate abuse of any sort. If I had it to do over, I might have ended up with a second divorce or I might have ended up in the enduring marriage that I have but with more respect, self and otherwise!
6
Kind of frustrating to read Hillary's name at the top, only to have the implication (again) that somehow she's to fault for having the sick CIC we have now.
I'm pretty sure Maureen Dowd had ample time (days?) to perfect this column. I, only have a few minutes to pit my thoughts down, and no chance to correct or edit my posting.
Ms Dowd, you can dish all the venom you want (to either Clinton), but my answer to your question is YES. I'd rather have Clintons in the WH now.
And your column today only helps to cloud the issue of sexual harassment.
I don't see or read or hear of anyone asking to investigate Trump and his many accusers.
Here and now, deal with the present - a predator occupies the white House.
32
Saw the Jake Tapper interview--30 min too long of 33 min interview. Overreaching--she's talking rape at the end--so yea -went from unfunny gag to rape. Happens when trying to make story more important than is.........
6
"So what if a few women are collateral damage, they might ask..."
Communism is based on breaking eggs to make omelets.
2
my bad - I forgot the reason I don't read Dowd's column on a regular basis.
The Clinton obsession! Move on Maureen, we have a sexual predator as CIC this MINUTE.
Not worth rehashing past history.
Deal with what's right in front on you now, and in your spare time ... please do ponder how 20+ years ago as a society we dealt with lecherous old men, how women were trained, how the glass ceiling came to be, how unfair society has been to women of all colors.
But right now? - Deal with the sexual predator in the White House.
19
Oh pullease! I don't know why I clicked to a Maureen Dowd article, or op ed, I guess the title overrode my dislike for Dowd's opinions. But not to far in I'm stopped dead in my tracks. "Having an accused predator in the White House" referring to Trump? In an article about Hillary? Being accused is one thing. Not every accusation is true, and it most be proven before the accused is found guilty. Remember -Innocent until proven guilty?
And her husband Bill Clinton was accused and found guilty of many sexual escapades. Some with willing partners: Gennifer Flowers, Monica Lewinsky, and some unwilling: Paula Jones, Juanita Broderick.
Well if the Russia collusion doesn't work, they will find something else. Anything else. A lynch mob.
6
So having Trump in the White House has helped to bring sexual predators to light and give power to victims of sexual abuse. Excellent!
2
Were it not for an un-dry cleaned blue dress....
So from the article, the conclusion is what we all knew.
Sore losers in the DNC and media are to blame for all the nonsense.
1
Reading a Maureen Dowd column is letting oneself in for a lot of the usual Clinton bashing. In fact Ms Dowd has made it a career, with a brief pause for slamming "Barry" as she liked to call Mr. Obama. With Rome in flames (Russians meddling with our election, Republicans about to increase the deficit by trillions just to give their donors big tax breaks, and DJT threatening war against N. Korea), this is not the time to focus yet again on Bill's misdeeds. More important issues await your attention, Ms Dowd.
20
Apparently Hillary is the Great White Whale to Maureen's Ahab. She lost the election twice, but that does not provide enough satisfaction, and Maureen is in search of still more harpoons to hurl her way.
For a glimpse of the larger picture: consider Beverly Young Nelson's tearful news conference where she accused Roy Moore of violent sexual assault. This is where Ms. Dowd needs to focus her post-feminist perspective.
After all that Mrs. Nelson had been through with Moore, why does she unflinchingly support the even more vile Donald Trump for president? Riddle me that. 52% of white women - the largest demographic voting segment - enthusiastically voted for Trump with full knowledge of his appalling behavior toward his various wives and countless other women. They delivered the election to Trump.
The denigration of a few women was observed by millions and millions of other women and apparently neither Bill's or Donald's egregious behavior bothers them in the slightest. Address that, Ms. Dowd, if you dare.
15
Call it the "Dowd Effect" to hate on Hill and Hillary so that you can be one of the boys. Maureen empowers the Trumps and Moores of the world when she attacks women. Trump is the real and present danger to us all. Use your venom against him. Then, you would be using your powers wisely and for the common good.
16
I'm not quite sure which is more implausible, that Al Franken could have gotten any sexual pleasure from his joke grope, or that Leeann Tweeden, former Hooters waitress and Playboy model, could have been genuinely traumatized by it.
28
Excellent points that should remind us to keep track of the forest for the trees. But some things should be made clear, first and foremost, that Lewinsky was an adult, albeit naive, whose career trajectory likely would have been much different absent Linda Tripp. When you boil it down, Tripp took advantage of Lewinsky way more than Clinton did. What Clinton did was wrong, yes, both in engaging in a mutually agreed upon sexual act and lying about it afterward. But that doesn't compare to Moore attempting to get in the pants of teenage girls when he was in his 30s. Arguably, it also doesn't compare to Franken leering at the camera when the woman was asleep and forcing a kiss. He needs to to resign. He, seriously, needs to resign.
Clinton, as lots of folks have said, is distinguishable because the woman in question was of age and engaged in an act pretty much voluntarily. Doesn't make it right. Doesn't mean she wasn't naive. Doesn't mean that Clinton didn't take advantage of her. But not in the way that Franken took advantage of Tweeden or Moore took advantage of, well, I've lost count of the names and the numbers.
Bottom line, Trump wins. He threw out this criticism of Clinton, knowing he was throwing a match on napalm, and he's gonna win in the end. Because D's don't have sufficient stones to call this out for what it is, which is, I hate this term, false equivalency. Instead Dowd and others wring hands, which helps Trump win.
Ridiculous.
3
It takes a certain level of morality to be contrite. The Clintons have no ethic, no code, no principles. They are so self indulgent they an no longer can sort right from wrong. To them they cannot see anything they do outside the singular objective of their own aggrandizements as wrong.
And then there were the enablers, the political supporters. They set the standard for the last twenty years by failing to demand Bill Clinton pay a price. The rich and powerful were getting away with the worst behavior but the college kids were being expelled on only accusation.
How duplicitous. It baffles me how some are so quick to accept charges against others, but so ready to excuse the activities of a serial abuser like Bill Clinton.
Too many put politics before treatment of women. The lesson wasn't passed down. The NFL gets more press kneeling than for abusing drugs, women, spouses. Not a week goes by where there isn't a reported case of abuse. The number of multiple children by professional athletes out of wedlock or at least partnership is compelling. So when I now hear women now chastising Clinton I must ask how many women between the Lewinsky event and now were abused because people did nothing. Trump got elected using Bill Clinton as a comparative, minimizing his own culpability to his supporters.
Being born during WWII one of the things we learned early, the Holocaust was allowed to happen because of silence: Chilling isn't it? Guess they don't teach that anymore.
7
Leeann Tweeden was not sexually assaulted. I suggest she and others expressing outrage over the photo and the kiss she described should look up the definition of sexual assault. She is a political hack and nothing more. I suggest she talk to women who have been sexually assaulted. She will find out what it really means. I have zero sympathy for her because she has zero cred.
26
These are tough questions and Maureen, her last sentence notwithstanding, has not answered them. People are neither good nor bad, they are a mix and there are questions of degree. Do we dump Richard Wagner's music because of his antisemitic leanings? The verdict seems to be, "No, we do not." Do we dump the generalizable knowledge of the human body learned from Nazi experimentation on captives? The verdict is yes. What about data on the natural history of syphilis from the reviled Tuskeegee study? I don't know the consensus on that. But we do affirm that there should never be another Tuskeegee. I am not persuaded that Franken should resign. I am persuaded that Trump is unfit to be president and Moore is unfit to be a senator, but for many reasons apart from their sexual transgressions. If one of them had assaulted one of my daughters, would I want their eyeballs fried out? Yes. If Al Franken had assaulted one of my daughters, would I want his eyeballs fried out? Not completely sure. How about if Al Franken had raped one of my daughters? Then yes. It's hard to separate the crime from our perception of the person, especially when we have a clear idea of how that person's actions influence our interests.
5
First, I have to say I am very tired of hearing about Bill Clinton. His trouble is at least 20 years old and Ken Star was like a pit bull trying to get him. I forgot many of the details however I know he was impeached and I believe he paid lots of money to the accusing women. I say for him its case closed.
Now we move forward to 2017, We have Democratic Senator Al Franken who has been shown to have done a very crass act before he was elected to the Senate. He has said he is sorry and turned himself in. Then we have Trump and Moore who both have tried to paint their accusers as liars and crazy people. I say if people feel Franken should go then trump and Moore should go too! As for Hillary being president, I believe having trump as president has made women speak up.
10
The Democrats cannot afford to substitute sexual misdeeds for the Russians to (try to) get at Trump. They have too many skeletons in that closet — as I'm sure the whole tribe is beginning to realize just about now.
That applies even to the Democratic darlings of recent history. For example, the inappropriate exploits of the Kennedys (Jack and Ted in particular) would make a pretty sordid mini-series.
It's good to keep in mind that these events become public the way roaches do: For each one you see there are many more that you haven't, and won't. Either because the women are scared, or they've been paid off.
2
Sex in America is one subject the populace can carry on about, sometimes to hysterical lengths. In the current climate of vitriolic anger and hostility, it is not permissible to ask if women also have committed harssment and other transgressions. It's also verboten to question the veracity and the motives of accusers. When Ms. Dowd applauds Leeann Tweeden, she must do so by ignoring the possibility that the Tweeden accusations have been deliberately timed to injure Al Franken's reputation. Ms. Dowd and other sincere reporters do not note that it seems disingenuous for Ms. Tweeden, a Playboy bare it all feature and professional model who happily exposed her attributes to the possible delight of millions of ogling males, who in all those photo shoots and when out in public, Ms. Tweeden whose fame rested on her being a sex object -- had never been "hit on" by some male admirer. Ms. Tweeden made an earlier USO tour, and her talent was her sexuality, not her acting or singing ability. On that first tour, photographs show her cavorting with grinning male recruits while wearing a very tight t-shirt to emphasize her claim to fame. There's a photo of her getting a big bear hug from an eager male in uniform (no complaints, apparently). If she wanted an apology from Al Franken, she knows him and could have asked for a private "I'm sorry."
Her political interests also suggest her protests are politically, not ethically,
motivated. Two sides to the story. Be responsible. Tell both sides.
14
I am sorry Maureen, but everything is politicized these days, including sexual harassment, thanks to you and the dozens of other media commentators whose job is the make people angry and fanatical.
5
Dear Maureen:
Your Javert act against the Clintons now goes bizarre.
Monica Lewinsky was the clear aggressor in the liaison. She effectively propositioned him. ("Want to see my green thong." while delivering pizza is not the same as "Here's your pizza, Mr President.".) Bill Clinton had the unforced option of saying "No", or "No, thank you." not "yes". Still, this was not sexual assault by Clinton or Lewinsky, for that matter. Bill Clinton was caught in a deliberate perjury trap by Ken Starr--because he did not want to look like a jerk to Hillary and Chelsea.
Harvey Weinstein used the same tactics against women as Trump. However, unlike Trump, Weinstein had lost substantial power -- making accusing him less dangerous.
You may not have noticed it, but Hillary is not Bill. Her presidency would likely have emboldened Weinstein accusers because Hillary would have a DOJ run by someone like Sally Yates, who might have been more likely to protect accusers from Trump or Weinstein than Sessions and Trump.
There are degrees of sexual assault, Weinstein used physical rape, retaliation, and career threats, blackmail... to enable his rapes. Trump seems similar. Moore attacked children. Thomas was more disgusting than truly threatening. Franken "stole" a kiss. Not doing any of it is right, but some judgement on degree seems in order. Perhaps the actual offense should matter--and all sexual assaults are not the same.
13
One thing intellectuals are great at is making meaningless distinctions.
2
Rape is not "retrogressive behavior". Rape is a heinous criminal act for which Bill Clinton was never prosecuted.
1
Well said. Money speaks. If Harvey Weinstein/Bill Clinton/Al Franken/Donald Trump were Cleatus from Donnie John Land, Alabama, the story would have been different. But money talks and you know what walks. We can only hope this will be the paradigm shift that is needed on this horrible subject.
65 MILLION people voted for Hillary Clinton, yet a year later, the NY Times editorial board had yet to find one of these 65 million to express their opinion that Hillary was the better candidate.
Yet every single week, we're inundated with articles trying to legitimize her defeat for one reason or another.
4
There there you go Clinton hating again. Get over it. Ask Donald Trump to resign for his behavior towards women, then we can talk. Al Franken, other centrists, leftist, or elected Dems are miscreants, but the Democratic Party morality stuff needs to stop when the right pays only lip serviice to it. For those who say Franken should resign, sure, but one day after Trump resigns. It is too late for Bill, and besides we are now. Get the focus re the predator issue back to the current POTUS.
And one more thing, Thomas had sex and competence issues, in addition to political issues. He had far fewer qualification virtues than Thurgood Marshall.
33
You can add perjury to bill's list of sins.
In MATRIX when doom is about to overrun Zion they set off an "emp" device that crashes the whole grid. & (for the moment) are saved.
So what's this got to do with the gender war of now? Well, in the realworld that eventually controls politics, things are getting worse. Have been since 1970. & ultimately populists and progs will blame the 1% of the 1%, given most know that politics is a Punch and Judy show for the kiddies and that the real power lies in who are pulling those strings.
The answer? Blow the emp of sex war into the 24/7 shark tank. Blood on the water. Plenty of action to fill time slots or col in.s, in the "news", eh?
Meanwhile the question of the fundamental inequalities of wealth, income and power are lost in the fog of war. No talk about that no more.
BUT...as the prescription of woman leaders gains focus- more women in power (and more women in good jobs-) men- whose income, power and status has actually declined since the Lib movement came of age in 1970, will begin to perceive the struggle in terms of life or death.
At which point the parties become Punch and Judy period.
Dems need to look at the women's line Hillary clearly embraced in 16 as having negative consequence in Men's backlash. hence calling for a bigger "bomb", as so many diehard Nam victory folk still do, is not bright.
Because the Punch party will begin printing the Handmaiden not as cautionary tale, but as CATHECISM. Be careful in deploying your emp, or nukes...
3
Out of the multitude of valid complaints, there will be a few fabrications. Rolling Stone had to retract a story when a woman lied about being raped at UVA. That one story did so much damage to the credibility of so many real victims. It only takes one.
I recall, last year, when Gloria Allred called a press conference, to call attention to her latest client: a porn star, who alleged that Trump had propositioned her. What was that, some kind of guerrilla ad campaign? 10 serious allegations rendered moot by 1 farce.
Too bad we didn't self police a little better. Let's apply that to both predators and the wannabe victims. The real victims deserve better.
4
Ivanka can say all she wants about women's rights. She's still selling shoes that people can wear while plying their trade on the street corner.
4
Given that the subservient role of women has been sanctioned for so long by the church it's not surprising it's often been the rule in marriage and the workplace.
Is there a woman who hasn't had a "me too" experience, including Maureen Dowd? Every woman alive should be having one after Trump's election. If only the sweet perfume of a feminist lynch mob would have overpowered the stench before it made it to the White House.
6
I remember how many Republican hypocrite congressmen and senators were forced into public confession and were outed by Larry Flynt (Hustler Mag. Editor). Powerful men in all segments of society and business engage in sexual harassment and extra-marital affairs. This is the time to stop what everyone knows is going on and try to change it. It's not a right versus left issue. It needs to be addressed in a just, fair, and equal way. We can discern between assault, rape, and simply annoying behavior. It's absurd that the right has always tried to make Bill Clinton the original sinner. The cult of outright hypocrisy from the right (the "Christian right"!) is beyond the pale.
10
Dowd and the Republicans continue to bash Hillary Clinton as if she was still running for President. Enough!
20
If one's political affiliation is 'not the point here' -- as this article concludes -- then why is the article so focused on the effect of such affiliation? Ms. Dowd wants to both prowl through the rubbish heap of political hypocrisy and then dismiss it as 'not the point.' It would be difficult to ignore that Dowd has a problem with the Clintons ad naseum, and that she is using the current tumult about covert sexual manhandlng to bring in her fave target once again. If politics is 'not the point here' why not get on with what the point actually is: women are emerging from decades of passive despair to a higher standard of courage in confronting scenarios once rarely discussed in public. Going forward from this moment fewer of these accusers will be silenced or bought off. This story is the point. Hypothecating about the Hillary effect, should she have won the White House, is not.
5
This may be the most difficult issue to resolve of any in the public sphere today. So many levels of complexity and so little transparency in this debate which involves the very nature of human sexuality and social interaction. One thing that is certain, there will be many on all sides of the issue who will try to use the controversy for personal gain, be it financial or political. We truly live in a most interesting time.
2
Fine essay, Maureen. I think that you have correctly defined the issue.
I voted for Hillary, but I told friends that she was indeed a lightning rod... as is Trump. The risk was that she would lose enough of the undecided vote to swing the election to Trump, or draw traditionally alienated non-voters out to vote for Trump. So that all happened. And now the Bill Clinton imbroglio comes out to haunt the election further. Republicans are in the same, uh, boat which is not the Love Boat, for sure.
It's as if either party could modify Goldwater's infamous 1964 statement by proclaiming, "Sexual misconduct in the name of politics is no vice..."
It's a bad situation because people like Moore, Trump, Clinton and Franken have attained positions in their parties because they support their parties' ideals; these people were popular. But their sexual misconduct in the name of the party is difficult to accept without feeling that one needs to take a shower after supporting them.
I think you are right, Maureen; the Trump election has enabled us all to bring the issue of sexual misconduct to the fore. It's not pretty, but pretending that it doesn't exist is absolutely ugly.
9
Everyone has already said what I need to, but:
"Yet that was precisely the Clintonian tact when women spoke up about Bill’s misbehaving."
The word you want is "tack," not "tact." Thinking of sailing, tacking into the wind. Think of diplomacy and tact.
29
Tact - short for tactic.
Either seem correct.
In Roy Moore, the Republicans finally match all of those Democrats ---Franken, Weinstein, Weiner, Clinton --- as a hands-on political operative; a doer, not a talker like Trump.
4
There are plenty of women to attest to Trump's not being a mere talker--and like Roy Moore, hung up on teenaged girls. At least Roy Moore didn't have a strategy for walking in on them while they were half-undressed.
3
While the sex scandals of the famous and powerful exploded, millions of Puerto Ricans lived without electricity, running water, food and medical care.
There is a connection between the obsession of Americans with the sex rumors and the absolute callousness shown to Puerto Rico.
It is called power. The women calling out men for touching them wrongly are seizing the moment to gain power over institutional Hollywood and Washington, DC.
In a few years, Hollywood studios will most likely be run by 100% women. Directors, producers, people in charge in every category will be female. We will be told that is a good thing, because it addresses old inequities. But the real reason will be lawsuits, and to protect themselves all the studios will lean heavily into females.
And the poor, forgotten nobodies of Puerto Rico will evacuate their island, or live in the mess of neglect, while the feast days in Beverly Hills go on forever.
42
I don't think bill's supporters are liberals. Liberals know that bill is a republican lite. His wife is the same. Together they are egocentric selfish children that have never grown up. For hillary to have acted towards bill's women as she did, spoke volumes and showed the world she has no integrity.
19
They are the old Democrats. The Democrat party does not exist anymore.
It now all comes down to Franken. If the Progressives don't force him to resign, then the sex harassment spin won't have any traction against Trump in 2020 and the chances of even Moore winning will increase.
9
Trump is a creep, but it's his attacks on important programs and lessening of the power and prestige of the US abroad, his embrace of dictators, and his lies and childish attacks on anyone who criticizes him that should have "traction."
22
Hmm...if you just chance the name "Trump" with "Obama," many would think that was true. All a matter of perspective... (Though, I'll admit that Trump comes off a little more childish, at least publicly.)
Franken's sophomoric prank is your idea of terrible sexual harassment?
A) it is not all clear that he was even touching her flak jacket in the infamous silly photo.
B) Franken's behavior is not at all comparable to that of Louis C. K., Harvey Weinstein, or President Trump who have repeatedly assaulted women. Their behaviors were not a 'bad joke' but illegal activities repeated numerous times against women over whom they held power.
C) Franken held no power over his accuser. He did not employ her nor did he have any influence over her career.
D) If the USO had not chosen to distribute the photo (which he did not take nor did he approve its distribution) she would never have known about that incident and avoided the embarrassment it caused. It would be useful to know whether the pose was Franken's idea or the photographer's.
4
I am usually not a fan of Maureen Dowd. Indeed, I have only recently started reading her columns again after a hiatus of some two years.
That said, I think Ms. Dowd raises real and important questions about the undeniable truth that sexual harrassment is (for the most part) a chromosonally rooted problem rather than a problem of political allegiance.
That is undeniably a bitter pill to swallow for all of us who defended President Clinton through a shamelessly partisan attack some two decades ago. But sometimes we need to take our medicine.
But not, perhaps, the Times' most loyal readers.
Scanning the most popular comments I couldn't help detecting a pronounced pattern: the readers who disagree with Ms. Dowd are attacking her not for what she is saying here so much as what she has said in the past. These are in fact ad hominem (ad feminam?) attacks designed to deflect others away from a serious consideration of what Ms. Dowd is saying.
This leaves a bit of a pit in my stomach because I can't see much if any difference between this response and the response of those who are defending Judge Moore against the "liberal press."
When, if ever, will we acknowledge that sexual harrassment is driven by gender rather than politics? Until we do, we will simply keep hurling mud at one another. And nothing would make a great many men happier...
