In my last report on San Diego mayor Bob Filner, I noted that he brought Washington, D.C.’s sense of teamwork and fair play with him.
At that time, Filner crashed a press conference held by City Attorney Jan Goldsmith responding to the mayor’s call for a new tourism marketing deal.
Now, it looks like Filner also brought D.C.’s sense of sexual ethics with him! In the wake of sexual harassment claims soon to be filed, Filner is under enormous pressure to resign.
San Diego, California News Station – KFMB Channel 8 – cbs8.com
Former supporters of Mayor Bob Filner, who are demanding for his resignation, held a second press conference Monday morning, this time outlining some of the alleged sexual harassment claims against the mayor.
Former councilwoman Donna Frye read aloud some of the victim’s claims. According to Frye, one victim was asked out by the mayor during a meeting with the mayor and she turned him down. Seconds later, Frye says the mayor asked the victim to kiss him and again she refused his advances, however the victim alleges the mayor grabbed her and kissed her seconds later.
Frye also spoke of a second victim who volunteered on his campaign. She said during a meeting in a public place the victim alleges the mayor grabbed her and “rammed his tongue down her throat.” The victim alleges she felt awkward and tried to remedy the situation. The mayor allegedly got into her car and tried to kiss her again and this time stuck his hand under her bra.
Ironically, it looks like the City Attorney is now in the unenviable position of having to defend Mayor Filner.
During the press conference, Marco Gonzalez (attorney for one of the plaintiffs who have worked with or for the mayor) described one of Filner’s harassment techniques: The Filner Headlock. It starts when a Filner sees a “woman the mayor would like to like sequester and have a conversation with”; he then grabs her shoulders and moves closer for the discussion. The chat devolves into something highly sexually suggestive.
Gonzalez also depicted the “Filner Dance“: “For whatever reason, the Mayor feels it is within his prerogative to ask a woman for a kiss”. Then, as the Filner goes in for one, the woman begins evasive maneuvers to avoid the clearly unwanted advances.
Filner takes a real droit du seigneur approach to city governance. When one woman told the Mayor to leave her office during a “dance”, Filner responded, “I am the Mayor, you can’t kick me out of any office”.
San Diego voters may make a go of it, anyway. The above press conference was led by Donna Frye, a long-time San Diego Democratic Party luminary. Other Democrats calling for his resignation include Councilman David Alvarez, Congresswoman Susan Davis, City Council President Todd Gloria and Filner’s former fiancee Bronwyn Ingram. So, there is plenty of bipartisan support for his ouster. Additionally, there is a movement to recall Filner, with an associated Facebook page. A recall rally is scheduled for 4 p.m. Friday outside City Hall.
But those of us who have watched Filner’s antics for years suspect he is not going to go quickly, quietly, or easily. As a matter of fact, Filner has point-blank refused to resign. So, it looks like San Diego is poised for another round of mayoral electoral drama (i.e., our 2005 election).
Ultimately, the citizens of San Diego may pay a heavy price for electing Filner. Gonzalez notes that the Mayor’s public apology already contains a clear admission of guilt in the following statement: “I am embarrassed to admit that I have failed to fully respect the women who work for me and with me, and that at times I have intimidated them.” While Gonzalez said his client will file a sexual harassment claim, decisions of whether to file lawsuits have not yet been made.
Truly, Filner has given the term “sequester” a whole new meaning. America’s Finest City has the country’s slimiest major.
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Comments
I don’t see the issue. The Democrats have declared that they are proud of Bill Clinton. So doesn’t that imply they consider raping and molesting women acceptable? What are they complaining about, then?
WOW! Just looked this fella’ up on Wiki. Kinda’, sorta’ looks like a male Angela Corey..
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Filner
http://freedomoutpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/angelacorey.jpg
Hey Filner, give oh say ’bout 15 lbs or so of make up ala (no, not that one) Corey, Jesus H!
Yeah, I’d never heard of him, so I googled him.
They should put his picture next to the definition of “creepy ass cracka”.
Btw Leslie – thanks for posting the Boston College IRA files update over at CI.
As usual Boston is covering its IRA
Tijuana North has crazy mayors !
This guy is “too humble” to ever become the new lion of the left.
He needs to deny deny deny … and maybe leave a young woman to drown, after drunk driving her into the bay. Then he might have the right stuff. Pathological hypocrisy is essential for top leadership in the gangster party.
Where in the world is the tongue of San Diego?