24
Here's a problem with your comment, Maro.
You use the word gender, but you talk about sex.
Harassment is not a sexual act. It is ego and assertion of (or wish for) power.
And while its true women suffer much more frequently than men (much more), 10% of men report being sexually harassed as well.
This is a human problem, and requires a solution based on respect and basic decency, or at least restraint. Dividing the sexes, or genders, is not a positive approach.
I don't read 'attacks' on old Mo. I read people trying to process her ungainly lurch to the Right, and her undying vendetta against all things Clinton, which now bleeds out to cover the entire Democrat party and all those really nasty liberals.
4
"...Trump won and people felt powerless..."
Which people? I am a white, middle class working white man, and Trump's election has made me feel empowered for the first time in 40 years.
16
Mike, wanna go back to when white, middle-class working men really felt powerful? Go back to the '50s. Blacks were segregated, women less than
worthy, more like incubators, and the really powerful were the rich or not-so-
rich white men. Does that seem like the ideal world to you? Do you love this
jerk in the White House, kinda clueless and dishonest, disliked by most of the world, and belittling of almost everyone, including the disabled. Oh, he lies a lot, but so what? This narcissist cares only about self and self promotion, but
that makes you feel empowered, and I wonder how and why, as this country sinks into Third World status.
6
What do you feel empowered about?
2
That's the whole show, isn't it? People want to feel empowered. They're not, but it's the impression that matters.
1
I remember Tina Brown writing gushing over how sexual vibrant Clinton was. And both Dowd and Brown thinking that if Trump was "cheeky". This was after Clinton ran back to Arkansas to execute Ricky Ray Rector and Trump had taken out ads in five papers calling for the death penalty for the Central Park Five. Neither of those things diminished their sex appeal. And for Brown and Dowd possibly even enhanced it.
7
Americans sure do have a lot of hangups over sex. It must be a hold over from the days of the Puritans. So sanctimonious! And today it's the Evangelical crowd almost salivating as they wait for the next juicy tidbit of sexual misconduct of this or that politician.
Using sex as a political tool is just as wrong as the gropers are. I never could see that what Clinton did or did not do with Monica was so terrible, it was private and should have stayed that way. It was obviously consensual.
The recent accusations brought by women being groped and grabbed by their boss is a bit different. What Weinstein and the others did was what may be called Power groping because it is not consensual.
Get sex out of politics.
33
I agree completely. Clinton was a philandering womanizer, however,I don't recall any of those women stating their encounters were non-consensual. (Hilary shaming them was horrible). I don't see how Clinton can be lumped in with Weinstein, Spacey or Trumps accusers of serial, non consensual abuse.
Actually, the Puritans were rather earthy people when it came to sex and other bodily functions. Aside from that, right on!
"Yet that was precisely the Clintonian tact when women spoke up about Bill’s misbehaving.". What is "tact" here, Momo? Short for "tactic"? Common substitute for "tack"? Is there a use of "tact" that I've never seen before?
12
@
Politics is just war without the blood and guts. It is not about truth or logic. It’s about values and keeping the other person’s boot off your throat.
You do what is required to keep the other person from gaining power over you, full stop. If that means Gloria Steinem needs to give Bill a pass to help the majority of women and keep the GOP from taking women back to the primal horde days so be it.
19
“When you’re sexually assaulted, it doesn’t matter if you’re a Republican or a Democrat. … The affiliation doesn’t matter, right?”
I really wish I could believe that statement in this case but it is a fact that Roger Stone, at 1:00am, many hours before her first press conference, tweeted that this claim against Sen. Franken was coming out. So, I'm left to conclude that she spoke with Stone and if she spoke with him she probably spoke with Bannon and her friend, Sean Hannity.
Sen. Franken has apologized to this woman. In doing so he has said, "I don't remember the backstage kiss the way you do", and that the photo was a stupid prank, and in retrospect he understands how it was demeaning to her. However, given the current climate, Sen. Franken is not permitted to publicly explain, contextualize or defend himself in anyway, and MSM is not doing it either: MSM, especially the women, are speaking of Franken as if he was a sexual predator. Accused/supporters who put forward any variation on the "facts" are now crucified for "victim blaming". Painting ourselves into a bad, bad corner because it's going to take only one accuser to be proven to have made a false claim and the whole thing blows up in our faces and all accusers are back to being liars.
Yes, the whole Clinton thing is horrible: but there really was a right-wing conspiracy out to get them; and there is still a right-wing conspiracy out to get liberals, now with frighteningly effective tools at their disposal.
79
I am so sick of Bannon and others dismissing women's claims of assault as politically inspired. Why are these women's voices worth less than Moore's and Trump's? It seems that in America, once you have been assaulted, you are less than human. That is a tragedy.
17
It seems that in America, once you have been accused, you are less than human.
Of course, that only applies to R's.
Even with photographic proof D's are defended.
2
Maybe Gloria Steinem will defend Roy Moore the way she defended Bill Clinton...
11
It's not "the Hillary effect;" it's not the Al Frankenstein effect; it's the Trumpelstiltskin effect. It's the demonic little male who wants to possess the female and her baby--the very future of the kingdom, and is defeated and destroyed by a clever and resilient feminine. This may be THE major and only accomplishment of President Trumpelstiltskin. He's mobilized women as in the in their march on Washington at his inauguration and now against the predatory male patriarchy that he represents. There should be "zero tolerance" for Donald Trump. But, if the liberals (aka the Democrats) really want to "clear the decks" that won't be accomplished by flogging the corpse of the Clinton presidency anymore than Trumpelstiltskin will seek succeed by continuing to flog that of his complicit and defeated wife. It will only come when the Democrats agree to zero tolerance and force Al Franken to resign. A moral line has yet to be drawn and this is the moment for Democrats and their supporters to stop using the "double standard" and to show the moral fortitude so far lacking in both political parties.
13
Unless something more is to come, what Franken did is light years away from the genuine predation of Moore and Trump. Franken simply looks stupid, and his accuser has forgiven him. Not so for accusers of Trump, Moore, and Clinton.
35
@Sarah D. Here's what SNL said about the photo last night. “Sure, this was taken before Franken ran for public office, but it was also taken after he was a sophomore in high school,” Colin Jost, above, said on “Weekend Update.” “It’s pretty hard to be like, ‘Oh, come on, he didn’t know any better. He was only 55.’”
I agree. We, Democrats must draw the moral line somewhere. And, I beleive it should be at "zero tolerance." Roy Moore says charges are 40 years old; Franken says before he was in the Senate, It's all the same unwillingness to ever say what's right and wehat's wrong. Franken has admitted he was wrong, so has Louie C.K., but that does not exonerate them.
1
Earth to Maureen Dowd.
Re get rid of Bill Clinton for sex. Bill Clinton was not impeached because of sex. He was impeached because of his perjury--lying under oath on a federal court case deposition and before a federal grand jury--and obstruction of justice. Moreover, as president Bill Clinton had an Article II obligation to enforce federal law. When he committed perjury and obstruction of justice he was not enforcing federal law. He was violating the very laws he had sworn to uphold and enforce.
Impeachment is only the preferring of articles of impeachment in the House of Representatives. Removal from office then comes, if it comes, after a trial in the Senate and conviction. It takes two-thirds of the Senate to convict. There were 50 Democratic senators, none of whom would vote to convict. Ms. Dowd has it that a conservative attempt to remove Bill
Clinton from office was politics. As if all the Democrats who were prepared to excuse Clinton's perjury and obstruction of justice weren't playing politics.
In fact, the best thing that could have happened to the Democrats out of all this would have been if Clinton had been removed from office. Al Gore would have become president, and as a sitting president would have won the 2000 election.
17
Be away with you!
Facts are not allowed when it comes to the Clintons.
2
Isn't this the same Ms. Dowd who clearly stated in a previous column that Clarence Thomas "lied his way onto the Supreme Court?" And now she's claiming his opponents were a" feminist lynch mob ".
I listened to virtually every minute of those Senate hearings in Oct.1991, and was infuriated by his obvious lying, which he skillfully obscured through his manipulation of the senators on the Committee.
56
Henry, I watched every minute also. The whole process was a disgrace. As a professional woman, I found it infuriating and, additionally, very hurtful. As someone who had observed the same workplace behavior as Ms. Hill for many years by the time she told us all of her own experience, I felt let down by this country.
Maureen Dowd ought to have let this issue slide by. She's all over the map with her resentments, and on this issue she can't even keep her resentments straight.
3
"An accused predator (Trump) in the White House?"
Who's accused him, exactly?
The confirmed accused by multiple, multiple sources even outside of those that were assaulted, was Hillary's husband.
For you that are upset by President Trumps comments a decade ago in gossip show... are you upset because of what he said, or, because it's true?
10
Sexual predators are a massive topic: I welcome Maureen's long view, if 26 years is considered long given that women have been terrorized by men for centuries. Biden was wrong on Anita Hill, though I would vote for him now.
A slander "strategy" to paint Monica a certain way while Bill goes on with his life, accolades, millions - not ok with that at all.
4
So every wife who stands by her husband in good times and bad is an enabler?better she be like Trump and lie and cheat with every spouse. Three that is.
21
To dwell on the Clintons at this time is like worrying that the house isn’t tidy when it’s on fire.
54
Clarence Thomas and Bill Clinton were not, as Dowd astonishing claims, unwitting victims of political hits jobs showcased around the issue of sex. First, what they engaged in with Anita Hill, Paula Jones, Juanita Brawley and no doubt many other women was not sex. This is precisely the point being made today, over and over, by these brave women and men stepping forward to tell their stories of sexual, physical and emotional abuse by those in power. But there is no power if we - ordinary women and men - have the courage to simply say so. Unequivocally, without fear. Then the curtain in Oz is drawn back to expose the empty, crippled and frightened creatures once held high in public esteem. Dowd's world is expressed to us exclusively through the warped prism of politics; and her smearing of women who told the truth within the brutal maelstrom of entrenched power, is disgraceful.
11
Maybe it is time to reconsider the value of the Clinton's and all of their contributions. The Clinton's cheated in front of you. Then lied directly to you. And, since you had no business to question them in the first place, made us all victims on par with Harvey Weinstein's victims. We can still sit back and dream of the good old Obama days.
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The days when Democrat office holders began to evaporate out of existence. Democrat majorities and electoral became so few, when a Democrat governor was succeeded by a Democrat, it looked like an amazing victory. The days when a bowing, apologizing stumble-bumpkin amazed us with his ability to walk and smile and wave. The days before 40 year old stories about a young man, chasing even younger women(and it wasn't a Clinton). The days before lewd pictures, taken for fun, surfaced. The days when you could sell America off to the highest bidder without questions or even the air of impropriety. The days when a wealthy man could TALK about what he could do, in locker room banter. The days when other powerful did DO what they wanted, in full view and with no fear of any penalty.
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The good old days, when you could write out of court settlements into your employment contract. Or, almost as good, itemize the settlement as a deduction. I hope Joe Biden is taking his vitamins and Elizabeth Warren is taking her Fossilmax.
2
Was Susan Fowler even living on the same planet? Take for granted good people were in charge? Why would you feel that way? I voted for Trump but I never take for granted good people are in charge. After-all it is Washington! I always feel that liberals are more emotionally attached to their political choices and therefore don't look under the covers or if they do it is a minimal peep.
"“I think it was different this year because Trump won and people felt powerless,” she said. “I know I did. I felt super powerless. Because I felt, with Obama in the White House, I could just take for granted that good people were in charge.”
http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2017/01/02/18-major-scandals-oba...
2
Breitbart is worse than supermarket tabloids. Far worse. Please don't provide links from that publication as if they approach truth in any way.
If you really think that Leeann Tweeden came out against Al Franken NOW and not some other time because of anything except politics, think again. Also, Clarence Thomas should never have been confirmed because he does not view or treat all people equally; he clearly has prejudice against women, at least black women, and was LYING under OATH during his confimation hearings. His testimony was 100% political and had nothing to do with feminism. He just wanted the coveted job. As for asking if Hillary were president, it's clear that Mitch McConnell & Co. would be spending ALL of their time repeating the Ken Starr scenario in keeping the country locked up pursuing conspiracy theories and not governing at all, including continuing to block the SC vacancy. I expected McConnell & Co. to be more obstructionist if Hillary had been elected than they were in all attempts to thwart Obama. And given Hillary's temperament and defensiveness, we'd be tied up in knots over that. Instead we are watching a national meltdown of our democratic values and international prestige by the buffoon-in-chief and his Cabinet henchmen.
24
That, in a nutshell, is the last couple of years.
5
As a white American male the institutionalized le fleurs de mal our culture embraces have never been more obvious than in the past year. The scales of justice are heavily weighted toward Americans like me, only ones with a lot more money.
Women, minorities, and impecunious white guys count for little if anything. This diverse group though should be able to rally together and vote these greedy and obnoxious bums out of office, if it weren't for all the divisive media propaganda that divides and conquers.
6
So many people commenting on how Monica Lewinsky was consensual so Bill did nothing wrong. What about Juanita Broderick, Kathleen Wiley, Paula Jones etc.? All non-consensual. Also, it is amazing to me that the "positive" consensual relationship with Monica Lewinsky involves the most powerful man in the world and a young intern.
9
Perhaps Franken should resign but for relative guilt , he should resign after Moore, Trump, Clarence Thomas and Bill Clinton and JFK.
11
Well then Trump winning is inspiring women to come out against sexual predators, right?
Sounds to me like another ingredient to " Make America Great Again "
2
You go too easy on the Clintons. They normalized such behavior not resulting in job loss. Especially Hillary who took the Tammy Wynette route. Some women have to take that route. But Hillary has a law degree from Yale and could have easily provided for herself. But she is consumed with greed and power and would do better as a president's wife. (Not sure what the situation is for Roy Moore's wife.)
7
Some women do choose to forgive their spouses and move on. It’s none of our business.
2
Gillibrand Breath 1 (wringing her hands): "We should have gone after Bill."
Gillibrand Breath 2 (licking her chops): "So let's go after Trump."
It's hard to imagine more transparent hypocrisy than that. She really made a fool of herself.
Kudos to the Times for starting the ball rolling with the outing of Weinstein, but one can't help but wonder if it wasn't part of a macro strategy to get rid of Trump. Not that that would be a bad thing. But it would make it all a bit less righteous...
3
What good is sexuality in a woman unless it can be used to spellbind the right man for the woman’s desire, say, the elevation of her son or husband over other women of superior ability, including her very own daughters? In truth, Hillary Clinton owes nearly her entire public recognition value to her relationship to Bill Clinton’s achievement. So she also followed a well-represented group of famously calculating and ruthless shrews, as she defended him against his female victims, so much so as attacking the very women supporting his accusers who often voted for him, and later, for her.
An ambitious woman like Grace Mugabe, the young wife of Zimbabwe’s ousted leader, seems from all reports to have Hillary’s ruthless ambitions as she defended her autocratic husband’s rule against Zimbabwe’s female lawmakers.
But ever since Emperor Augustine’s wife Livia Drusilla (Augusta) worked behind the scenes to secure power, feminists have been politically undone by powerful women who learn how to use their sexuality to achieve power over men, only to turn the power over a powerful man against feminists fighting for gender equality and transparency. Indeed, despite the feminist aim of female political unity, the last thing a Cleopatra, a Livia, a Lady Macbeth, a Theodora (wife of Emperor Justinian), a Grace Mugabe, or a Hillary Clinton would want is to lose or undermine her male’s power (and his wealth) to satisfy the goal of female equality and transparency between men and women.
5
Trump has been president for almost one year now and we're talking about Bill Clinton 20 years ago - a time when Trump as president was unthinkable. This is a total side-track to the present moment, when all sorts of sexual predators in power are being exposed and the President has admitted to regularly grabbing women at the very least. Throughout the years, he has said all sorts of terrible things about women and has treated many females in ways that can't be described in civil company. And this is what he's admitted to. Women have got to stop playing defense and getting side-tracked while leaving dominator-in-chief pointing fingers at everyone else. There are lots of dirty old men out there but only one president and he is very tragically normalizing and aggrandizing the worst of male behavior while carrying the America brand on international T.V. For all the boys to see. The great news is that women are stepping up - many of whom were born after Clinton proclaimed that oral sex did not constitute sexual relations. The past is long behind us and the future of our daughters is what we have to keep fighting for.
4
Hillary hatred is old news, as is the conceit that one hug from Harvey Weinstein negates the scandal-free eight years of the Obama administration.
Dowd keeps missing the real targets, Donald Trump and the entire Republican Party. Elsewhere in today's NYT is a piece about how Republicans running for reelection are trying to distance themselves from the toxic Trump without setting him off. Meanwhile, their misbegotten tax bill is loaded with Trump's bad ideas, including a tax cut that puts billions in Trump's pocket.
Donald Trump IS the Republican Party, and the Republican Party is 100% Trump. Remember that when you vote.
17
I truly feel like one of the big tragedies of America is that Hillary Clinton was the first woman to seriously run for president. I think so many of us were longing for the nostalgia of Obama's first run - that truly wonderful feeling, that optimism that overflowed that we were going to make real progress on a social level after the disaster that was W. But Hillary just felt like one-half of a power-mad couple who were entrenched in defending themselves from "Benghazi!" and all of Bill's accusers. We know no truths beyond Monica for sure and the extreme conspiracy theories about the Clintons murdering people made it easy to just ignore the FOX News Bubble and books like Cash. But I will never forget Bill and his finger pointed, jabbing at me through the tv screen saying with so much determination, "I did not have sex with THAT WOMAN." A 23 year old White House intern, in a power imbalance so extreme that it was sexual harassment, was being lied about, was being thrown to the wolves by this cowardly man who was running scared. It was obvious. I was infuriated that he did such a thing, the most powerful man in the world and an intern.
I voted for Hillary because of the alternative. But because of her enabling Bill simply to get to that moment of being the first serious woman candidate, I voted for her with no joy and with the disgust and nausea of knowing Bill would be, once again, roaming the White House.
All so sad for the American people.
12
Bill Clinton didn't need to resign, but he shoulda, coulda owned up to what he had done. He could have simply apologized. Instead, his finger wagging denial made him toxic to the point that Al Gore lost an election he should have won and the world now suffers the grave consequences of Bush's disastrous response to 9/11. If you want to cry you can imagine how differently a Gore administration would have addressed the events of that day.
But it's even worse than that. The cover ups of Bill Clinton's multiple sexual assaults poisoned our politics and made it much, much easier for the right to eviscerate Hillary Clinton's character. In turn that gave us Donald Trump. Trump is accentuating the errors of George W Bush. Much worse could come.
Bush and Trump can be laid at the door of Bill and Hillary Clinton. If Democrats want to start reversing that record they can start by discarding the personal values of the Clintons (not the policies) and make a stand against sexual assault that is consistently apolitical.
7
Ms. Clinton is the poster child for nepotism gone wild, a failed "Evita."
After inheriting a safe New York Senate seat as a favored liberal carpetbagger she was an unqualified and incompetent Secretary of state nominated in exchange for Clinton machine support for President Obama.
She was a horrible campaigner who lost the election to the second worst candidate in presidential history, Donald Trump.
She spent her time in New York and California raising money from Harvey Weinstein but would not "stoop to conquer" by landing on the ground in the industrial midwest, Florida and Pennsylvania.
You reap what you sow.
5
Bill Gates for President. Or Steven Chu. Or someone else who is brilliant, ethical, educated, stabile, mature, knows how to attract people who can deal with important issues, and is familiar and comfortable with other world leaders. Let's no longer settle for the most obnoxious narcissist.
6
This column is completely out of character for Ms. Dowd. It dances around and flits from one place to the other and never makes a solid point. Hypocrisy has never bothered the elite left before, but they are obviously reluctant to condemn all conservatives who are accused of abusing the opposite sex while the stench of Bill Clinton still hangs in the air. Adding to the putrid storm are many in the Hollywood and Media elite left who are being desacralized daily.
They have seen the enemies and it is them. Tough situation!
2
I remember Tina Brown once writing gushingly over how sexually vibrant Clinton was. And both Dowd and Brown thinking that Trump was "cheeky". This was after Clinton ran back to Arkansas to execute Ricky Ray Rector and Trump had taken out ads in five papers calling for the death penalty for the Central Park Five. Neither of those things--racist acts to the core-- diminished Trump and Clinton's sex appeal. And for Brown and Dowd possibly even enhanced it.
3
As a Democrat I wanted Clinton to resign and Gore take his place and move on. I was belittled by other Democrats for it. You either stand for integrity or not. Politics is all about hypocrisy.
4
The left turning on the Clinton's? It's pure expediency; nothing more. In 98, the feminist movement became a wholly owned subsidiary of the DNC.
4
Luckily no women have ever used their sexuality to get something from a man like love attention money comfort or security.....or a film role.
That would really complicate this issue.
What a charade.
10
I think it's a little unfair to brand Hillary an enabler.
1
President Obama gave wise council to his staff when he advised them: “Don’t do stupid stuff.”
This should be a “RIOT ACT” to be given as a measure of proactive advice to be obeyed by all in society. This includes all those in public and private positions, from top to bottom, particularly those in positions of responsibility and power over others.
It comes down to the citizens’ trust and respect in the conduct of those in office and in the law and order on the behaviour of all those in public and private positions, particularly those in positions of responsibility who have power over the careers and lives of citizens.
But it is more than an issue of law and order. It comes down to trust and respect. If we don’t trust or respect those who do “stupid stuff” then what happens to society and civilization ???
3
You all, author and commenters alike, are about 25 years too late.
2
As the comments suggest, most male progressives just don't get it. Perhaps listening to what Maureen Dowd has to say is hitting too close to home for some of these guys. Thank you, Ms. Dowd.
5
Bill Clinton paid for his shenanigans by being impeached and the hugely public airing of his very private, consensual affair. The Roy Moore, POTUS Trump actions were forced on young girls and women. When it comes to mistreatment of women, party affiliation does not matter. What matters is how the GOP is handling Trump vs. Moore and the Dems handling their liberal bad boys. The GOP is standing up for their bad boys more than the Democrats. That we tolerate Trump in the WH instead of screaming to take him down says something about all our values/power or lack of! The fact that sick men like Steve Bannon get all this publicity in the media says more about our society's lack of discrimination!!
5
"That we tolerate Trump in the WH instead of screaming to take him down says something about all our values"
That is hilarious....Democrats not trying to take down Trump.....right.
2
It's true that Bill Clinton was a serial harasser - though not of Monica Lewinsky. Ms. Lewinsky has made it clear that, if anything, she went after him ("presidential kneepads," anyone?). Though it's also clear Bill happily acceded to her plan. I don't have any trouble with the mob taking down Bill at this point. But what's the point of dragging Hillary into this mess? She is no longer running for anything. Like President Trump, Ms. Dowd doesn't seem to be able to give up talking about that gift to the far-right that keeps on giving - the Great Satan, Hillary Clinton.
6
How can Trump, who childishly boasted to another guy in a locker room about stuff that probably didn't happen, compare to Clinton, who actually, physically did the disgusting things we all know about? How people, women particularly, can hate Trump so much yet still give a pass to Clinton is astounding to me. I just don't get it. Oh by the way, did you see where the economy is predicted to soar in 2018? Yeah, let's go back to the good ol' rotten economy of the Obama era.
6
Whatever the fallout from all the accusations against various people either in or seeking office, and however it is all sorted, Trump is benefiting from all the attention being turned away from him and his staff about their dealings with Russia during his campaign. Everything is becoming muddled, and our attention is being diverted.
Bill Clinton was a womanizer, he lied under oath, and his considerable baggage helped to defeat Hillary Clinton. Feminists should never have defended him.
That aside, whatever anyone may think about Hillary Clinton and all the mistakes she has made, she would have been a far better president than the womanizer-in-chief occupying the White House now. Absolutely hands down.
399
Our attention might well be diverted by this newest Trump clown act ...
but Robert Mueller's isn't.
7
A number of comments to Ms. Dowd's opinion are taking umbrage. Why? Is it because she's attacking one team at the expense of the other?
Pres. Clinton along with Pres. Kennedy were disloyal husbands. What kept them in office was their loyal wives (and that they were popular presidents).
Trump along with Moore are essentially dirty old men (walking in uninvited into a dressing room and trolling the mall for teens).
Trump's election has forced a reckoning that will eventually get sorted out in what is becoming another battle of the sexes.
In the meantime Rome is burning while Nero fiddles.
287
Maureen is unable to discern between SEX between consulting adults, like Monica and Bill had, which is FUN; and abusive sexual harassment by older and powerful men with women (or worse, girls) who do not want to do this and for whom is is most assuredly not FUN. Maureen (and unfortunately many others) is unable to discern the difference between ONE dumb prank like Al Franken did, and serial abusers, exposers, and/or harassers like trump, moore, weinstein, and others. The rest of this column is just idle speculation and routine mo-clinton bashing. May I remind all that the Clinton years were the last time most of us felt successful, financially secure, and content with the USA role in the world. It is the GOP who destroyed all that with the fake election of Bush. From those 8 years, and now trump, we shall perhaps never recover.
701
Consenting adults has nothing to do with violating workplace policies, such as defined in Title IX for educational institutions: that is, what Clinton did if done in these institutions would be creating a Hostile Environment, thus a violation of the Sexual Harassment Policy. Ok, so HIS workplace had a much lower standard.
Do you give carte blanche to every middleaged professor who comes across willing students? Think about it. Clinton took advantage of a young woman, no matter how willing she was. Don't send your daughters to be interns in the White House, is that what you think the answer is?
7
Somehow, I don't think "But I only do it for FUN" is a winning message in 2018 or 2020.
3
Karen in the Bay area -
From where I sit, a few hundred miles south of you, your post is a bit simplistic. Bill Clinton ended his eight years in the White House by repealing Glass-Steagall, which effectively set the stage for the economic collapse of 2008.
Also, in order to save his own political skin, he moved the Democratic Party far to the right, in the guise of pursuing the center. His welfare reform and crime bills clobbered the urban poor all across the country, particularly in black communities, and his immature behavior with Monica Lewinsky cost him, and the country, dearly.
Had Clinton not been shown such poor judgment with Lewinsky, I'm not sure the Republicans would have been able to steal the election of 2000.
5
Anita Hill preceded the Clinton's. What I recall of that endeavor was this: if you stand up to workplace sexual harassment and call it out, you risk derailing your own career while your harasser goes on to promotion and notoriety. Not only was she called to testify in humiliating fashion, but as we all remember, the Senate panel who listened on, feigned sympathy, but then changed nothing in the outcome of the events. I also recall Joe Biden was among the committee members called to theatrical measure. Time and again, we're now hearing the same story of why women held it in. So the lesson ran deep.
I suspect you are right. Hillary's losing to a tried and true male chauvinist pig unleashed a torrent of resentment. Goody for us that this pandora's box is open.
328
You mean "fame," not "notoriety." Clarence Thomas got both, but pretty clearly, he came out the winner.
2
To correct the record, Anita Hill did NOT stand up to sexual harassment in the workplace. When the FBI did the background investigation on Thomas, she just did not break the law and lie. The FBI found her credible and reported this to the Senate Judiciary Committee. When asked, Hill requested not to testify. Democrats on the committee were willing to accede to her wishes, foregoing political advantage. Republicans SUBPOENAED her to appear, for the express purpose of destroying her credibility.
So those Republican Senators were heroes in their party. And Clarence Thomas, whom the then mainly Republican ABA had given its lowest rating ever for a judicial nominee, still sits on the Supreme Court.
3
Maybe it is time to reconsider the value of the Clinton's and all of their contributions. The Clinton's cheated in front of you. Then lied directly to you.
And, since you had no business to question them in the first place, made us all victims on par with Harvey Weinstein's victims. We can still sit back and dream of the good old Obama days.
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The days when Democrat office holders began to evaporate out of existence. Democrat majorities and electoral became so few, when a Democrat governor was succeeded by a Democrat, it looked like an amazing victory. The days when a bowing, apologizing stumble-bumpkin amazed us with his ability to walk and smile and wave. The days before 40 year old stories about a young man, chasing even younger women(and it wasn't a Clinton). The days before lewd pictures, taken for fun, surfaced. The days when you could sell America off to the highest bidder without questions or even the air of impropriety. The days when a wealthy man could TALK about what he could do, in locker room banter. The days when other powerful did DO what they wanted, in full view and with no fear of any penalty.
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The good old days, when you could write out of court settlements into your employment contract. Or, almost as good, itemize the settlement as a deduction. I hope Joe Biden is taking his vitamins and Elizabeth Warren is taking her Fossilmax.
17
I haven't checked on Maureen in a while, and its something to witness completion of her conversion, joining the Ross/David/Bret troika of undisciplined conservative commentary from the Times.
Who says things like "feminists and liberals make the same Faustian bargain they made in 1998..." ?
Yes Faust was the effect, but there was no monolithic "feminists and liberals", there was resistance to just letting the Lewinsky thing pass.
Dowd wraps the Left in her contempt and makes a big Liberal burrito out many (and powerfully) diverse groups with a variety of opinions.
In fact her tendency to create one lump of Left undermines an argument against liberals: that they're devoted to special pleading/identity politics.
Then you toss Obama onto the "OMG, look at the money these guys get for speaking. There has to be a crookidity in there somewhere. "Clintons", am I right?" pyre.
Never mind the Right does the same or that those paying the fees are writing Trump policy these days.
Of course the climate has changed. We don't mechanically discount women and the abuse they suffer; we no longer automatically make excuses for men who do these things. At least not as often.
We've reached a critical mass of women coming forward and they created their own credibility.
We've gone beyond "Oh My Gawd, SEX!" to subtlety enough to distinguish between the spiritual rape that is even non-physical harassment and the unwise accepting of an offer of sex from a misguided intern.
198
This is a BIG moment. The truths being told are like national shot of penicillin.
57
Yes, and just like penicillin they are being over-prescribed and rendered useless.
1
We have gone from not paying much attention to female claims of wrongdoing by men to an absolute 100 percent accepting everything that any woman claims. No one dares to questions anything at all, if you are on the liberal side. There are so many questions about Al Franklin saga, but can he dare utter a word. She has literally has taken 1000s of nude pictures in front of many men photographers who would handle you to get the right gynecological picture, but she gets panicky when there is kiss in script and completely gets emotionally destroyed when she feels his tongue for a second and go right away and do the act including the kiss minutes later (by her account). Now we are not to question anything and get the firing squad ready. And we have Clinton that suffered like no one, has been the punching bag as why he did not allow the right wing Mellon Scaife and others by spending millions and getting those woman to fabricate dramatic violent stories out of simple bad sexual approach, to destroy him and his work for people. We have to have some sense of reality and do things according to gravity of the action.
237
I agree. After a century of winning the struggle for equality we, women, are marching headlong toward a new era of victimhood.
Harvey Weinstein taking advantage of young actors whose career depended on him is deplorable. But the real hero of this sordid affair is Lupita Nyong'o, whose op-ed in the Times was a dignified, empowered reaction to Mr. Weinstein's demented advances.
Among the women complaining about the producer decades after he made them rich and famous are women with connections in Hollywood. They preferred to use him. Their right to do so. But they had choices at the time.
And comparing Roy Moore's behaviour with that of Al Franken is outrageous. The woman he immaturely kissed could've slapped him or shamed him in front of their peers. Instead, she bided her time and proceeded to jump on the band of "me too" many years later.
This is not what we should do with the equality we won after so much struggle.
3
Therefore, we should excuse Mr. Weinstein, Judge Roy Moore, Bill Clinton et al?
It could be a 'vast right-wing conspiracy' or could be people in a powerful position abusing their status. Possibly both.
2
This subject does not need nasty invectives strewn around, again, re: a consenting, flirty woman who worked in the White House and had some sort of sex with President Bill Clinton, by all accounts a hearty sexy man with a very liberal education and wife, who treated Monica well and kindly. Men in power have been taking women almost at their leisure for a long time now, viz cave man day stunts, harems, etc. In the 70s a set of women came to NPR to press their allegations, moan about half baked things recently and since time immemorial, mad about the bad stuff, he gets to eat a bigger dinner portion than I do, I don't have enough time outside the house. There are usually pretty easy remedies for these things, but someone has to make a career memorializing and and taking it totally out of any historical context. As a man I've been taking the brunt of the beat every since childhood, and it has worn on me and demoralized me and estranged me from women. I've never been able to enjoy the advantages of marriage, or even those of close association for long. That is not something I'm happy about.
2
Kudos Ms. Dowd. Your essay should be read and discussed in school rooms across the nation as a real lesson in 'civics'. We only wonder why the NYT and so many elite 'liberal' institutions did so little over the last five decades to expose the Faustian bargain you describe so well. Couldn't be cash, could it?
Your best work in decades.
5
It starts in kindergarten. We had a large tower of "monkey bars" in our playground. The name of the game was "King of The Hill". The consistant champion learned to scramble up the bars, and then stomp on the fingers and kick in the head any opponent brave enough to challenge him. We all then began to play the same way. The most vicious was universally admired by the boys. He became the alpha male at our school, until challenged and beaten at his own game.
And so boys learn quickly who the "Winners" are. They are the ones who stomp on the most fingers.
There is no change when these boys grow to men. If Trump wants a building and it's occupied, he simply hires two bit thugs to slash tires, poison pets, cut wires, etc.....until the tenants decide to sell at Trump's price. If Trump wants a woman, he takes what he wants. If she complains, the same two bit thugs and three bit lawyers spring into action to ruin her life. Easy as stomping on fingers.
6
Sure. And interestingly, where the "monkey bars" association went for me: in grade school we had two jungle gyms, a big one for the boys, and a smaller one for the girls, so the boys wouldn't look up the girls' dresses. Thereby ensuring that the girls weren't able to become as good at climbing as the boys. Life lessons on the playground!
If it's true that Trump's victory created an urgency for women to step forward with stories of sexual assault, then Dowd who played a role (how big who can tell) in his victory with those glib pandering columns one after another for much of the campaign can rightly claim credit for being instrumental in its creation.
6
I think it is clear that Hillary wanted power more than fidelity. So, she made that trade-off. Powerful men have that effect on some women. However, our entire society glamorizes sex. "Sex sells" isn't just a fable. It does.
What we have to deal with is the fact that men are attracted to women and vice versa. Were it not so, the human race would not exist. But, it's the issue of Respect of the Holy Other that needs stronger teaching and understanding. To do that, we have to understand ourselves first and very few people are willing to look deeply into their own psyche's to do so. Therefore, don't expect a sudden revolution. This, too, shall pass and be largely forgotten.
A thought for you to ponder:
(From the Lost Gospel of Thomas, v. 3, on the location of the Kingdom of God spoken of in the canonical Bible.)
If your guides (Teachers) claim
That the Kingdom is in the sky,
The birds of the sky will be there before you.
If they say that it is in the sea,
The fishes of the sea will be there before you.
The Kingdom is within you and without you.
When you know yourselves, you will be known.
Then, you shall know that you are
Sons (Children) of the Living Father.
But, if you do not know yourselves
You are in poverty, and you are poverty.
The vast majority of people are in poverty and are poverty. Little chance for real change.
2
Ms. Tweeden is in error when she says that holding a national press conference is not political. It would be surprising for a professional journalist who has participated in national political broadcasts to think that.
2
There seems to be some confusion here.
There is consensual sex, and there is predatory sex.
Consensual sex is not predatory sex, but it is titillating to write about especially when it occurs outside of marriage.
The Clarence Thomas/Anita Hill instance was predatory sex.
The Bill Clinton oval office affair was consensual sex.
The Moore reports are of predatory sex.
The accusations against Trump are of predatory sex.
Now that we have that straightened out, lets get to the tragic, historic, story of the moment: the Republican tax legislation, which is so wrongheaded and potentially damaging that it should be overshadowing all other current news.
15
As pointed out by feminists, consenting sex only occurs between equals. Monica and Bill were not equals; ergo, it was not consenting sex. Also, isn't there an embarrassing case of women claiming that Bill raped them? Convenient how you "forgot" that.
1
No presidential administration has been able to "get the job done for women." Certainly not the Clintons, and certainly not the Obamas.
At this juncture we find ourselves singing the old song, "Sisters Are Doin It For Themselves."
What is disappointing about this 2017 arrival of women'sspeech is that it did not catch the breath of life back in the mid-60's when all the movements to change our culture and society had their birth. Somehow the women's movement and/or its rights were aborted.
4
"The stench of hypocrisy overpowered the perfume of justice."
Maybe the stench of coopting the deeply personal experiences of the preyed upon by the powerful is the real injustice.
1
Everyone is virtuous until there is a cost. Often times our beliefs go by the wayside when they converge with reality.
The Moore campaign is a horrifying example of this, but not the logical conclusion.
From the outset, our founders were wary of political parties. These days, morality is too expensive a cost in the struggle to keep power. A child molester very likely is heading to the Senate. Whats next? Based on the last 2 years it will certainly be worse.
The last year shows us how awful it is to lose. I am sorry, but sexual harrassment is but one more battlefield between Republicans and Democrats.
1
First, this is just a temporary trend. It won't be long before men are abusing women again. It's in their DNA. It's called the need to reproduce. It's called testosterone.
Second: times have changed. It used to be that men were just being men. (think especially of Franken).
Third: these "crimes" were not reported when they happened.
Fourth: Many women thought it was necessary to get ahead in the industry.
It may not be proper for men to use this technique, but they did. (The women accepted a form of prostitution).
Fifth: Eventually at least some of the women received huge payouts.
Sixth: Remember the perpetrator is innocent until proven guilty? As much as I dislike what goes on, men have should have their day in court and be allowed to take the 5th.
Sixth, I don't approve of such male behavior in any way shape or form, but why would a woman who was "assaulted once go back to the same place again to be assaulted?
Seventh: we will see in light of the recent events if more women come forward at the time of the incident because I seriously doubt all men will cease their sleazy activities.
Written by a woman. I know a zillion people will attack me for utilizing my right to express myself. I am waiting.
8
First, this is just a temporary trend. It won't be long before men are abusing women again. It's in their DNA. It's called the need to reproduce. It's called testosterone.
It' won't be long before men are making passes at women again.
If men did not make passes at women the human race would have died out years ago. Hopefully it won't be long until we stop hearing this non news - men are attracted to women and vice versa
1
There is a right-wing conspiracy and right now they are making robocalls offering to pay for dirt on Roy Moore. The appeal is to both antisemitism and to fear of "liberal" media.
There was a right-wing conspiracy, or more accurately, a cluster of right-wing conspiracies that were trying to discredit the Clintons. Bill Clinton contributed to the effort by being a sleazebag of the first order. Those women who accused him showed up with right-wing lawyers and PR people.
I don't believe sexual harassment will bring down Donald Trump any more than it brought down Bill Clinton. We all knew what he bragged about doing on video and a lot of people voted for him anyway.
That may suggest that this surge of emotion about sexual harassment and assault, which is more serious after all, will soon dissipate. We have trouble maintaining high levels of outrage. When it subsides, the standards for the next round are usually even lower.
2
Great article Ms. Dowd. It is refreshing to see a person with your platform to speak through a lens of truth, not political affiliation.
However, as indicated by some of the comments on your article, your point is lost on some. It is apparent that to admit someone on your team is as bad as some on the other's, is beyond comprehension.
3
Mrs. William Jefferson Clinton was no Margaret Thatcher, Angela Merkel, Theresa May, Nancy Pelosi, Sheikh Hasina, Barbara Jordan, Carol Mosley-Braun nor Shirley Chisolm. No one knew nor cared who their spouse was. And their spouse was not a moral degenerate serial adulterer, sexual assaulter and sexual harasser politician elected government official. John F. Kennedy begat William J. Clinton who begat Donald J. Trump.
Blaming the victim has been the time honored escape route for politically bipartisan misogyny. Short of the Civil War our divided limited power republic has never been in such a governing gridlock. In a change election among a trio of three score and ten plus year olds, the most outlandish outsider won.
3
It would be nice if people in government behaved professionally and with dignity, and likewise surrounded themselves with dignified people. Then the public would not have to go through these tacky, embarrassing "reality shows" that distract from policy issues and make America look ridiculous. At this point, voters don't expect much, but they have some reasonable requests. If you have a colorful past that involves sexual harassment, don't run for office. Once in office, resist completely the temptation of flirtatious interns. It's pretty simple. It's not that much to ask. President Obama behaved like a professional. Why can't others?
6
Maureen is of course a fool. She is the type of feminist who thought it important to ruin Hillary so that we could have Donald.
With the Reagan Revolution in full swing when Clinton became president, it was critically important to try to salvage the Democratic Party, whose ideological warrants for leadership were shot.
Maureen calls it hypocrisy to accept Clinton for political reasons despite his predatory behavior toward women. With hundreds of billions of dollars wasted on Star Wars and a 1000 ship navy, there was great importance in trying to stem the conservative tide. With Reagan catering to the anti-feminist religious right, there was great importance in stemming the conservative tide.
Sometimes you yield on one issue, where there is no chance of victory, in order to win on. a slew of others.
Maureen Dowd does not understand the great fights of our times, since the 1980s. She has not been on the right side.
And she helped elect Donald Trump.
What a false beacon she has been. Funny, clever, lacking fundamental good sense.
I remember when she courted the Bushes.
4
Yes, it's beyond doubt that Bill Clinton had multiple sexual partners besides his wife after he was married. It's also not in doubt that a number of those partners had consensual sex with him in ongoing relationships. Since adultery is no longer a crime -- thankfully -- he may not be a criminal even if he is guilty of hurting his wife. His behavior is little different than many other presidents including JFK and George H.W. Bush. Monica Lewinsky was a willing partner, no matter how inappropriate the relationship, and what happened between them as two adults should have remained their business.
The only genuine scandal would be whether Mr. Clinton assaulted other women -- something that the current president is alleged to have done by at least 19 women. Juanita Broderick has an inconsistent claim against Bill Clinton that he raped her, something which is unproven, and a part of that story is that she did meet him at a hotel room. If Ms. Broderick was raped by Bill Clinton then he must pay some price for it regardless of the statute of limitations, even if it is little more than admitting the crime. If Ms. Broderick has falsely accused Clinton, she has also engaged in a deadly serious crime, an extreme slander for which she should be held accountable and for which she should apologize.
If Clinton is innocent of this accusation, then he is also a victim and so is his wife when she is called an enabler.
1
Excellent commentary. What Maureen has missed is the bias of mainstream (left leaning) media that has always acted hypocritical and selective. " Cafeteria Journalism" is alive and well.
2
This is the top trending story while new tax laws may well further turn us into an oligarchy of thieves? Democracy wanes as plutocracy pirates and we talk about Clinton? There's a sad reminder of who we are.
The top two trending stories are about the Clinton's while new tax laws may well further turn us into an oligarchy of thieves? Democracy wanes as plutocracy pirates and succeeds. The New York Times and its readers aren't really more engaged or better citizens than the rest. We're all lost, and just watching as the real power concentrates further. Wow. As our current billionaire President might say, 'Great!'
6
When you ask, rhetorically, mockingly, "Wouldn't you rather have Bill and Bill's enabler, Hillary, than Donald?" the answer is an resounding 'yes'.
Hillary doesn't turn to putty in your hands if you throw her a military parade and stroke her ego on TV. She did not pose an existential threat to American democracy.
The current president's history of sexual misconduct is not what keeps people up at night. It's not even the most disqualifying thing about him. Possibly not even in the top 5.
4
Can we please get serious and focus on the present, for once? The Clintons are HISTORY, irrelevant in today’s political scene. Obsessing about them, at this late date, just makes you look weird.
And the Franken affair clearly isn’t about sexual harassment. It’s about knocking out a potential presidential candidate who could have beaten Donald Trump in 2020. The ploy worked; now, Franken will be lucky to keep his senate seat. I hope he does keep it, because giving someone the political death penalty for one stolen kiss would be conclusive proof that we have all gone completely crazy.
10
There's the political as emphasized here, but there are other sides too. One other side is the injustice we see or experience at the time. In the 90s we saw the Anita Hill story as the sexual workplace bullying that insults women then and now (Leann in the Franken story). Also in the 90s we saw women putting themselves out there for personal gain (why else were they going to his hotel room, having meet-ups under the desk in the oval office, etc.). This was Hillary's take on it and many other women too. And Bill was getting his work done; so they gave him a pass. Today, however, with the women suing Trump, the women me-tooing about Weinstein, the women going against Moore, the women seem to be in Anita Hill/Leann category, being sexually bullied in the workplace or on airplanes, in malls, or anyplace they happen to be near these men. These women do not seem to have put themselves out there for personal gain. They just happen to be in the line of fire. So to just cover it as politics is oversimplifying. Sometimes these men can assault women right and left and still get their jobs done, but no longer are women like Gillibrand going to give them a pass on that. Another side is money/power of course. Trump might have put his hands up a woman's skirt sitting next to her on a plane but would the airline have thrown him off evem if she socked him? She might have been dragged off in cuffs. He owned the Universe pageant. Moore had D. A. after his name. Etc.
Mobilize against the tax bill, now!
Trump is creating diversions & Dowd & others took the bait.
Stop the tax legislation, it has immediacy, then we can get back to these other moral issues.
6
We really have to put politics aside and keep a sense of proportion. I recall stories that in some countries the punishment for theft from a fruit stall was to have ones hand cut off. In this country the punishment for one kiss and one tasteless photo my yet be expulsion from government. Steal millions of dollars through scams that destroy lives - that does deserve jail time; and pursuing teenage girls for genital petting, that does merit a change in voters opinions even after the statute of limitation.
A sense of proportion - and retribution that matches.
3
Of course, wrong is wrong, period. Yet, details matter, and context matters. If, like Shylock, someone demands their rightful pound of flesh, there is a risk, and perhaps a price to be paid. Women should have the right to speak up, be heard, and their cases fairly weighed. Those rights are worth fighting for. Those rights do not necessarily include the right to condemn and punish the accused.
Ms. Dowd,
It is high time that women are speaking out and gaining supporters in our country. They should be supported and criminal sexual predators, like Weinstein and Moore, should be revealed and punished. The problem we face at the moment is the broad brush being used. Men who cross over into bad behavior that is consensual, like Bill Clinton, are being lumped into the same group as sexual predators like Moore. There is a very big difference between the two. Bill Clintons behavior was wrong, Moore's behavior was criminally wrong. It will not serve women to brand all men as criminal sexual predators. To reduce the level of male sexual predation is a good cause for men and women. Let's not let anger cloud our judgement as to who is an imperfect husband and who is a criminal sexual predator.
Perhaps you are not aware of the acknowledged payoffs by Bill to women he harassed while governor of Arkansas as far as his track record as a known harasser? Or the perjury and obstruction of justice charges leading to his impeachment by bipartisan vote in Congress? Issue was not consensual sex between adults with Lewinsky as many times as his supporters like to insist.
2
I am getting tired of the coverage of this topic. It is extremely important as any woman can attest. However, what Bill Clinton did 20 years ago doesn't have any relevance to the problems of today.
There are massive problems in the world, sexual predators are one of them, particularly the women and girls who are being systematically raped in war torn countries as a method of population subjugation by military forces.
I don't know what will happen with #metoo. Every woman I know has stories to tell, some far worse than others. I hope men see the light (they are the ones who need 're-educating'), I also hope that the very real damage that is being done to Americans and people all over the world by greedy, thoughtless and sometimes moronic leaders will take the spotlight.
2
Maureen is to the left of me on most issues. But one thing is undeniable: she has never liked the Clintons. I'm not sure where the animus derives from. During the Lewinsky scandal she was constantly attacking President Clinton. But once he was impeached she turned around and started defending him. A little bit of consistency would have been appreciated. Still I like what she has to say and a lot of it carries great weight. It's interesting to see the former heroes of progressives getting the heave-ho - Weinstein, Franken, Billary - now that they will no longer serve any purpose in fighting President Trump. I remember the homely, hapless Cindy Sheehan fading into insignificance one her usefulness in opposing President Bush was over.
Good gracious, it's perfectly obvious that electing Hillary Clinton to become president would have stifled women and girls across the nation, killed their ambitions, and made them a lot more timid about challenging men.
Who could ever doubt that?
1
"Once more politics is clouding the issue of sexual harassment"
No Mo. Once more sexual harassment is clouding our politics and you are contributing to the cloudiness at a time that the Master of Deflection needs it most to give himself and his cohort huge tax breaks.
1
Looks like Mike Pence is the only candidate with the qualifications Americans are looking for.
2
Let's go back to the 90s when Bill Clinton's DNA was on the dress after he said he didn't have sex with "that woman." My reaction, even though I was and still am a lifelong Democrat, was to call for Clinton to resign. I expressed this opinion to a co-worker whose political preference was unknown to me. My exact words were "Clinton should resign and I'm a Democrat." (the implication was that Clinton's behavior was so bad it would turn off a Dem). My Republican friend's reaction was "How could you be a Democrat? We need to talk. It might take a couple of hours but I could convince you to change parties." I was shocked at this and I was shocked at the Republican "lynch mob" out to get Clinton. The Rs over reacted and further solidified my being a Democrat.
1
Franken's crime does not rise to the level of Clinton and Moore or even Trump. Sexual predation is evidently fundamental to Moore, Clinton and Trump's personality. They were (are) constantly scheming to commit this crime. Clinton using the troopers is the most horrible abuse of power. I've seen the photo and it was clear Franken was trying to be funny. He is quite a nerd and was obviously fascinated with this gorgeous women. Knowing she had no interest in him led to that insulting picture in response to some kind of rejection existing entirely is his own twisted mind. His comedy was often gross. Then again lots of comediens -men and women- are gross. But everyone who knows him says this was one-off behavior. The kissing thing during rehearsel for the show, in front of producers and directors and others presumably, if it meant anything to her at the time beyond extreme annoyance, apparently was not brought up then. So Franken should not resign. He's going to experience some serious harassment and he will suffer to a degree far beyond what his actions in my opinion require. Meantime Hilary is out there claiming to support women strongly, as Maureen notes. Bill, Trump, Harvey will never be brought to justice. Roy Moore still appears to be a lock to get into the Senate. The Far Right wins. Women, blacks, Jews and the middle class lose. Real victims will lapse into silence. It's important to look at the act itself before passing judgment or credibility will be lost.
1
I Think that it is just divisive. What Bill did (or maybe not) and what President Trumd did (again, maybe not) is very different in that one is currently President and should be a role model to my kids and many more....Just sad that this is where are today.
It was not a feminist or political lynch mob that went after Clarence Thomas. Thomas was unqualified for the Supreme Court. He had never been in a trial court of this land and had never tried a case in front of a jury. He worked in the administrative sector as a bureaucrat for the Reagan administration in the Department of Education and later the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Imagine that, a candidate for the U.S. Supreme Court who had never tried a case, who was clueless about civil procedure, criminal procedure and general law. Thomas' nomination to fill the shoes of the great civil rights activist, Thurgood Marshall, was an insult to all civil rights supporters.
The black legal community at the time Thomas was in school was small, and Thomas' reputation for being a pornhead was well-known. Anita Hill has always had the reputation of a fair-minded straight shooter.
Anita Hill was speaking truth.
1
Most of us are far from so called prudes. Anyone with half a brain, male and female understand, serious non consenting sexual behavior is wrong. Has also been apparent for a very long time. Men felt free to make overtures and try to flirt, ( an old term), with attractive ladies, which was apparently non acceptable. Men and Women are now willingly thrust into an integrated work force. Think about it. As for Bill and Hillary, they are simply hypocrites . That couple is what they are and that is fine. They have some kind of a partnership which is also their choice. Hopefully they just go away.Many of our Presidents have had reported extramarital affairs, as in so what again those are personal matters not for us to judge. We should be reminded Politcian's are not the cream of crop of society.
What I love about Comments sections is how many people pivot the topic (in this case, sexual predation) to spout their own unrelated agenda. In the first 100 comments alone, we have rants about Nixon, Reagan, Gingrich, Palin, and Bush/Cheney, all unrelated to the topic.
Some commenters shifted to Russian troll farms, trickledown economics & the 1%, Obamacare, anti-Semitism, Iraq, and supposed attacks on the 1st Amendment. Of course, no comments section is complete without the ever-popular connection to climate change.
We also learned that the firebombing of Tokyo is somehow related, and that LBJ got the Civil Rights Act passed and created Medicare because he watched ABCNBCCBS.
And who knew that federally-funded elections would help women deal with sexual predators? The brilliant commenters of the NY Times, that’s who.
1
Maybe Ivanka needs to look again at the Vanity Fair pictures from 1996 when she was about 15 yrs old. Maybe she would re-evaluate her father, and maybe other memories, suppressed, would surface.
1
We are draining the swamp.
And we've only just begun.
" Yet that was precisely the Clintonian tact when women spoke up about Bill’s misbehaving."
"Yet that was precisely the Clintonian tack when women spoke up about Bill’s misbehaving."
As Barack Obama was fond of saying, "Politics ain't beanbag." Going after sexual predators for the sake of politics might be doing the right thing for the wrong reason, but it's still doing the right thing. How often does THAT happen these days, under any circumstances?
1
Cliches are true, including this one. Everything happens for a reason. As heartbreaking and soul crushing as it was to watch Trump take the oath, the fallout is starting to emerge. The R party is in tatters, justice is coming, sexual predators are losing their cover, gun control is finally making baby steps in Congress and most important, women with no political experience are emerging with strong voices as they take on leadership roles. None of this would have happened now if Hillary had put her hand on the bible. So will we say it was worth it to sacrifice her ascent in the name of leveling the playing field for all? In our hearts we know the answer.
Before the '92 election I was complaining to a friend and fellow Democrat that I was not sure if I could vote for Clinton because he was so sleazy. My friend said,"yes, but he's our sleaze!".
1
I want the media to focus on the tax bill. This 'what if' column is just one more distraction. I am tired of the false equivalences while our government is being dismantled by rapacious sharks.
2
The Clinton saga was litigated. This recent discussion is about a man who cruised shopping malls for teenage girls. What's political about that?
Don't buy the silver lining under Trump Regime is women more galvanized? Women now know what they are up against and pretty horrific. Hillary is no longer the future of the Party.....let's move on.
I've learned a lot since "Harvey Weinstien".
What I've learned most of all is that the American male dominated power structure can force women to do all sorts of things, often for years, and that they use their power to keep these women silent.
Which brings me to today, this inflection point in American history, and I ask Maureen O'Dowd:
"Who is forcing you to write the same article for 20 years ?"
Isn't it time to revaluate Bill Clinton's "sexual misconduct" on multiple women, and Hillary's disparagement of them? How can we condemn predatory sexual behavior and ignore the Clintons?
2
Excellent column. But I'm sure the Clinton apologists will jump all over Maureen for daring to bring up "ancient history". The smear campaign against Bill's accusers was heinous and we need to discuss it to prevent that from happening again. Those women were mocked and vilified by liberal feminists - including Hillary. The hypocrisy on both sides is outrageous.
3
Maureen,
You are my hero. You have been unflinching when writing about the Clintons, often while heavily criticized by commenters, but you still kept writing.
There's a lot rotten in the GOP but there's a lot rotten in the Democratic Party.
The sooner there's a reckoning the better.
1
One must give serious thought to where all of this is headed in addition to the subsequent ramifications.
I personally cannot help but wonder what Anthony Weiner, Bill Cosby, et al are all now thinking. Vindication? Certainly less scorn, that's for sure. I would not be the least bit surprised if Anthony Weiner were to also give an interview.
I recall a stellar article in the NY Times years ago with regard to pedophiles and how the Internet and networking allowed them to absolve their behavior.
The gist of the article was, how can it be so wrong when there are so many of us? It's not us who are sexual deviants but rather society that simply doesn't understand. My skin crawled at the mere implication, because it was valid. Because there were so many, how could it possibly be wrong?
The second thing that concerns me is how this will all affect the work force and will it now only exacerbate the divide? No male dominated company would be wrong to say and or prefer hiring males - fearing ramifications and or simply protecting themselves. Men will be men. This behavior will never stop.
Please don't misunderstand what I am implying, I do not condone any of this and merely looking at it from varying perspectives.
1
Now that this is all coming out and being used as political ammunition, we are going to have to have a very uncomfortable national conversation on the varying nature and severity of these miss deeds. Is any miss deed the same as any other or are there differences. Is an affair the same as assault Should harassment be viewed the same as rape. I don't pretend to have the answer but without some discussion and standard this will turn into false equivalencies and political sniping.
2
Politics is the point. While our attention is turned to Roy Moore or Al Franken, this administration goes about stripping women of any and all rights they can. You even some in the crazy libertarian right calling for the repeal of the 19th amendment. Frankly, do we really want to lose our rights because we were preoccupied by the bad behavior of some powerful men.
Beyond this - groping is not rape. Nor is groping an adult woman the same as stalking a minor. It's bad and crude behavior but let's get real about all this. Let's also not lose sight of the goal -- which should be to extend women's rights and enable women to gain more power.
To gain power one often breaks bread with people whom you otherwise would not spend time with. Conservatives have figured this out -- feminists should swallow hard and say that apologies of allies are accepted. And then they should be like hawks in watching these otherwise compromised men.
5
The most troubling thing about Bill Clinton was the accusation of rape. Same thing with JFK, who basically raped a 19-year-old girl in the White House (I use the word "basically" because she made the decision not to resist). Simple adultery committed by the man who could blow up the world is nothing we should concern ourselves with. Monica Lewinsky talked about getting her "presidential knee pads" when she went to work at the White House; no sympathy should be wasted on her as a "victim." Of course, the attempts to paint her as a stalker were wrong and outrageous, but consider the source: politicians and political operatives, generally speaking, are hardly gentlemen. A Rhodes scholarship didn't transform Bill Clinton into a man of honor. But simple dalliances by a president are really nobody's business. The Europeans laugh at us, and rightly so, for obsessing about presidential adultery. Of course, assault is a different matter, which is why Trump needs to be investigated, or sued, or both.
Powerful men who assault women deserve severe punishment. The Cosbys and Weinsteins and Moores of the world should spend time behind bars, not to mention the civil penalties they ought to pay. But if a married president has affairs, who cares?
6
the issue is very simple. men and power. it's been going on for millennia.
5
And yet, Roy Moore was removed twice from the judiciary for disobeying the law. Think about that. A judge was removed twice from the bench because he wouldn't follow the law - and still he was on the fast track to the U. S. Senate, until his creepy taste for teen age girls came up. This is (and has been for a long time) the norm for politicians in America. All manner of sleaze, dishonor, and corruption are overlooked for political gain; only sexual impropriety will actually turn voters against a politician. It is a indictment of the decency of our electorate that they are so prurient.
3
Hypocrisy and victimization have been institutional in America long before our current debacle and will likely continue as part of the national fabric.
2
How about we leave the politics aside and concentrate on the victims of all the sexual predators? How about we believe them, respect them, and give them help if they need it? These men did their nasty deeds, the victims are what is important.
3
It is a very interesting point: disgust with Trump liberated the women of the Left to talk about the predators in their midst. But it seems the possible loss of Franken, he of liberal Presidential ambitions, has now caused a pause. Perhaps, just perhaps, a single grope and tongue assault isn't that bad after all. The purge has come to an end,
2
If Hillary were elected we would have the first woman president in our history. Dowd's backward logic that if Hillary were elected somehow she would have enabled sexual predators to continue, or that the #metoo revelations may not have happened is absurdly depressing. Why not focus on the fact that a woman would be president, and that youth would grow up with that example. Why not focus a hopeful thought, a hopeful op-ed, on how her leadership might empower, inspire and transform the next generation.
12
@ dotconnector. "Without double standards. there would be no Clintons." Wow. That's a revealing choice. How about, "Without double standards there would be no Trump."
5
The fact that, whatever your political persuasion, both “good guys” and “bad guys” are capable and guilty of using power to sexually exploit women is telling. This is not a political problem; it is a GUY problem. Almost all women have experienced a degree of sexual harassment in their lives, almost all men are guilty of it - whether they realize it or not. Men have a moral responsibility to respect women and women have a moral responsibility to hold men accountable in the moment, not days or weeks or years later. The benefit of recent events is that women are being empowered to speak up in the moment and men are being frightened into thinking before they act. Let’s hope that our sons and daughters are watching and learning and that we commit to maintaining the example of this moment.
1
Just about everyone is missing the point. Yes, hypocrisy, in the face of the side you represent is a problem. Religious conservatives actually defending pedofilia, using biblical reference, no less, is a problem. Sexual discrimination, harassment and assault of women are and ALWAYS have been a problem. But all of these are symptoms of what we really are talking about. I am referring to taking one side or other, regarding the real threat to women and their well being, and using them as props or political footballs. I have no doubt that Trump, Moore, Weinstein, et all are all guilty for what they have done. I am also aware however, that Hillary's choices as to whether or not to stand by her man were hers and hers alone to PRIVATELY make, regardless of being called an 'enabler.' Her choices do not deflect his responsibility for his actions, his and his alone! I believe, that in most men's hearts, they do not believe in women's natural inferiority. They reinforce stereotypes, to keep women from institutions designed to keep them out. Men fear women's power and as a result, resort to all sorts of contortions to keep it from them. Politics and what it leads men to do to keep their power, are the problem. Women who collude with men, thinking that they are assuring their own power are and have always been fools, but that's a whole other issue. Let's begin to address this by defining what the real issue is, men fearing women's power, period.
2
Give me a break regarding Thomas and his hearings. What came out of that was he was wholly unqualified to join the bench. He has proven it for the last 20+ years. It was simple as that.
9
Maureen wants to make a point that we look at sex through a political lens, without applying objective criteria. They are very clear: love making, consensual sex, philandering, sexual harassment, sex with a minor, rape; they are all sex but defined differently by social norms. And some have vexing grey zones: when is a minor an adult, or when is consensus implicit?
Personally I don’t think sexual harassment disqualifies people from doing their job or getting elected, as long as they don’t lie about it. They need to sincerely apologize and accept being scrutinized from here on. They should be required to attend courses, like any driver who continuously violates rules.
As a society we have to act, not by punishing or hypocritical finger pointing but by education and training. It is preventable but we have not shown the necessary willingness. We rather behave like a parents who scold their child after a misdeed but with a smile on our face. Men have naturally predatory sexual tendencies, but they can be channeled, and changed by adaptive behavior. And maybe there is some atavistic admiration towards it, an ambiguity that makes it so hard for all of us to deal with it, personally and in our society.
There will not be a simple solution. We need guidance from behavioral and social sciences to define the best models in education and training. And we need honest politicians to engage. But this requires voters who actually understand their responsibility. We are far from this.
1
It’s kind of a paradox lost. Sexual cooperation has no value because it’s “hard to get.” I wouldn’t have it any other way, though. Those “cooperating thoughts” echoing past Percy Shelley (even though Harriet threw herself into a pond) have always been the light of my life. I still keep the last one’s cats after she succumbed to ovarian cancer. I had thought about you during your sabbatical and retrospectively appreciate your loyalty. Kind of Blue. Egorogre.
I think the way Hillary tried to demonize women Bill had sex with was a big factor in her lack of credibility as a feminist but it was not her only problem and she did win by 3 million votes. What she did pales beside what Trump did to multiple women. That's actual sexual harassment and apparently that was okay with the many people, including women, who voted for him. We are clearly at a transition from the image of white male politicians with their smiling wives and five happy middle or upper class children. On the one hand, that change is good, on the other hand, I do think we should hold candidates to high standards of morality, both in their personal lives and the political sphere. Trump has no moral standards except self service in the political sphere and I think the Clintons overall had the best interests of everyone in mind in what they tried to accomplish.
2
As the writer suggests, the concept of a sexual miscreant in the White House was well established well before The Donald brought his version. In other words, the problem is bipartisan. In fact, it summons a less familiar concept -- principle over political expediency.
3
"You may wonder why in the year 2017, after so many graphic and scalding national seminars on sexual predation over the last 26 years, we are still trying to come to terms with it."
I don't wonder that much. Forty two percent of women voters voted for Trump and among white women, it was 62 percent. Now, suddenly, we have a wave of revulsion and pearl-clutching over sexual predation. As long as women vote for the actual predators in those kinds of numbers, we'll continue to put them in office.
4
Better people are in charge now. That is something to be thankful for this thanksgiving. This is all about some women not getting their way and lashing out to bring down powerful men of whom they are jealous. If they truly cared about sexual harassment and if they truly felt violated this all would have come out years ago.
2
Enjoyed the piece Ms. Dowd. Women should stop wasting energy and renew the fight to control their body's and stop getting bogged down in the 'me too' waste of time. Until they remain in this abyss they will never get respect. I am past disappointment. I'm bored by this discussion.
1
Americans on election day unwittingly took a colonic. We are now undergoing a 4 year colonoscopy- resecting every nodule, lesion, and pre-cancerous cell. It has been extremely uncomfortable and will continue to be so, but if the procedure is successful, the patient will receive a clean bill of health. Time will tell.
It’s easy to be honest when you have the cover of a mob. There is no courage in Gillibrand’s kicking the Clintons when they are down. The time to show courage was in 1998. But then she would never have been a Senator and she knows it.
5
it is often said that sexual aggression by men is about power and not sex. That however is a projection by women, and the usual chorus of political correctness nodding in agreement.
Men and women are different from the get go. Women are born with all the eggs they will have in life; men go on producing sperm. Women are born with about 2 million eggs and lose 11,000 every month prior to puberty and have about 300,000 when they reach puberty.
This is part of the reason that youth is so innately valued by men in women. Evolution gave youthful women a lot of power with this biological fact. Supply and demand.
While some women are taught to hide their attractiveness (power), others are taught to use it and do.
For some men once women begin to trade off that power, they become in mens’ minds subject to negotiation. That is what you see going on with the ‘casting couch’ syndrome.
I don’t mean to excuse it but explain it. This is but one perceptive difference between some men and some women But it would help if the Times instead of exacerbating the scolding brought in some science and shed some light. Men should understand women, but women should also understand men.
Once that is done an evaluation of Bill Clinton whom I consider to be a great President and man, could be more productive.
2
You know, humans and chimpanzees share 98% of their DNA. So for me, the real surprise is not the misbehavior (Franken), and worse behavior (Trump, Moore, Weinstein etc) of powerful men, but the fact that they can control themselves so well, most of the time. We are complicated creatures with many primal drives that we strive mightily to control...we are all human.
A little more compassion seems in order for both the victims and perpetrators in these cases.
Franken spent his career as a grown-up teenager, throwing spitballs for a living. He has now evolved into a thoughtful Senator and has my respect for his current work. Trump and Moore are worse, in many ways, but mostly because of the great harm they have done and will do to the country. Clinton and GHW Bush for that matter served with distinction, and were no worse than JFK, LBJ, or most previous presidents.
Times have changed and what was ok 40 years ago is no longer ok. But 40 years or 400 years is not enough time to rewire our DNA or our brains. What each of these men have done is wrong (but not surprising), and should be seen that way.
3
It is unfortunate, or perhaps a tragedy (character flaw?) that Hillary Clinton never believed that she could advance her political career without Bill Clinton. Long ago she had to make a decision whether she would join him in Arkansas, or continue on her own path; a defining moment in her life that has dogged her ever since. We will never know who she could have become had she struck out on her own. Regardless, we've been, this Nation has been, deprived of a woman worthy of the Office and that is the tragedy. Instead an unqualified man, alleged sexual abuser of women, sits in the Oval office. Until more women are in positions of power, women will suffer discrimination, and abuse- at least now we're having a discussion and perhaps that will lead to the root cause; it's still a man's world where politics Trumps all else.
Spot on and right on!
The abuse is a social issue and has no common thread to political party preference.
What your missive also pulls together is just how terribly politicians and their minions have behaved. There is not a leadership bone in their body.
Wrong is wrong, no matter the political stripe.
What's more and what's very clear is that politicians have had more than a sorry record of dysfunctional legislative performance going for them, many are socially handicapped and morally corrupted.
It's more important to get re-elected than to do the right thing.
We need a constitutional convention to implement some tweaks and restore the power of the individual vote.
There should be less rich people running, more women and less money in campaigning and lobbying.
Thanks Maureen.
1
Excellent column, Ms. Dowd. It is still worth noting that the harshest and most intelligent criticism of Bill Clinton's behavior came not from conservatives from Ms. Dowd's memorable columns. Harassment is harassment is harassment. Period.
1
It has to come down to politics over personality. At this point I would support just about anyone who can help save health care, the environment, and restore fiscal sanity to our economic structure and respect abroad for our country. Someone who could end the decade-long wars and rebuild our infrastructure. The GOP is the most dangerous political party on the planet and they must be stopped. And I am beginning to think the ends may justify the means. Sexual harassment and gender equality is important, but you sure aren't gong to get any of that from the GOP. They will/have made bargains with the devil for their issues. It's time the Dems fight back and stop eating their own.
1
Many of us who supported the Clintons have a lot of explaining to do. In the 90s we were making a lot of money, the economy was humming along, and we were a little too quick to rationalize our responses to Clinton's accusers, and to dismiss what his alleged victims came forward to tell us about him as politically motivated. Moral and intellectual honesty dictate that if a woman comes forth with a revelation of sexual abuse, we must respond to her in the same way, whether she's a Democrat or a Republican and regardless of whether she chooses to tell her story in the New York Times or on Fox. Evidence is the only thing that matters, and Maureen Dowd has always done a good job of presenting the simple truth about Bill and Hillary Clinton, just as she has about George W. Bush and Donald Trump. We clearly need a new generation of leaders to rescue us.
Maureen you are spot on. It is all politics. These guys could care less who is doing what to whom. Forget the moralizing and chest beating, it is all politics. We all know the right thing to do, but it is all politics.
2
I had to vote for Hillary in 2016. When she lost, the matter of Bill's defects was moot. If she had won, Bill's defects would be reintroduced and I would be forced to propose that she divorce and disassociate herself as President from her "spouse," the father of Chelsea. She would probably refuse, but her presidency would be tainted just as his was. An ineffective Hillary would be better than an effective Trump, who must be brought down. The devil is in the details, and the details must be dealt with one at a time.
2
Leave Clinton and Hillary alone. He paid for his mistakes with impeachment. What else do you guys want? I really do not believe those women. Juanita changed her story. Paula Jones always lied and was the tool of the right and she was after money. This is good that all this is coming out but there is crime and punishment. There are even degrees of capital offense. Now everything is resign or else. Trump shouldn't resign for this. He even got elected in spite of the tape.
Kudos to Maureen Dowd for having the commonsense integrity to raise an unintended positive consequence of the 2016 Election outcome. This new purging of sexual harassment from US society should pave the way for a future 1st POTUS who just happens to be a woman, not because she is.
The Clinton's real victims were those of 9/11 - over 3000 of them. One can easily argue Bill is responsible for 9/11. For much of his second term the US did not have a president but a full time defendant. Who knows what other duties he neglected?
Wait a minute - Clinton's affair with Lewinsky was consensual. There was no question of abuse. Which of the recent scandals involves consensual behavior? Are we making a fair comparison here?
7
I am glad that we are having this national discussion, but what deeply concerns me, even as a woman, is the tendency to equalize the actions. We need to keep track of the lanes: affairs, assault, harassment, rape or just plain slimy politics.
Am I wrong in reminding Maureen that Monica was a participant in an affair? Was Bill slimy? Yes. But I do not think this equates with Trump's or Moore's assaults. The real assault on Ms. Lewinsky as Maureen describes was the political assault. Should Franken who apologized and is inviting an inquiry be treated the same as Trump who calls his accusers liars and threatens to sue them? Worse - Sanders equates Trump's denials to the truth concluding that Trump is innocent while Franken is guilty.
In the courts there are degrees of theft. Stealing a pack of gum from the store is not the same as stealing a car etc. Let's make every effort to not get to the point where a hand up someone's skirt is the same as an overzealous kiss during rehearsal.
Everything is politics, Ms. Dowd. You should know that. Al Franken’s single creepy behavior is now throughly a victim of the politics of false equivalences.
Yes, women can be victims of sexual predators, but that is not the majority of women’s experiences. It was never mine in an ambitious fifty-year career-life. And I was pretty cute. I used it. But I was never a victim — never — not even close. So all this sexual victimhood, which does exist, has come out as the political issue du jour because it’s a reaction to the predator-in-chief. We all feel the victim while he prances around the globe representing us. It’s one good way to express and not repress our rage.
Roy Moore is a law-breaking lawyer. That’s the issue that is being buried by our rage — a possible political tragedy.
3
Dems objected to Clarence Thomas only for political reasons? Seriously? Anita Hill said he sexually harassed her, but her claim was not believed and/or not taken seriously by most dems and republicans. Those who did believe her did not feel he belonged in the Supreme Court because of his behavior with Ms. Hill. Back then, the same thing would've happened if she had accused a liberal. What was primarily at play was devaluing women, in this case a woman, not party politics.
Irony and hypocrisy. The controlling forces of the civic, social and business interactions between and among people. The former is ever-present, yet cannot be scheduled; the latter a pre-requisite condition for anyone aspiring to national office and of course an innate quality of would-be social engineers, bible-thumping contortionists and lifers with tenure at liberal arts colleges. An interesting maxim is the more pernicious the hypocrisy, the more the resultant irony stings. Rest assured this unhappy revelation is numero uno table talk in a particular Chappaqua kitchen. Has she even been in that kitchen before? Well, plenty of time to bake those overlooked cookies and stand by your man, as there'll be no standing for office - all the hypocrisy is already taken.
1
I think we can all agree on one thing: The world would have been better off without either Bill or Hillary. There were plenty of other qualified Democrats, encumbered by less baggage, less rumor, who could have been standard-bearers and not lightning rods.
2
To imply that Clinton paved the way for Trump requires a pretty serious stretch of reality. What Clinton, Trump, Moore, Weinstein, Franken etc etc etc did was wrong. But they all each and every one of them did it on their own. They all did it because they chose hormonal urges over restraint. Yes they should all apologize and promise to keep those urges at bay. Men are indeed pigs by nature. It is in our DNA. Perhaps somewhere down the line via evolution men will be born with more naturally restrained hormonal urges. Until that time though these instances will always be lurking in the background. I am not attempting an excuse here, just making a legitimate observation. I see no value in apologizing for being born a man. I do however see value in fighting those urges in order to provide the opposite sex the respect and equal footing they deserve.
2
I believe Hillary Clinton would be president today had she not stood so fiercely with her husband and belittled the women he had affairs with including a near teenage intern. She jumped on the blame the victim bandwagon making it seem like she was protecting their political future rather than saving her marriage. The ultimate power imbalance is leader of the free world and a young intern yet Ms. Clinton had no trouble trying to ruin the credibility of Ms. Lewinsky and her teenage crush.
That dragged-out investigation following their half-truths and obfuscation led to her circling the wagons and parsing answers to questions giving her the appearance of a credibility gap. Mr. Clinton sexually harassed many women over the years and even though it was supposedly consensual his position of power crossed that line. Ms. Clinton may have lambasted him in private but in public the female victims were the enemy.
For many people she never regained trust. Faced with Donald Trump's disgusting remarks she had to be careful with her responses to not open old wounds. Some chose to overlook her standing by her man and not the victims in their quest to put a woman in the White House just as some Alabamans are overlooking Mr. Moore's despicable behavior in order to get a Conservative in the Senate.
So much pent up feelings of resentment and shame for decades are now pouring out. Perhaps had Ms. Clinton made a stronger stand back then she would have been less vulnerable and president now.
2
I voted for Bill Clinton. Twice. But he demeaned women and he demeaned his presidency long before there was an uproar about Donald Trump doing the same. Bill Clinton blazed a path in a grotesque spectacle of televised semen stains and lies.
Maureen Dowd's column correctly addresses the political partisanship of sexual misconduct allegations. As a woman and an assaulted one, I'm tired of it: nothing will improve until the behavior of the powerful improves and the behavior of the powerful will not change until people stop pardoning their guy - whoever he is.
People interpret this as an unfair attack on the Clinton couple, apparently ignoring that the behavior of both Bill and HIllary in the nineties is a big reason why many of us who should have backed her could not.
Critics should focus on the scourge of sexual misconduct and address it when it occurs. Feminists gave the Clintons a pass they should never have received and complaints about mentioning it now only show that Democrats are still not clear-eyed about why their candidate failed.
Focus on the conduct and work for ways to ensure it doesn't happen, but take off the blinders: sexual misconduct is now and has always been bipartisan. Thats largely of why Donald Trump's Access Hollywood video was so easily ignored.
2
I look forward to Tweeden’s testimony under oath. It won’t happen. All of this stuff with Frankin evaporates after December 12.
1
Here's a thought. Stop being distracted by red herrings and start paying more attention to all of us women who are victims of sexual assault and sexism of all kinds in all walks of life at all ages and less attention to the status of only a handful of wealthy upper class high powered perpetrators in Washington and Hollywood. Then we might see our democratic society for what it is: misogynist and patriarchal at its core. And then, maybe, something might change.
PostScript: Why would a powerful woman dependent on the power she has over an exceptional leader controlling other powerful and wealthy men want female competitors for him? Why would she want to risk losing her control over him to the snares of other women just as ruthless as herself: Women using their sexuality at every opportunity to take her man from her?
Feminists need to face reality: the sex drive of both genders, as it is competitive—- as in love, so we are in war —- is much stronger than the political movement for gender equality. As the sociologist Fatima Mernissi once remarked, all the Islamic radical societies that enshrined female political equality in law also affirmed gender inequality traditions and cultural norms that nullified that legal equality. The same thing happened in Europe and the democratic republics of the Americas, Asia, and the Pacific island nations. The sex drive in men and women is about species survival, not social or gender equality or, I’m afraid, a woman’s or a man’s choice in the matter.
I’m struck by the absolute uproar over Franken’s behavior—essentially 2 incidents with one woman, and one of those incidents was clearly a prank (however dumb and sexist). Which underlined for me what I’d already been thinking: that Franken, with his TV history, could well have been the Dems’ strongest opponent to Trump in the 2020 election (assuming Trump survives until then). The fact that Franken’s indiscretions (rather than another congressman’s) were exposed suggests to me that Tweeden might’ve been motivated by more than a desire to out another high-profile predator. Dowd fails to take that into consideration.
3
Tweeden, whose income is apparently based upon her ability to sexually titillate, can frequently be seen in the pages and on the cover of Playboy. She can also be frequently seen guesting on Sean Hannity's program.
No wonder Al Franken invited--nay, demanded--an ethics investigation. This isn't a sex scandal, it's a Fox News marketing stunt.
2
Bill's woman problems negated Trump's (political algebraic formula). I agree we should take politics out of the equation and stop going after the victims.That said, women should get better at reading men intentions. Advice from my deceased Irish Catholic mother, if a man invites you up to his hotel room, expect that they are interested in only one thing. She was schooled by nuns.
2
Funny how the author focuses on the one thing that was not offensive: Clinton having sex with a very, very willing adult female.
How about rape and sexual assault? How about perjury?
13
Difficult to say who is the most obsessed with the Clintons, Dowd or Trump?
22
Brilliant
4
99% of all sex scandals are liberals, why we should start calling them the 99%.
2
Maureen,
You claim to be a progressive but take every shot at Hillary you can. Your constant bashing of a great Secretary of State and long time public servant surely helped get Donald Trump elected.
I️ find it very distasteful how you can go to such a stretch to constantly belittle her in light of Trumps obvious corrupt behavior.
Michael Schnappauf
Dallas Texas
20
Maureen Dowd has made a career bashing Hillary. Of course she mentions Harvey Weinstein in trying to tie Hillary to his depredations toward women. Hillary is responsible for everything. Ok. Is that better? But isn't it ironic that the same misogyny that undergirds sexual assault is the same reason we have an incompetent megalomaniac as president instead of a flawed but highly competent woman?
19
"But hopefully this public trial, which is bringing to the dock men on both sides of the aisle, is too momentous to be diminished by politics."
That's rich coming from Maureen Dowd, who is politics personified. Do you charm me? (George HW Bush, Donald Trump) Then I, Maureen Dowd, approve you with my pen. Do you ignore me? (Barack Obama) See this keyboard? It will haunt you until you die. Like Glenn Close said in Fatal Attraction: I WILL NOT BE IGNORED!
There's a lesson to be learned here about enablers of leaders who personify dictatorship/cult worship, created though careful & twisted control of citizen information. This is Nov. 18, 2017. On Nov. 18, 1978, the Rev. Jim Jones exhorted 909 Americans to their deaths in Jonestown, Guyana. (Most by suicide; those who did not commit suicide voluntarily were either forced to drink the cyanide liquid - there were 300+ minors in Jonestown - or shot.)
Rep. Leo Ryan D-CA, who had flown to Guyana to check on his constituents, was the first member of Congress since 1868 to be killed in office; he was shot by Jones' militia - who then went back and killed themselves; Ryan's party brought total dead to 918. Until 9/11/01 it was the most American civilians who died in one incident.
Current Congresswoman Jackie Speier, D-CA, who was then counsel to Leo Ryan, was shot but survived. From 2015: https://www.rollcall.com/news/jonestown-murders-jackie-speier-37-years
Have we learned our lesson about trusting "I Will Fix It"? It seems not.
4
Bill was a victim of the predator Lewinsky. The ole horn dog didn't have a chance. Or maybe it was a vast right wing conspiracy. Or maybe it was a Utube video. Is that Utube guy still in jail?
3
“... Because I felt, with Obama in the White House, I could just take for granted that good people were in charge.”
All due respect... ya Obama was and is a good family man - but if I recall, the big donor Weinstein was part of that Democratic cabal... If Hillary would have been elected, my bet is Harvey would be such a big shot that women would have been absolutely terrified to speak up. Nice try, Maureen but you hypocrisy is showing.
2
The big difference is that even Michelle Goldberg has already said that Bill Clinton is not simply a sexual abuser but a rapist. Just think of that distinction.
4
Maureen is back to beating a dead horse.
What is really pertinent and now of some import is giving us more of Moore.
Also to be throw in should be a goodly amount of reportage and commentary on the Groper-in-Chief - another personality of the present moment.
The names change but the essential problem still exists - sadly enough.
Will they and all their predatory ilk ever grow up and exercise some decency toward the better half of humanity.
One can only wonder.
3
"First, with Clarence Thomas, a feminist lynch mob tried to kill off a conservative Supreme Court nominee over sex when the real reason they wanted to get rid of him was politics."
No, Maureen. Not "over sex." Over SEXUAL HARASSMENT.
Crucial difference. You really shouldn't be opining until you learn it.
17
Before Bill Clinton, there was:
Clarence Thomas
&
Anita Hill
Oh, and let's not forget Sen Orrin Hatch's weird preoccupation with "pubic hair on a Coke can" and "Long Dong Silver"
Read this article about the GOP's take down of Ms. Hill:
http://www.nytimes.com/1991/10/13/us/thomas-nomination-judge-s-backers-t...
So let's dredge all this back up while we're at it.
5
It's all Hillary's fault. Isn't that what Dowd's been saying for the past 25 years? Of course with Dowd saying that a "feminist lynch mob" tried to kill off a conservative SCOTUS nominee, Dowd's true colors finally burst forth. She's a Trumpian Republican. Democrat bad, Republican good. No. Matter. What.
11
Ms. Dowd,
You are nonsensically opening up a box of pandoras. Why stop with Bill Clinton? Why not segue into Thomas Jefferson---he too faced political acrimony for his alleged attempts to seduce the wife of his friend, John Walker? Sally Hemmings, the slave who gave Jefferson at least five children should also be given her due.
Are we to believe that you, Ms. Dowd with all of your well wired connections amongst America's political elites only know of Bill Clinton's harassing behavior? Senator Packwood comes to mind. Of course, Hillary Clinton has every right to speak out, she's apparently pardoned her husband and hushed up the Arkansas class of women with money--but is it the right thing for her to comment on?
Hillary post election is once again proving how she lacks political acumen: "vast right-wing conspiracy" no, actually Bill was fooling around---in the Oval Office! "Basket of deplorables" no, just people razzed up by Russian propaganda.
If Clinton had resigned would Gore have won the presidency, outright? Perhaps not. What we do know is that in Gore's presidential campaign, he lost the critical state of Tennessee, the state both he and has father spent decades representing. Winning Tennessee would have made the chicanery of the Florida recount/no recount and US Supreme Court ballot box stuffing a useless formality. Perhaps it was the "Clinton Effect" or the ineffectual Donna Brazile's campaign, "Strategery" that actually sunk Gore? Perhaps both.
2
Dowd can't stop. All roads lead back to Hillary it seems.
Speculating about the Clintons is a complete waste of time when we have an infant in the White House who loves to keep the world on edge.
Collaborators deflect.
12
At last! I've been waiting 17 years for the New York Times to publish this simple yet powerful fact:
"Time and again, Hillary was a party to demonizing women as liars, bimbos, trailer trash or troubled souls when it seemed clear they were truthful about her philandering husband. She often justified this by thinking of the women as instruments of the right-wing conspiracy."
What a horrific role model for young women coming up: Take on the mantle of Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton while simultaneously attacking your own husband's rape and sexual assault victims. It's all there now for all of us to see. Revolting!
(No, I didn't vote for Trump either last November.)
4
I wanted to thank the commenters.
I dreaded reading this column by a woman filled with horrendous contempt of the Clintons and “Barry” that has boiled over in Mo’s writing.
I simply had to read your comments to get the gist.
Thank you! I just could NOT read another column bashing these people!
12
If you'll recall, Ms Dowd, it was Hillary Clinton's main job to stop these "bimbo eruptions" from ever seeing the light of day.
Maureen Dowd should be grateful that the Clintons refuse to leave the building because their notoriety is the gift that keeps on giving.
2
I think that if it wasn't for the Clintons, Maureen Dowd would cease to exist. Imagine her panic at the thought that they will not live forever. I happen to be one of those liberals who now thinks that President Clinton should have resigned. But I will never experience Ms. Dowd's unreasoning, brain-freezing, foam-flecked hatred of Bill and Hillary Clinton. And for that, I count myself lucky.
8
Memo to Maureen: Your Clinton rage is so past millennium. It's 2017. the Clintons are political dead meat. They're irrelevant. Stop embarrassing yourself by bringing them up for the millionth time. It's boring. Try focusing on the monster now in the WH. There is plenty to focus on there. The threat to the survival of the Constitution, our nation, and indeed the planet is real and immediate.
17
What, no "NYT Picks" for this column? And why is that? Because you'd need to side with the now hundreds of readers who are agreeing that the staggering point in this column is that Ms Dowd clearly owes Ms Hill an apology?
9
Maureen, By ingrained habit I click on your op-ed column and then regret doing so. You are so fixated on Hillary. What has the poor woman done to you? What has her husband ever done to you? You walk in a mine field full of very real and current threats: Tillerson, Richards, Zinke, Pruitt, Sessions, the entire executive branch, collusion, the abandonment of Puerto Rico. You could even weigh in on the current first lady and her accomplishments. I don't care but unless you put out a notice of forever leaving the Clintons to their old age I will not be clicking on your op-ed even when you are feeling sorry for yourself and writing while sitting alone in a Paris café.
13
Mo's back! 24/7 Clinton hate is her specialty. Time to retire the old nag who promoted Trump's candidacy like a carnival barker.
16
The worse thing about this is that you all are wearing it out. You too Maureen Dowd. I hate Hillary more than you do, but must you drag her sorry carcass into this to make your own, kind of oblique, point?
Sexual harassment is serious, it should be treated seriously, and there should be a prohibition on any columnist, talking head, politician or media outlet writing or talking about SH until January 2018. On pain of death. Except perhaps in the case of Judge Roy Moore, so we can find out if he actually scored with any of the high school girls he pursued. I guess that scotches the whole thing, huh.
1
You have no business commenting on the Clintons when your dislike for them has laced your editorials for years. I hardly think you should be given the opportunity to comment on them as if you are some kind of unbiased observer.
I find it shocking that you refer to the "Clinton Throne" but overlook the obvious hat she would have made a ten times more credible and concerned citizen even for conservative Catholics reliving the 19th century like you
11
Your vitriol, bordering on envy, of Hillary is what got us Trump. So thanks.
6
During the Monica Lewinsky scandal, Hillary Clinton might very well have won the presidency (twice), if she had stood up, thrown her lying, cheating, two-timing, mean-spirited, serial sexual offender, home-wrecking loser of a husband out of White House, and tossed his baggage onto the South Lawn after him.
But Hillary didn't.
Imagine what effect such and action would have had for the power of womanhood all over the world, and to Hillary Clinton's then professed support of family values.
But Hillary didn't.
Hillary chose to play the long-suffering little woman card. And look what it got her. Standing before the ballot box, people remembered Hillary Clinton's act of retreat, her lack of character and honor, and the act of a shrinking coward, in the face of the President of the United States' affront to, and abuse of, all of womanhood -- including Hillary's.
She couldn't deal with her problems then. So, what is she dealing with now? If you can't beat the master, do you beat the master's dog? In this case President Donald Trump?
The same question can be asked of all of these accusers. Because here we are, all these years, and years, and years later, with Hillary, friends, supporters, and fellow accusers, standing before the world as some kind of beacon of feminine sexual propriety. And people are wondering -- did Hillary Clinton smoke that cigar or what? And what are all these other women smoking? Justice? Or just the promise of a big pay day?
1
If Bill Clinton were ever to run for public office again, these faux feminists, including Dowd, would climb over each others' backs to vote for him.
1
Dowd's continual obsession with Hillary - she may be worse than Trump in that regard - continues to do damage. Maybe she has self loathing like many of the women who voted for Trump over an eminently qualified woman. The facts are that Bill Clinton did not force himself on any of the women he had "affairs" with - including Lewinsky. They were all willing participants... not the same with Ray Moore and the sex predator in chief.
4
Please Maureen whenever you feel like writing about the Clintons just Stop. Just Stop.
5
Unbelievable. A sexual predator is in the White House and all we can do is talk about the man who was president 20 years ago.
4
"Because I felt, with Obama in the White House, I could just take for granted that good people were in charge.” Really? You mean, like Eric Holder's "Fast and Furious", tapping AP reporters phones, targeting Fox News James Rosen, dropping lawsuit against Black Panthers, injecting himself into the Mike Brown case, where the grand jury clearly showed 'Big Mike' tried to kill officer Wilson, as opposed to the media's desperate attempt to play it up as an innocent victim with his hands up, shot by police? Or maybe you mean Obama's Lois Lerner's targeting of conservatives by the IRS, to which Obama claimed there was not a 'smidgen of evidence', yet Lerner plead the Fifth and resigned from office rather than testify before Congress...you know, like all innocent people do. Or maybe you mean the VA's handling of patients under Obama, where countless veterans died while waiting for care, which was covered up. Or maybe you are referring to those fine people like Susan Rice, who was sent out by Obama and his underlings to lie that the Benghazi incident was due to a video, so Obama could save face with his previous lies about Al Quada being on the run. Or maybe you are thinking about good people like Hillary Clinton, who lied to the faces of those killed in Benghazi that it was a video that caused the violence, and then testified that it 'wasn't her that was lying', when the families of the slain soldiers said she had told them just that.
7
Thank you for bringing a fresh breath of reality to the NYT pages.
You Dem's started this disaster with celebrating 'Camelot' and turning a blind eye to JFK's turning the White House into a brothel.
Followed by that 'Lion' of a predator Ted Kennedy and the death of his secretary, and the 'traditional' Easter vacation with allegations of sexual impropriety.
And then with Bill Clinton, who sexually entertained his unpaid intern in the oval office-and then dismissed her. And the allegation of rape.
Sorry, but you cannot put the genie back into the bottle because of Trump. Yeah, his actions were beyond horrible, and yet the people selected him instead of Hillary.
4
Poor Maureen Dowd: We only read the NYTIMES Comments and not Herself's column.
6
Why do we always make things more than they are? Monica Lewinsky was a willing player in a demeaning relationship. She knew what she was doing was wrong on so many levels, and chose to play along, flattered by the attention. He being the unredeemable good ole boy that he was, was just doing what good ole boys do. But this time he got caught, bringing shame and embarrassment to himself, the office he held, and his family. Ah, but there is the argument it is only sex...a human satisfaction that when left unchecked gets messy but in the end means little.
The current rave of good ole boys getting caught has us stuttering. Maybe we have learned enough to evaluate each for what it was, condemning those who need to be condemned for criminal behavior and shaking a finger or two at those who were just good ole boys doing stupid things. Lets hope we can shame all of them into changing bad behavior as old as the world.
1
It's odd and disappointing to see where Ms. Dowd directs her attention when a mall-craving pedophile is in contention for Alabama senator. And during the #metoo movement, no less. I guess a lazy retread article of her musty old Clinton complaints is easier to write, but it sorely misses the moment. Sigh. Ms. Dowd, please see things for way they are and write fearlessly and with the fiery inspiration and cleverest turns of phrase that always you invoke in your truer writing. Moore and McConnell are ripe targets in 2017, no?
1
What?!
Anita Hill was a "feminist lynch mob" going after Clarence Thomas? Thomas was the victim? Hill made her accusations just because she disagreed with Thomas' politics?
Dowd is now the queen of "alternative facts".
4
The new reason we were against Clarence Thomas was that he was a liar and a sleaze bag. And that is why he was unfit for the court. I’m a big fan of Dowd’s but that sentence was even for her too glib
3
These days, in light of the redundancy of the content, I tend to skip Dowd's column and go directly to the comments. Seems like I again made the right choice.
3
I am not for smashing Hillary, Bill, Trump, or whomever as if they are the epitome of all the world's ills --depending on who is speaking and pointing the finger.
May I suggest we all look in a mirror at our own sins, of if that word is too strong for some to use, try mistakes. We need to take the mote out of our own eyes.
This selfrightousness is destroying our nation.
2
As I recall, Ms. Dowd, Hillary' main job during her husband's presidency was to prevent all those ugly stories about his past sex scandals tightly bottled up so the mainstream media would never find out. Hillary's having to run interference to keep Bill in the White House inadvertently added a new phrase to our 1990's vocabulary--bimbo eruptions.
Unfortunately, that genie escaped from the bottle a long time ago. We all know about Bill's indiscreet behavior with Monica, Paula, Gennifer, and Juanita. Nothing new to see here. It's sad that the snooty pundits like Maureen Dowd just can't let the Clintons go because they have been great for her career. Without Bill and Hillary Maureen Dowd wouldn't have anything to write about on Sundays.
Yes, Maureen. Thank God Trump is president. Praise Jesus! Praise Putin!
2
You write "Hillary was a party to demonizing women as liars, bimbos, trailer trash or troubled souls."
Is this true? I don't know. How about some references to when & where she engaged in this behavior. I know "everybody already" believes this. Sometimes "everybody" is wrong.
1
"Hillary, Bill's enabler" !! In what way ?
The fact the fact that the Democrats and their media friends are turning on the despicable Clinton team is only because they are toast. Easier to throw them aside claiming the righteous road. They are done; better to toss them away then allow the real story that Obama endorsed the corruption and deceit the she brought to his lawless regime.
The hypocrisy of the left is unending; if Clinton had won (thankfully America rejected her lies and corruption) none of these stories would have surfaced. Weinstein and Clinton were hitched together, just like Obama and Weinstein were hitched. Spacey, Franken, Biden, Menendez (why hasn't the NYT published the transcripts from the trial...Menedez liked the youngest ones?) and the others. Once President Trump tweeted his disgust with Franken's assault, the media immediately changes the story as anti-Trump.
Clinton was and is a serial predator. Hillary Clinton was one too, accepting his assaults as long as it helped her politically. The media endorsed it and supported it.
Including you Ms. Dowd. You defended Bubba blindly even parroting the liberal line "it's just about sex". Mea culpa ahead? Or is this it?
3
Mo has got her mojo back. And her Clinton Derangement Syndrome hasn't lost one scintilla of its unhealthy fixation.
Get over yourselves ,liberals... You lost the election, Trump is the POTUS..Quit stomping your feet and holding your breath
4
Haven't read Dowdy for many months. Same old schtick...strobe-light of random thoughts adding up to zero. BTW....there ended up being zero evidence of Trump being a "predator", even the Billy hot-mic quote was we CAN grab em by the...". NYT probably had 10 reporters on the case for a year, never found anything. BJClinton, however, did something 1000x worse than personal adultery. He was guilty of the worst type of workplace sexual assault, in OUR Oval office, while on OUR payroll, when should have been working for US. BTW, NewYorkers, when he vetoed the repeal of the AMT , it cost us tax payers a boatload of money over the last 20 years. Thx Bill!
At least now we have chance to MAGA !!!
1
Oh Dowd could not wait to write this column about Hillary !
Her long standing grudge or is it jealousy we know she is thrilled that Hillary have lost.
Should n`t be this be about predator in chief trump ?
But this was her one time friend and Dowd will always give him a pass.
1
"First, with Clarence Thomas, a feminist lynch mob tried to kill off a conservative Supreme Court nominee over sex . . ." Nope. It wasn't sex. It was sexual harassment. On the other hand, the Clinton/Lewinsky affair was sex. And the affair was initiated by Monica when she flashed Bill her thong panties in the White House after telling her friends she was determined to have sex with him.
Does Maureen Dowd really not understand the difference between sex and sexual harassment?
Oh god, Maureen is still obsessively spewing hatred at the Clintons. Sigh. And no, feminists were upset that Clarence Thomas was confirmed to the Supreme Court because we believed Anita Hill and thought he was a sexual harasser. It had nothing to do with politics.
You were and are just another Clinton enabler.
"with Obama in the White House, I could just take for granted that good people were in charge."
How can anyone say something so stupid ? the Obama administration was "THE" most corrupt administration in our history. he was our worst president who should have been impeached and JAILED. this still should happen even tho he is not in office. between the lying ,political espionage ,the spying on an opposition party during a presidential election ,the jailing of people that he disagreed with for political reasons. never the mind the damage the man did to the USA around the world . he opened up old wounds and rubbed salt in them to take the focus of himself and his horrible record as president. anyone who still tyries to defend this guy is either an idiot of a brainwashed ideologue who is totally dishonest. make no mistake about it ,Obama and a lot of the members of his admin should be in prison right now.
3
My God, get over it. It has been a year now since Clinton lost. She will never be president, and her husband is a serial molester. And she should be in federal prison. If you truly feel like there is on one "good" in the White House you are truly delusional.
3
Maureen should start writing for Bannon.
4
The Clinton Machine is history, it should of been history before it started. Bill Clinton is a "rapist" and Hillary hid the truth. Now everyone one knows.
2
I was looking forward to Maureen Dowd's column this week and disappointed to see it's another of her Hillary hating diatribes.
1
Did I just wake up from a 15 year old sleep? No, wait, the Sunday price of the paper is still $5. I just thought I slept for 15 years because Maureen Dowd is still saying things like:
"Time and again, Hillary was a party to demonizing women as liars, bimbos, trailer trash or troubled souls when it seemed clear they were truthful about her philandering husband. She often justified this by thinking of the women as instruments of the right-wing conspiracy."
You know, the typical paragraph filled with lies.
Dems, liberals, progressives, feminists better be careful. Lumping all transgressions between the sexes into the category of sexual assault will work against them, and against all women in general, as men will look to avoid them lest a sloppy kiss become a criminal complaint and a ruined career.
Leeann Tweeden was in no way sexually assaulted. She agreed to perform with known bawdy people in a skit that required a kiss, then complained about bad acting equating it to sucking on a plutonium lollipop.
We do not know yet if, as rumored, she was "in" on the infamous photo and not really asleep. Besides, how can anyone grab another person anywhere when that person is wearing a suit of body armor?
1
"with Clarence Thomas, a feminist lynch mob tried to kill off a conservative Supreme Court nominee over sex when the real reason they wanted to get rid of him was politics."
Mmmmm, no. The reason was he was a perv.
2
I knew Maureen would make this about Hillary.
2
Only one person had the right to question Bill about consensual sex with an adult - Hillary.
Not Congress. Not the NYT, Not FOX Fairy Tales, Hillary. Only Hillary.
Impeach him for having picked his nose too while you're at it.
2
Who appointed Ms. Dowd to be judge and jury of people like Weinstein and Spacey? Now Clinton. It is just wrong to convict people in the press. The Times should restrain their writers.
right on cue Dowd trahs Hllary Clinton for the umpteenth time.
She is just boring.
no one worked harder to put the Predator Trump in the White House.
Can't wait for Maureen to endorse Roy Moore
The Times has always had it in for the Clintons from going to bed
with Breitbart/Clinton Cash and demanding the Clinton Foundation
be shut down and not uttering a peep about Trump's bogus
charity that violated the "self dealing" provisions of the law
Facts aren't Ms. Dowd's thing.
2
Here we go again with the Clinton bashing. Guess the fingers started itching again. Maureen Fox is calling. Also Kristen has just lost my vote, if she ever decides to run for higher office. I don’t approve of witch hunts. Whether they’re against commies or anyone else. As a Catholic, don’t you have enough sex stories to write about. Just when I thought Maureen was becoming decent. Oh well, no new spots for this leopard.
1
Haven't you flogged the Clintons enough?
And when did Al Franken sexually assault Ms. Tweeden? That goofy public hand-hovering gag photo doesn't qualify. I read the apology and listened to her "The View" interview. What Franken did was juvenile but there was no sexual assault described. Did I miss something?
Or is Ms. Dowd stirring the pot with selective out-of-context quotes again?
1
Oh god, Maureen still hasn't gotten over her unbridled hatred of the Clintons. And no, the reason women were upset about Clarence Thomas was because he clearly sexually harassed Anita Thomas and then was rewarded with a seat on the Supreme Court, while she was ignored and humiliated.
2
Doesn’t Maureen Dowd have an editor? Or a friend who will explain that the world has moved on from the Clintons?
It’s 2017, time to find another carcass to gnaw on. There are plenty other fetid corpses in Washington to provide nourishment.
4
The problem here, as always, is that the Clinton apologists always come out in full force, particularly here in the Times, and thus continue to undermine the real reason that the Democrats lost, popular vote notwithstanding.
Obviously, all sexual harassment, not to mention abuse, is reprehensible and unacceptable no matter party affiliation, and it needs to roundly condemned. With respect to Monica Lewinsky, there is no "consent" when the woman is a college intern, and the man is the most powerful man in the world.
Donald Trump is a nightmare by any measure. He is clearly and admittedly an abuser. It's a disgrace that he's president, for myriad reasons. Period. But Hilary Clinton was a flawed candidate, with no moral authority, precisely because she acquiesced in Bill's behavior, with the bankrupt "nuts and sluts" accusations. She needed to go after Trump with full force on the harassment accusations and she couldn't, because of the cries of hypocrisy it would have generated.
Yes, Hillary might have been a competent president. She certainly would not have driven civilization off a cliff like Trump is ostensibly succeeding in doing. But her defenders still fail to acknowledge that ultimately neither Hillary nor the Democrats spoke to the middle and working classes in any meaningful way, and that's why they lost. And that has not changed in any material way since the election.
2
Ah Mo is returning to the lane she’s felt most comfortable in for decades; bashing the Clintons.
In Mo world everything political revolves around her bitter disappointment that Bill was prez and Hill almost got there.
I guess the pedophile that’s about to be elected by the good folks in Sweet Home Alabamie can be blamed on the Clintons too.
It must be nice to live in a world that can be so easily explained.
3
The well circulated photo of Harvey Weinstein flanked by Hillary and Huma tells the story more accurately. A predator supported by two "strong women" who are both married to predators!
Gee, I was hoping you'd make lots of snide comments about the tax break for golf course owners. Instead, trashing the Clintons once again. Ugh.
1
You women don't get it. And you should quit the piling on bigly now. It is hurting you and me.
Men like >SEX,and women are required to have >it. WE harass you (your definition) because we want to have sex with you.
Some will say Yes and some will say No.
I would say be glad we ask you,one day no one will ask.
If you cannot stand up in your own 2 shoes? Get better. We still want you till we kick off.
Mareen: still goofy after all these years.
Why exactly did Ms. Dowd feel that she needed to take one more swipe at Barack Obama by mentioning his hug of Harvey Weinstein? Does she believe that Obama knew that Weinstein was a sexual predator? If she thinks that, she should say it. Otherwise it’s just disrespectful and obnoxious.
1
Prior to the election I was talking to a girlfriend who had experienced a rape as a young woman. In spite of the video and the accusations, she was still voting for Trump. All of the women who are saying believe me about Moore, also voted for Trump. And yes, women voted for B. Clinton.
Trump also praised torture and killing of civilians and admired Putin while Putin was bombing schools and hospitals. Trump ran a racist campaign. Even without the bus tape, voters could already make up their minds about the man. Trump will never get the respect he craves. That is his price for the tape.
The difference the tape made to our conversations is that it created rallying call for Jan 21. Women marched around with vaginas. It was crazy but making unmentionable body parts mentionable gives women the rights to own their bodies.
"feelings of frustration and disgust at having an accused predator in the White House instead of the first woman president had helped give the story velocity." Um, HILLARY ENABLED A SEXUAL PREDATOR TO LIVE IN THE WHITE HOUSE! And that was decades ago. This story only took off because once Hillary did not become president, the shameless leftists in the press corps no longer need to overlook the behavior of her husband. Secondly, who accused Trump of being a predator? He is accused of saying some raunchy things to a dude about sex with women, and that is about it. Women accused a sitting president of rape once in the past and the same press corps who love this story now yawned and said there's no story here, and these women are lying. NYT is an absolute joke.
1
Maureen,
The venom about Hillary will never end.
The Right continues the false equivalence of the agregious child and women molestors they have elected and want to elect. Lets not let them get away with it. Chris Christie just voted to uphold a child rape law that allows to the rapist and pedophile to get away with it by "marrying: the child!
Funny article. It tries to make Hillary out to be some victim, or some women's heroine... when she actually waged war on the women ol' Bill raped.
So Ms. Dowd. How will you use your megaphone? Surely you know stuff.....
3
Gee Mo, if HRC does indeed fade into grandmother hood, what will come of your career?
8
Maureen, it's November of 2017 . . . a sexual predator is in the Oval Office illegitimately and the Republicans have nominated another sexual predator for U.S. Senate . . . thinking Americans don't have time to participate in your favorite pastime, attacking the Clintons.
18
Bill Clinton caused GW Bush
who caused Barack Obama
who caused Donald Trump
5
Yawwwn . . . another Dowd polemic on the problems with Hillary. As the nation swirls around the drain leading to the Trump cesspool, Ms Dowd’s focus remains blissfully in the 1990s. Is there a step-program for Clinton-dependency? Perhaps an exorcism that would free the readers of The Times’ opinion pages of this pernicious possession?
12
Come back Barrack!
5
This entire debate is part and parcel of why Hillary lost in 2016. The Clinton's are slimy, going all the way back to Arkansas, they have been slimy. They are as narcissistic and self entitled as Trump, its just that they are smarter than him (not hard to do) and more subtle (also not hard to do). Even when their die hard fans jump to their defense, they have to do that dance over and over, because the Clinton's cannot play anything straight. They are always trying some dodge, or way to line their pockets, or trading for favors, and pushing or going over the line when they do.
The tragedy is, they are both smart, dedicated people, who if they had followed the rules, would have been among our best and brightest. As it is, even their best accomplishments will come with an (*) denoting that they have been compromised. Such a pity, all the more so because it was entirely self inflicted.
2
How disengenous to think otherwise, Ms. Dowd.
Now think back and recall all the armwaving liberal exculpations back when Bill got caught with his cigar in the wrong place. Why I recall reading and hearing: "Boys will be boys," and all that sort of wink-wink stuff.
Trump didn't get caught, yet, with his pants down or zipper open when it shouldn't be, but his crude mouth has rightfully re-quouted a million or more times. What did it take to waken the sleeping libs? Why another bunch of their own where their fingers didn't belong. But prudently self-serving at heart, a Senator among them called for an investigation of everyone.....in the hope, one suspects, of saving his own career by helping poiint at all the others, irrespective of party.
I seem to remember a Jewish prophet once stopping a stoning of an errant woman by writing in the sand the names of all the sinners who would stone her. The sad part is how long this writing of names took this time.
2
Let's be clear on one critical point: It has been Trump's own admissions to wrongdoing (sorry, Sarah) that have prompted the majority of his accusers to speak out. It's a mighty cold day on the Ponderosa when anyone agrees that Trump is being truthful, but it's his bragging of committing sexual assault that has brought forth more corroborators than has any other issue.
Whether it was his admitting to kissing women without their permission and grabbing their privates or boasting of walking into the dressing rooms of beauty contestants, once his OWN WORDS were made public, his victims said, 'Yes, he's telling the truth, he did that to me". And then he promptly called them all liars.
3
As Democrats often do, Dowd is generalizing events in the hopes of using the "Everyone Does It" defense.
Going back to Anita Hill, her testimony was proved to be all lies. The Democrats did not want a black originalist on the Supreme Court, so they needed someone to make these allegations about Thomas and Hill was "nutty and slutty" enough to sell her soul for the cause. It was 100% political and fraudulent. The Clinton women were 100% actual victims. Worse, their cases came to light at the exact same time that Clinton's defenders were demanding Army instructors at the Aberdeen Proving Grounds be charged with rape for having consensual sex with their students under the belief that consensual sex is impossible with someone who has that much influence over your career... yet they saw no such conflict between a President and a White House intern.
She also wants to equate allegations against Judge Moore with hard evidence against Al Franken. The only piece of "evidence" against Moore is a yearbook signing that has now been proven fake, and the evidence against Franken is clear and damning, yet Dowd wants us to again see both cases as the same. No, once again... one is a political hit job and the other is a case of sexual assault.
2
Ms. Dowd still trying to explain why it was all right for her to smear Hillary and help give the White House to Trump. I wonder how many martinis Ms. Dowd has each evening to assuage her guilt?
4
Maybe its a better idea to subscribe to the Washington Post so as to not have to listen to these revisionist history hack jobs by Dowd week after week. We understand that you don't have the insight to really talk about policy but what is clear you also aren't the one to join Ross in your weekly moral preening as you attack the Clintons until their death and will do so after that. Bill Clinton did more for the world one day in Dayton than you will with the sum total of your dated rants.
2
Hillary lost Ms. Dowd. Let it go already.
8
I'm not sure on what basis Maureen Dowd is given space and cash to write her bizarre so-inside-she's-outside "insights." This entire article is pointless, twisting everything to make it political, because she seems incapable of seeing people as anything more than characters in House of Cards. It must be nice to be the only one with integrity with countless fingers to point at everyone around her. Sheesh.
2
Does anyone believe Ms Tweeden slept through having her breasts groped?
5
Dowd's column adheres to the high ethical standards of Ken Starr.
Dowd says that Clinton lied when Starr's deposition asked him if he had had a "sexual relationship" with Monica. Starr did not ask that. Starr asked if Bill Clinton had "sex with" Monica. In US courts "sex with" has a precise meaning -- intercourse. Bill Clinton did not engage in sexual intercourse with Monica Lewinsky.
Was Bill Clinton obligated under the law to volunteer that he received fellatio from Monica Lewinsky? No. That's not the law.
The deposition was a perjury trap. ANY answers given by Clinton and NO answers at all given by Clinton and anything and everything in between could be construed to be less than the WHOLE TRUTH. That's why the manner in which Clinton was deposed is called a perjury trap.
31
Your loathing of Clinton is evident, bewildering and long past tiresome.
69
Dear Ms. Dowd, I’ll begin to take your blistering Op-Ed bashing of the Clintons seriously when you have used as much of your poison pen’s ink to lay bare the sexual misconduct and abuse of our current President.
55
"Snidely Whiplash" Dowd once again tying Hillary to the railroad tracks and taking a poke at Obama "Do Right". Where is the Maureen of yesteryear who's razor-sharp wit and talent informed and entertained? This column reads like secondhand standup. Your "nutty" and "slutty" quote stank: Poor Anita Hill, couldn't you have enshrined her as the poster-woman for male depravity rather than repeating a slanderous male barb?
36
Oh Maureen let it go. Your obsession with Bill and Hillary was old and tired in the 90s, it's older and tireder now. We made our peace with Bill Clinton and his hound dog ways long ago. We have been saddled with the cruel and heartless rulings of Clarence Thomas for 25+ years. He is/was a predator. No one listened. Maybe if you had been as obsessed with him as you are with Hillary people would have.
49
Oh for heaven's sake, Maureen. You got your candidate elected this time. Why are we still focusing on Bill Clinton. Why are we even focusing on Hilary Clinton? They are water under the bridge. Your guy is in, Maureen. I guess you'll just spend the next four (or eight) years doing your "whataboutism" to keep him there. I am so sick of people just dancing around the funeral pyre of our great country chanting "Clinton, Clinton, Clinton; Obama, Obama, Obama". You've heard it -- better a pedophile in office than any Democrat. You have never offered any hope or vision in any of your columns -- just bitterness, spite and snark. I guess this is how the NYT stays "balanced."
70
Not surprised about any thing coming from Dowd.
She still blames Bill Clinton for her not snagging a man of her own.
Well, maybe, just maybe, she wasn't, or isn't marriage material.
12
And what is your point exactly? Other than to take this opportunity to attack Hillary? You must have a secret crush on Bill and resent that he never hit on you, because your irrelevant and irrational venom toward Hillary is a tell. Too bad you have nothing relevant to write about, but then it wouldn't fit your gossip column style anyway.
24
Oh Maureen, you must have been rubbing your hands in glee this past week at having Hillary so readily in your sights again. Tiresome, yet again.
20
Maureen Dowd has shamelessly jumped the shark on this one.
24
So let me get this straight, it's Hillary's fault? The notion that the blister of sexual harassment has now been popped only because our 'moron and chief' is in the White House, is one of your more cynical and outrageous columns. Considering you are in some ways responsible for the legitimacy lent to Trump during the days leading up to his election, I suppose this piece may be considered a de facto pat on your proverbial shoulder for excising this American sin. I have long been giving you the benefit of the doubt, but this column is a travesty. Ms Dowd, I wish you would devote your considerable talents to more deserving targets, so many of whom are nestled comfortably in the Republican caucus as they go about the business of dismantling our republic.
26
Let's be straight, Mo. You have an unhealthy, emotional hatred for the Clintons.
30
Still waiting for a similar article on racism, Maureen....
12
Dowd seems to have a borderline demented obsession with Bill and Hillary. Well, at least The Spawn of Satan and the Root of All Evil isn't sitting in the White House, thanks in part to this watchdog of the public weal, Maureen Dowd.
Thanks, Mo--now we have nuclear war and neo-Nazis marching in the streets instead of consensual diddling in the Oval Office. And boy I for one am relieved about that.
27
I have worked for many a politician and men of power and finding one without what I call Achilles Penis, is very difficult.
I find it gratifying that women are finally speaking up. I hope that our president is held to the standard that you have set for our former president, who should have stepped aside, but, as you so aptly pointed out, it was politics, not morality that brought him to the edge of the abyss.
8
If Hillary had been elected the eff ect would be reversing roles. The film producer as a friend of Hillary would be off free and Trump would be hauled up for assaulting women.
Should FDR have resigned over his affair with Lucy Mercer Rutherford?
22
Flawed. Flawed. Flawed. Candidates and victors. Ah, flaw me in the donor class.
2
If the message here is "listen to the victims," the Clinton situation has nothing in common with Anita Hill or with the current crop of sexual harassment victims. The public confuses these situations and columnists continue to feed the confusion. Ms. Lewinsky has emphatically maintained that her "relationship" with Mr. Clinton was consensual, that she is not a "sexual victim," and that the bullying and public pillorying of her personal reputation and sexuality which was the true cause of the difficulties she has faced since.
People might patronizingly feel she is a sexual victim because of the imbalance of power in that relationship, but it is not an explanation Ms. Lewinsky accepts. The ewww factor of the whole affair was the public airing of Clinton and Lewinsky laundry by the media and the politicizing by others.
48
Democracy and freedom aren't about which Big Daddy (or Big Mommy) is in the White House. It's about each and every one of us standing up for our own rights and the rights of others. The US experiment is about individual rights, not party politics. A lot of Americans seem to forget that and it makes me wonder what high schools teach kids about the Constitution.
3
I think Dowd is right about one thing: a lot of the post-Weinstein firestorm is displaced anger at the fact that Donald Trump won the election and is, in all probability, unremovable as President until 2020.
5
Why only focus on Bill Clinton, Roy Moore, Clarence Thomas, Donald Trump? Should we forget/forgive/overlook George H. W. Bush has current and past victims who have come forward? What about Lyndon Johnson, John Kennedy, Franklin Roosevelt and many others...all the way back to Thomas Jefferson.
Political party affiliation has nothing to do with sexual abuse. It is a distraction. Sexual predators seek pleasure by exercising control over others. Politics attracts people who are ambitious, some good, some bad; it places them in a position of control which enables sexual predators to abuse others with near impunity.
The problem of sexual abuse flows from our religion, culture, society, justice system, family values. Too many religions make women servile to men, promote male authority. Our culture nurtures the view of male entitlement by objectifying women as sex toys. Society is founded on male superiority, not long ago women were chattel who could not inherit or even vote. Our justice system demeans the victim of sexual abuse; the first premise is the allegation can't be true if a woman did not immediately charge the predator (lawyers for the abuser, judges and jurors dismiss the fact that a powerless female, just as young boys abused by priests, fear to speak up). And then there are the mothers and fathers who condemn sexual activity in their daughters, but wink and excuse it in their sons as boys will be boys.
"The Hillary Effect"? Or, the long overdue empowered-woman effect!
28
There is, of course, no epidemic of sexual harassment against women, but, darn it, we're going to fight that "epidemic" even though it is men who are overwhelming the primary victims of violent crime, and men--according to Prison Watch and Human Rights Watch--who are the majority victims of sexual assault and rape in the United States, a situation were even Hanna Rosin acknowledges, "Women are often the perpetrators."
In addition, if you go by the FBI's statistics, sexual assault and rape against women are around historic lows in the U.S., and have been decreasing almost annually, often significantly, for 40 years.
What happened recently was a small number of wealthy, powerful men abused women and men. They should be punished consistent with their crimes, but we should not indulge in the hysteria that imagines this is widespread and that women, generally, are beleaguered.
It isn't, and they aren't.
9
The Hanna Rosing assertion is interesting. I'd like to read deeper about this. Hopefully, the TImes will offer a deep analysis. This might give us a place to actually converse about this issue logically.
After a lot of thought I have no idea how when I was still working what image women where I worked thought about me. I can not remember anything I might have done. I do remember a couple of examples that I brushed off where I felt really uncomfortable. One instance was a very competent coworker who kept invading my personal space but eventually I realized that it was a cultural matter and learned to live with the issue. I will say that if I offended someone I am sorry.
3
Starting with her Wellesley commencement speech Hillary cast herself as the self-appointed spokesperson of the new generation. It's too bad, for her and probably for the country, that her vision did not extend to carving out a path of her own instead of attaching herself to Bill's career like a barnacle. If she really believed the philosophies she espoused, she would have jettisoned Bill in '92 instead of going on national TV to stand by her man. Indeed, she maybe never would have moved to Arkansas in the first place. If she'd jumped ship and moved to New York in 1992 I think it's completely plausible she could have found her way to the Senate, and maybe beyond. Imagine the resonance that strategy would have had with women voters. Instead she took the first step toward establishing herself as "crooked Hillary," a moniker that wouldn't have stuck if it didn't have more than a kernel of truth. It's the stuff of tragedy, but oddly I can't feel much sympathy for her.
9
For each accusation of some man in power abusing his position in order to take advantage of an unwilling applicant or co-worker, how many owners or managers had their manipulative mindset at least partly formed by women co-workers who either offered themselves or made it flirtingly obvious that they would "cooperate" with him?
Then, with time, the man-in-power, his ego, thoughtlessly begins to assume that everybody is like this, beneath their facade and whispers that no one can resist his charms anyway.
And authority is private business, freedom to exercise prejudice and reward, without serious oversight, has always been too dictatorial.
But how can this be changed in today's world?
2
If Hillary had been elected, those entertainers, sports figures, politicians, CEO's, and Weinsteins of the world, etc, would still be out there, working their craft. A big thanks you to Trump. The same can be said for the kneeling NFL players. They wouldn't be kneeling if Hillary were President. Trump has brought racial issues into the light of day. Thank you again Trump,
7
We let Clinton off the moral hook and untold numbers of women have suffered the consequences. The lesson so very well learned from the Clinton episode is that powerful men can use the women around them for their own pleasure, and even if they talk ... they won't be believed.
We can and should blame the man for what he did to a specific woman, and blame the enablers for what has happened to millions of women.
5
LIKE other, long pent up reactions -- the French Revolution and the Red Guards in China come to mind -- the rage and inertia here will come for the guilty and innocent until this movement plays itself out.
While more basic questions will be overshadowed and starved of the attention they deserve.
I came of age as the women's movement began in the late sixties. (Dowd and so many others owe their opportunities to that but they've proven themselves.)
But I have been a victim of a general hostility to white men, as have friends, in politics, academics and journalism, even as I have spent a life trying to change our country's priorities and power structure and that establishment has blacklisted me.
It's a battlefield of teeter totters.
& I cannot imagine ever living in a time when this endless war has concluded.
But I have traveled to other countries where it wasn't raging and thought life there was better without the suspicion, battles and scars.
And I have a dream that some day, long after I'm gone, identity tags will melt and people will be judged on their merit.
Pretty foolish, huh?
I must have picked that up from the Everly Brothers.
3
Okay not a bad summary. Cliff Notes. Now can we get on to the actual problems at hand -- addiction epidemic (Sackler family), poisoning our world (Scott Pruitt), war is not the answer (civilian casualties), Puerto Rico in the dark, nobody has health care, everyones taxes are messed up, what are our children actually learning? Sexual harassment has been around for a very, very, very long time. We're taking baby steps but they're steps . . . let's not overlook all the other harassments going on too.
6
Be careful, warned my husband, she is obsessed with a man who she has never had an affair. It is no accident that she traveled as your train companion on your way to visit your aunt and uncle for the weekend. Standing in line behind you, she heard your destination and thought you were going to meet the object of her affection and decided to stalk you.
To make a short story short, the last I heard was when she called to tell me that when reaching this man on the phone, he had started to weep. Weep after eight years of an unrelenting pursuit, but nothing he could do about it. 'Play Misty for Me', a young movie by Clint Eastwood comes to mind, along with 'Fatal Attraction'.
Back to Politics where Bill Clinton is in on the front News, running for the highest Office in the Land, covered in 'Flowers' among others, leading to a political funeral. 'He is Dead', declares an economist who I am working for as a cleric, and I protest. Not after Gary Hart, I add, the Public is ready to move on, and sex misbehavior will take a back seat. It shows poor judgement on his part, continues my boss, now if he had an affair with a socialite that would be another matter.
Rarely does the Public acknowledge how Hillary Clinton felt during those days of torment, her husband now at the White House. The Press, the impact on the Nation, her marriage and her daughter, left vulnerable. Hillary who continues to fight 'Predators' for the most vulnerable of us with courage and love of Country.
6
There's a distinct difference between the men mentioned in the article. Trump, Moore, Weinstein and Thomas have been accused, while Clinton and Franken have evidence against them. Until proof and guilt have been established, aren't we supposed to assume innocence? I know that's difficult to accept with so many accusers, but it's still the premise of our judicial system.
5
Let's see how long it takes Amazon to remove "Best Seller" from "Al Franken, Giant of the Senate". I've already removed my Kindle copy.
3
The rules of engagement need to be completely rewritten and overhauled between men and women if we are going to navigate the post-modern world of work, social engagement, and comity between the sexes.
We need to examine with fresh eyes the multitude of ways that we objectify women, enabled by the women themselves, to sell products, market fashion lines, and fill movie screens with "eye candy".
Next should come a thorough discussion of workplace mores. How do we handle 1:1 discussions between male and female coworkers when either is supervisor? What should be our standard of care for asking men and women to work late in the evening, travel away from home and family, and engage in intimate work that leads to sexual affairs and, at times, broken families?
Is there a justification to say "Enough" to women who seek to leverage beauty and sex-appeal when the ultimate message is more confusing and nuanced when it's time to press criminal charges?
Sex has been used as a weapon, at times. It is fascinating that it is literally the opening scene in the Holy Bible, treated by many as a work of fiction and fancy. What is interesting is not whether Genesis is "factually and literally" true, but whether there are lasting truths about our natures that are undeniable and utterly tragic.
I believe that the strong should protect weak, personal modesty should be revered and respected, and permission trump aggression in all things. We are wading in a swamp of confusion of our own making.
5
Let me tell you one poor woman's take on the Clinton administration: I listened to his inaugural address while sitting with homeless men in a dining room. We were SURE he would address homelessness because homelessness finally seemed on the horizon-- we'd even had two TV movies about homelessness that year! But he said nothing about homelessness and poverty. Later in his administration, when I and other women were struggling to get out of poverty, he launched "welfare reform," forcing even more of us toward the margins of survival. I have NEVER thought Clinton cared about women and I have always despised him.
7
As long as we are talking about parallel universes-if the Big dog had resigned
back in the day, Al Gore would likely have won the 2000 election.
Donald Trump would never have gotten close to the presidency.
One of the main reasons Clinton could never resign is due to the fact
that that would have been the end of Hillary’s political future.
Obviously that did not work out so great for her anyway.
2
OK, so we are going to do the whole e-mail server thing again, except this time focusing on Bill Clinton's indiscretions twenty years ago? Does everyone realize that taxes are going up on the middle class to fund a tax cut for foreigners? Or that Medicaid, Medicare, and Social Security are going to get cut right after this monstrous tax scam bill passes the Senate? Or that science in the US is going to be decimated because graduate students are going to pay twice in taxes than what they make? Or that millions of children will lose their health insurance? I could go on, but what would be the point?
18
Personal ethics and behavior are important considerations in leaders, but so are what I might refer to as "public ethics" - the ethical consequences of the policies leaders promote and implement. We face difficult questions as citizens in balancing an official's personal and public ethics when they are in conflict. Too often differences on policy are treated as simply differences of opinion, without consideration of the ethical implications of those policies. Do we prefer a leader with a spotless personal life who believes in torturing terrorist suspects, or a sexual harasser who will follow the Geneva Conventions? One could create similar scenarios on a variety of issues with ethical dimensions. I certainly do not propose an easy answer to these dilemmas - there are none - but I do think the questions are very difficult and troubling. It is more than simply political convenience and hypocrisy which causes some to support politicians whose personal ethics are compromised.
2
So, in effect, Trump IS making America great again. (Just probably not the way he anticipated.)
2
President Clinton should have resigned, period. If he had done the right thing then, it is likely that we would not have had George W. Bush as President and there would have been no Iraq war with its associated disasters. A President Gore may have taken warnings about al Qaeda more seriously and potentially avoided 9/11. Instead, Mr. Gore thought it wise to run away from all things Clinton during the campaign, including the good that had been done. But because of Bill Clinton's pride and hubris, we are where we are.
4
I'm not sure the purpose of these "what if" opinion pieces. Anyhow, party does seem to matter. Once it comes out who did what with who - each side hunkers down in an effort to protect their own. Consequently there will be no great lesson or over arching action taken from these behaviors. Similar to thinking we will come to grips with guns after a mass shooting. This is who we are and it's not going to change.
I love Maureen. Sure, she's a liberal, but she doesn't let her political leanings bias her perception. She's not afraid to call out her own party for its failings (or the failings of its leaders), just as she's not afraid to do the inverse when the opposition merits it.
The country...the world...needs more of that kind of unflinching honesty.
Keep at it, Maureen.
5
...and Maureen you might add a question: Are we concerned about victimization of women or are we just fascinated by the celebrities caught in these acts? Sex and power make great news stories keeping our attention for days, sometimes weeks. Do we ever stop to determine if any reforms have been instituted. I'm reminded of how a serial pedophile at Penn State became a story about a famous football coach. Can anyone recite statistics on the incidence of child sexual abuse since the incident? Or if more cases are being reported? Or are we through with Paterno? Well guess what folks. As we're obsessed with the salacious stories, conflating abuse with mistakes, thirsting for more details of inappropriate lust, the House and the Senate Finance Committee are ramrodding through Congress a Christmas present for the donors. A gift that explains the reason for all the money going into campaigns. All the rancor.Trump even tweeted about Franken while the Finance Committee chairman Hatch was castigated Sherrod Brown for an honest appraisal of the bill. As we obsess on sex and power, the R gets what it wants: Lot's of Christmas money to play with in the Cayman Islands, a gaping hole in healthcare,medicaid and a path to privatize Social Security. Mercer, Koch, Ryan and McConnell say Merry Christmas, America.
3
Regardless of how empowered women may "feel" after all this - men are still in charge. The most likely outcome to all of this is that women will find it even more difficult to get good jobs because having a woman on your staff will be seen as a liability. And young, white, very attractive female does not make for a large political constituency,
1
Excellent commentary!
There is a rancid unseemliness in this sudden rush to faux Puritanism that appears to be more accurately an unprecedented effort to weaponize sex for political expediency. When one considers that women have used sex for personal gain since the genesis of mankind, our society must be careful to ensure the so-called “victims” are truly victims and not willing participants in a larger game of manipulation and quest for power who, decades later, suddenly find it personally and politically beneficial to “speak out”.
Just as our nation recognized that Anita Hill’s story did not add up, after she followed a man she claimed to admire from one agency to the next in her quest for power, then suddenly realized their secrets shared over the course of a long term friendship could serve as ammunition to destroy a man who was the antithesis of her political worldview and prevent him from attaining a powerful seat at the political table, we as a society must continue to differentiate between the real and the contrived to ensure the true victims of sexual violence and abuse are recognized and their predators punished in a court of law and not merely in a court of public opinion. When women suddenly “find the courage” to speak out after years of benefitting from a man’s uncouth behavior toward them it is critical as a society to establish whether access, personal and professional gain and enrichment disqualify one from victimhood status in these bizarre cases.
3
Leanne Tweeden doesn't know the difference between "doesn't" and "didn't".
We the voters, knowing but perhaps not fully facing the truth of Bill Clinton, re-elected him in 1996. After he was impeached, Democrats in 1998 held their own in the US Senate and actually gained seats in the House.
Today's voters will be far less forgiving as they were two decades ago. As he was appointed for life, it would be fair to reopen the hearings about his sexual harassment and if new accusers step forward he should be cross-examined in impeachment hearings.
Bill Clinton's presidency is history its historical reputation will keep evolving, as it does with all presidents; Clinton's presidential legacy was not entirely bad, unlike the permanent ill humor of his most virulent detractors.
"First, with Clarence Thomas, a feminist lynch mob tried to kill off a conservative Supreme Court nominee over sex when the real reason they wanted to get rid of him was politics."
A feminist lynch mob? That's rich, considering that Thomas invoked lynching as a defense.
Anyway, it's not even remotely true - Mr. Thomas's qualifications were highly suspect. In the end, the senate was unwilling or unable to address the nomination on its merits, the discussion devolved into important - but ultimately extraneous - race and gender issues, and the confirmation squeaked through the muddle.
Is anyone actually in favor of sexual harassment? I don't think so. Sure, it's important, but other things are important, too. We don't get to focus on the one thing and ignore all the others.
Most likely history will repeat itself, except this time we will have a bad tax bill passed while everyone was focused elsewhere.
Oh, the power of distraction! And we all play right into it.....
1
People are more likely to behave and show restraint of selfish and abusive impulses when there is a balance of power. That’s about all I know that feels like a certainty and that I can paint with a broad brush. As for Al Franken, seems a little soon to equate him with the abuses of the Clintons or a Roy Moore. And, where were all these morallzers when they annoited Hilary as their presidential candidate. When self righteousness gets elevated to piousness, there’s usually a problem.
1
The defining question is "Did this person use power to abuse another person?" Women have been more physically vulnerable and in workplace power at greater disadvantage. Children are at the mercy of abusive adults in all circumstances. We can do a lot to protect them, but first we have to acknowledge the need and then be willing to follow through on the remedies even when it involves people we may otherwise like.
2
Without double standards, there would be no Clintons. But double standards are exactly what undermine the Democratic Party and make it self-defeating.
Hearing Sen. Gillibrand speak inconvenient truths to power -- in this case, the entrenched power of Clinton Inc. -- is invigorating, comparable to her incisive questioning of the Pentagon in her role on the Senate Armed Services Committee. People should heed her words more often.
23
Gillrband shwed her true coloros---she is a political opportunistic with no moral or ethical backbone. .She throws Clinton under the bus now for political reasons---the brand is tarnished and Clinton's fund raising is limited...period.
Women should hold her accountable.
6
And yet it was Sen. Gillibrand who had the extraordinary affront to invite Emma Sulkowicz, the false accuser of Paul Nungesser in the famous Columbia University case, to sit with Gillibrand at the State of the Union address even after Nungesser had been exonerated by both the University and the New York Police Department, which found after a three hour interview with Sulkowicz that there was no basis on which to even open an investigation.
This was all fully known to Gillibrand yet she nonetheless had Sulkowicz as her guest, even nonsensically referring to Sulkowicz as a "survivor." A survivor of what, exactly? one is obliged to ask. Making and profiting from a false accusation?
Senator Gillibrand will pretend to stand up for whomever or whatever gains her power, influence, and votes. Don't be fooled, please, by yet another one of her charades.
2
You mean the same Senator Gillibrand who was up til now a staunch supporter of the Clinton's, including accepting their endorsements and supporting Hillary The Enabler for the WH? The ONLY reason the worm has turned re the Clinton's is that the brand is no longer viable and they need to be tossed in order for the Dems to move on. That's not an Epiphany, it's Expediency. Hypocrites.
Anita Hill was harassed by Clarence “pubic hair” Thomas while trying to work. She did not consent to his behavior. She was and remains a woman of serious purpose, just trying to do her job as a lawyer.
As Monica Lewinsky herself described it, her consensual relationship with Clinton began when, as an intern sent on an errand to the Oval Office, she turned around lifted her skirt, and revealed a thong to the President. Is that how anyone of serious purpose with the opportunity to work in the White House behaves? Bill Clinton’s behavior was disgusting. So was Lewinsky’s.
That Maureen can’t see a clear difference between what Thomas did to Hill and how Clinton interacted with Lewinsky is an insult to Hill and demonstrates that Maureen remains blinded by her unexplained long- standing intense hatred for the Clintons ( and patronizing attitude towards Obama).
283
So I guess the rape that Clinton perpetrated against Broderick was consentual?
8
She was an intern and he was President of the United States! Chief Predator.
7
This is right on point. I began this editorial with an eye-roll: Another anti-Hillary screed lo these many months later. But when I got to the false equivalency Ms. Dowd makes between Anita Hill and Monica Lewinsky I nearly gasped. It could be said that, at least initially, Lewinsky was the predator in her pursuit of Bill Clinton. For his part, Bill was an undisciplined fool with a 15 year-old’s sense of mischief, decidedly not characteristics one longs for in the President of the U.S., who should be held to the highest standard, both publicly and privately. But Clarence Thomas mocked and threatened Anita Hill, a supremely dignified woman, with what he took for granted was his sexual power over her. The two instances may be low points (though there’s much competition) in our political history, but only one of these women was the true object of sexual harassment.
484
...when Barack Obama stepped off a stage and into Weinstein’s arms for a big hug after giving a $400,000 speech as an ex-president..."
Ah, these quarter-of-a-loaf, sweep-the-dirt-under-the-rug centrist "Democrats" of the last four decades - a pox on their house as much on the rightist "Republicans." And the Rockefeller wing still prevails at the DNC. Not that I'm any fan of Bernie, don't get me wrong - because he's a reaction, not a solution - but I fully understand and appreciate the Sanders phenomenon arising from desperation over the substantive and commitment void in the Democratic Party. (Wall Street? What, me worry?) Is there any there there in the Democratic Party? Is there any up-and-coming leader with substance and transcendence? The horizon looks bleak.
Transcendence is needed to raise the party up into some maturity of purpose. It must reopen its tent to the disaffected blue collar, rural and traditional values folks it once relied on, while maintaining progressivity on social justice (both CAN be done - it's not either-or, that's manipulated divisiveness). And it must ascend to the vacant high ground on fiscal sanity. Lord knows the party of "fiscal conservatism" isn't going to - it's hellbent on yet another orgiastic round of inequality based on voodoo economics, pinning voodoo pins into the American Experiment, and isolationist abandonment of the rest of the world in the bargain.
America is the Exceptional Nation, alright: Exceptionally Irresponsible.
36
@Rocky
Yes, we are an irresponsible nation. It's what you get when you place power in the hands of individual men and women.
I have never seen an alternative system that does the job wholly better. Monarchy? Dictatorship? Those systems would seem to have an "all or nothing" quality to tidy up the corners a bit. Socialism? Communism? Where it's been tried you end up with a lot of the same vulnerability to human corruption on full display in our "bottom-up" form of governance. Probably the most accountable form of government is the School Board, a collection of people tightly accountable to each other with no ability to hide.
We are weathering the abandonment of subtle and explicit codes of moral conduct. Some forms of "conservative" want it expressed through the lens of their religious worldview, and some forms of "liberal" believe that people are inherently "good" if provided freedom with, perhaps, some tweaking from wise mandarins who run the government to keep outliers in line.
When the government was founded, it took as givens a certain level of shared truths, truths to which many today are violently opposed. Until we either reclaim those truths or set sail in search of new ones, we will be locked in a bitter battle between self-interest and shared destiny.
Neither side of the brutal partisanship is much interested in sitting down with the other, while the vast middle is caught in a game of dodgeball.
3
Sanders happened because the voting public was finally able to get a clue and the Democratic Party is doing everything to beat us back. The politicians are finally afraid of the voters and not the other way around. It's long past time for new leadership. Yes, there is a swamp and it must be drained. The Democratic Party is bought and paid for and it's precisely the reason we don't have that "radical" idea of universal health care or anything else civilized society enjoys. We need to move on from the Clintons and the rest of the mealy-mouthed Democrats. They serve no one but themselves.
2
@ Lynn. Yes indeed, thank you.
As I begin to prepare myself for Thanksgiving, as an opportunity to share with others my gratitude, and gratefulness, for each day's gifting of unexpected opportunities, including the freedom to contribute to make a needed difference in well being for many others,I am appalled at the selective reactions to ongoing,"creative," differentiated violating of fellow human beings.The binary banality of whether he, or she, was or wasn't, actually sexually-nutritionally-socially-vocationally-ethnically-religiously-spiritually-economically-politically-ETC., by actual predators,PRE-predators,POST-predators, whatever their ideological-bent is an oxymoron.Given the state of health of our daily, enabled,WE-THEY culture!In which an array of available and accessible marginalized, dehumanized, excluded,powerless-in-many-ways- THEMS survive.Daily.Looked through but not seen. Neither heard nor listened to, whatever the nature of their voiced or muted needs. At what point in God's Creation, or in Secular Sciences' random "Big Bang," did flawed Beings- all of US- chance upon semantic surrealism?Willful ignorance about what is and shouldn't be?Complacency about what needs to be, and isn't ?Willingness to be coopted
into a lifestyle that anchors and institutionalizes,daily, inequitable sharing of basic human and nonhuman resources so necessary for creating and sustaining mutual respect?Trust? Caring?Menschlichkeit?How is giving thanks to be experienced, strengthened amidst our many violations?
7
Well said. Thank you.
Reading this piece, Maureen, clearly shows the mess of money, power and sex that has been part of our culture for decades. It's a whose who of the infamous and only touches the surface.
And we have gotten to a particularly ugly moment in time. Accusers are being treated with a modicum of respect now. People are willing to believe not just listen. This 'watershed' moment is also being used and abused by ALL concerned to open past wounds, transgressions and denial. People once again turning the new openness into new and morphed tawdry accusations.
If people wish to relitigate the entire Clinton sex scandal, let them do so. It will be done in the same atmosphere of partisan hatred as last time. Nothing has changed, in fact one could say it will be even more brutal this time. The 'new' perspective is held only by a few. Anyone old enough is already in their tribal camp sharpening knives as last time. Nothing 'new' there except the willingness to use this moment to better skewer.
IF we are now willing to believe the accusers and give them some respect, then we must reopen the entire Trump saga as well. He doesn't get a pass this time either.
32
Well stated; And as a reminder of the atmosphere of the times, Hillary was taken down for dissing cookie baking, in favor of career.
The incessant vilification of the Clintons' is practically unparalleled, with millions upon millions spent to take them down. Remember Ken Star, along with accusations they murdered their close friend, Vince Foster, for starters?
It's great that women are speaking out, and the culture is changing, hopefully permanently, but let's keep the politics out, like has been done for Trump so far on this painful issue.
Feminism is about the combination of power and sexuality. So it should not surprise us that if the power relation is experienced differently, the sexual relation is interpreted differently as well. As with Ivanka Trump. If you are actually interested in restoring trust instead of stoking the fire of distrust, stop interpreting sexuality as strictly power relations. With all the common enemies that go with it. Leave sex out of the descriptions of experienced power mismatches. Otherwise the price will not be worth it.
2
Everybody knew Trump was a sleaze and he still got elected. At some point it seems to me it just got to be too much. Women are demanding that careers will be ruined, jail time served etc if men abuse them. Seems fair to me. Not about politics is the point.
18
Trump was not elected. He won in states that gave him more electoral votes, but Clinton won the popular vote.
1
The obvious difference between Bill Clinton's behavior and the others mentioned here is that the women were willing participants and were well above the age of consent.
95
True. So the message to our girls is, it is ok if your partners or spouses choose to wander outside of your relationship, as long as those adulterers have your permission.
2
The women who he raped were willing participants? Idiot
3
Oh really! So you know for a fact that all of the accusers were victims and none were willing participants? I'm willing to give all of these women the benefit of the doubt but there's this one nagging example -- the Duke Lacrosse players who were all convicted by the media, the faculty, the public, the prosecutor, and everyone else on the planet before there was an investigation and a trial because the accuser was a black female and the perps were white males. Well guess what....the boys were innocent, the prosecutor was a crook, and the accuser was a liar. I'll bet a dollar to a donut that, you too, had convicted these kids in your own mind. Now we have Gloria Allred refusing to allow inspection of the handwriting that she claims is Roy Moore's? Why? Is it fake or real? What is she hiding? I'm not defending Judge Moore because I don't have any facts as you don't either. All we have is the media hysteria, accusations flying, but no proof of anything. With Clinton, we had a 21 year old subordinate employee who had a hygiene problem - she saved the blue dress with Bill's "love ick" and DNA. With the clown Franken we have a photograph. With Trump we have a sophomoric recording with Billy Bush. With Weinstein we have payoffs for silence. If Hillary was in the White House today, we'd know nothing about Weinstein, Franken, or any other Dem sex addict because they were all part of her money and power structure. So spare me the "WILLING PARTICIPANTS" comment!
5
I lost what little faith I had in Politics when Clinton did not resign as
President - [ After if any other Federal Employee did what Bill did in his
Office, would they still have a job ? ] nor did the Democratic Senators
go to the White House and tell Bill it was his time to go and for
Al Gore to become President, as Goldwater and other Republican Senators
told Nixon is was time for him to resign.
Thank you Ms. Dowd, sadly twenty years too late.
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@Cassondra. Yes indeed, what Bill Clinton did in the Oval Office is so terrible nothing else in modern history ranks with it. What he did was far worse than what Richard Nixon did to the Constitution. There is no question that Clinton should have resigned for having consensual sex with a young intern, whereas George W. Bush was never asked to resign despite lying to the American people, lying to the United Nations, causing the slaughter of hundreds of thousands, and leaving hundreds of thousands of American soldiers physically and emotionally crippled. By the way, I haven't noticed a delegation from Congress trudging up to the White House lately to demand anybody's resignation.
Could we get our priorities straight?.
Not only did the Dems overplay their support of Clinton, they lost the chance to keep the WH. Had Gore been sitting POTUS, with a solid economy and the Clinton scandal behind us, he most likely would have been re-elected handily.
So why are Republicans not marching on Washington to insist Donald Trump resign? His crimes are real, and he continues to break the law every day as he lines his pockets at taxpayer expense. Or is sex the only reason a president should resign? (If so, Trump flunks again.)
Sexual abuse does not claim any given political party, it is a matter of immature and insecure men, in a position of power, that tend to abuse their station in life. One thing is the immediate response to expose them, and hope there is justice at the other end, so vindication is at least acknowledged. But for the long-term view, we forget that we men may act like 'vulgar beasts in heat' because we were never taught, since infancy, to love, or at least respect, our siblings, especially women; and further, acknowledging a far too common fact in society, domestic violence, a lousy example to follow for the new batch of growing boys, accepting things as 'normal'. I guess we have our work, remedial many times, all cut out for us. Will we ever learn?
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Your comment resonates with me. I grew up in second generation Italian family. My father was born in southern Italy. My brother, as the only son was truly revered by my parents. Even his physical assaults on me - his older sister were disregarded. We were never taught to be supportive of each other.
I was able to break this cycle for me and my children.
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As with everything else involving the Clintons, "We're With Her" has always been maddeningly complicated. By choosing power over principle, Mrs. Clinton embraced the role of enabler. Problem is, she convinced tens of millions of others -- including the most ardent feminists -- that this choice was not only acceptable, but somehow noble.
Enabling a serial philanderer is one thing, but enabling a predatory sexual abuser and alleged rapist is quite another. The Democratic Party's consensus, unfortunately, was to blur the distinction.
So here we are in 2017 -- decades after the Clinton psychodrama made its debut and ultimately set the stage for the political normalization of Donald Trump -- and the party writ large is only now beginning to come to grips with the magnitude of this state of denial. Saying thanks but no thanks to the Clintons is, at best, a 12-step program, and this long-overdue wake-up call is only Step One.
Even with so much attention being devoted to strategy for the 2018 midterms, the Democrats would be wise to remind themselves how important it will be to select a 2020 presidential nominee whom they're not forced to rationalize and apologize for all the time. They've aimed high before and can do so again, can't they?
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Mrs. Clinton offered the country modest, incremental improvements, never a grand fix.
So we went with The Grand Fixer.
Look at what that has got us.
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Based on the economy, it looks like it’s getting us the grand fix. In fact, the argument for Trump is exactly the same as the argument for Bill Clinton: he can get the job done so let’s ignore that other stuff. In both cases, the country agreed. Deal with it.
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Where do you get that "we" from? Most of us went to the polls and voted for another candidate or wrote one in.
Really interesting piece Mo. Hillary got boxed in after years of living with "the conspiracy" and could not counter in an other way. Probably text book.
Trump never admits to sin or failure. He cannot. The Gold Star families -- now two of them, and McCain. Trump is a historic political nightmare and an inflection point.
For women it definitely looks like an inflection point too and things are going to change direction. It's an historic moment.
The bottom line is that women are moving out and up in stature in our political culture which they should since they are so much better qualified to walk and chew gum.
Do you want proof? Look at so many family women who juggle ten times as many variables in their families than hapless men. Women handle the kids, the menu, the laundry, the bills, mom and dad, the décor, the party plans, the gifts, the thank you notes, the ties and suits, the colds and scratches. Men cut the lawn and watch football and some watch FOX and adulate Donald Trump.
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Yes and sadly some also do the laundry but as you say the entire burden still resides in the mother’s or wife’s domain. Very sad and complex
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While Bill Clinton was a philanderer and a liar in regards to said behavior, if memory serves me, weren't his encounters consensual? Please correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't recall him forcing himself on anyone or cruising the Malls.We have to be VERY careful when we try to paint Clinton, Moore and Franken with the same broad brush. It's a long way from boorish and inappropriate to criminal. Each is complex in their own way and should be judged accordingly.
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Juanita Broaddrick says he raped her, and gives a compelling account.
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Are they consensual? That is the whole issue with harassment. A person in a position of power, say a governor or a president, or your daughters boss can compel her to enter a relationship. If she doesn't consent no raise, no promotion, maybe get fired, or a ruined career. It's not consensual, it selfish gratification on the part of the person in the position of authority or power, and then the other party is tossed aside, Job done.
No, they are not consensual.
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Consenual? Juanita? Paula? No, they were not consensual. And a 23 year old White House intern was in a power imbalance that really didn't give her 'consent' either, whether either of them (Bill and Monica) realized it.
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Thank you Ms. Dowd for saying what needed to be said. I have always resented and strongly disliked Bill Clinton due to his behavior. The "holier-than-thou" attitude of the Clinton family and their allies made me feel sick. Any man who assaults, rapes or takes advantage of a woman without her consent should be outed and shown the door. In this case it was the White House door. All of them established a precedent for Donald Trump. Now let's change Washington's response and show the current president to the door...his past behavior warrants it.
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The reality is that the whole "conversation" about harassment was essentially orchestrated as part of an anti-Trump, revenge for Hillary campaign. Now that it's out of control Democrats are trying to contain it. It should never have been a political as opposed to personal issue in the first place.
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