If I were the city attorney, I’d cite a conflict of interest, based upon the crashed Press Conference, in which it would be reasonable to assume that her duty to defend the city could be construed to be compromised by aggravated personal conduct by the mayor. (i.e. defending the city is NOT the same as defending the mayor,) and would recuse myself in such a situation, handing off the duty of defending the mayor to a public defender.
Took lessons from Bill Clinton.
Hasn’t he suffered enough??
Banished from the only party he’s ever known, and loved?
http://newsbusters.org/blogs/matthew-balan/2013/07/16/cbs-stops-identifying-scandal-plagued-san-diego-mayor-democrat
Ah, you missed it. When the media begin to drop your Democrat party affiliation from news about you; it is a sign that the fix is in and the Party and media will defend you to the death. If really pressed however, they will do the political equivalent of “White Hispanic” and start calling him a “TEA Party conservative”. Anything for the Narrative.
Subotai Bahadur
Yes, it’s the old party game, “Name That Party”!
If the offender is a D you won’t hear about it at all, or alternately not until the very end of the story.
If the offender is a R you’ll read it in the first sentence of the story.
So if a pol gets caught doing something stupid/evil/illegal/tawdry and the party isn’t mentioned, you can safely assume that he/she/it is a Democrat.
Why isn’t the precedent of Sen. Bob Packwood controlling here? Where is the outrage from NOW? Where is Gloria Allred’s hustling before TV cameras? Where is the feigned moral shudder from the NY Times? They did it for Packwood: http://www.nytimes.com/1993/08/29/magazine/the-trials-of-bob-packwood.html
I think the precedent of Sen. Bob Packwood IS controlling here!
Bob Packwood was very attractive as a young man, and in a powerful political position. If you haven’t been to Washington, you may not know that there are a lot of women in Washington that are very happy to play with a Senator. Monica Lewinsky probably got her kneepad jokes indirectly from somebody Packwood’s age. At a certain point, though, Packwood got old, and the women decided they didn’t like his outrageous flirting any more (different, much younger women, I presume). Packwood got in trouble for doing exactly what women had encouraged him to do all his working life, only after he got old.
Filner’s a little different, in that he’s crazy. The man is obviously out-of-control and incapable of containing himself. He has a history of being a jerk, but he’s clearly well beyond normal jerk behavior, now.
What I don’t understand is why California is so tolerant of mentally ill politicians (Nancy Pelosi, I am talking about you!).
Well, Californians elect people to represent them, and who better than the mentally ill?
You’re joking, but Filner has had a series of very public meltdowns, and Nancy Pelosi has had a number of public incidents where she was obviously not lucid. I mean no insult when I say these people are mentally ill.
Unwanted Sexual Requests = Sexual Harassment. I don’t think most sane people think that. The lawyer comes off as a bit of a cook. Alright so he asked some girls out, that’s not a crime.
He did more than ask them out… and yes, asking someone out can create a hostile working environment in California.
I was more thinking that this is NYC behavior, not DC, given who’s running for office in NYC.
Just wondering: if this guy is this bad, how come nothing surfaced years ago, long before he got elected? And how come his political opponent didn’t find out? Or did he/she, and did he/she just not report it?
How did the media miss this behavior all these years?
How did the media miss this behavior all these years?
The “D” after your name acts as a shield with the media. They will not report anything bad about you, and will defend you against any charges by opponents, including Democrat primary opponents once you are in office.
That is the modern definition of a “Free Press”; the Regime and its supporters are free from scrutiny, any opposition is free from honest coverage, and the populace is free from inadvertently encountering the truth.
One can argue that our legal system is largely free, too.
Subotai Bahadur
I think Chief Justice Roberts should resign. For FISA. The “secret court he set up with secret judges. A system designed to bypass our Constitution. Everything else is chicken feed.
Sex happens.
In the old days when a politician impregnated a secretary, because there was a glass ceiling in place, where women could be more than secretarial assistants … even if they couldn’t type. Or do shorthand. And, then those babies were born in unwed mother’s homes. Adoptions were a big, and secret business.
San Diego will have to take care of this problem next time they go and vote.
True, too, down in Florida. Where Rick Scott, the current first term governor, who came out of the private sector. Spent his own $25-million to get elected. And, he’s supposed to be a republican, no less.
Politicians are all working in a swamp. When you’re voting you get to pick one old fish, with a stinking head less stinko than his competitor.
Judges run without any competition.
And, yesterday, I read a great comment about this mayor. It said …(it was written by a man), that if he tried to reach his tongue out the highest he could reach, barely, would be to touch just under the bottom of his nose. Here? This guy’s tongue must be so long … when he sticks it out and up … he can part his hair.
And still the accusers produce no actual victims. But who needs victims when you can use the local media to smear someone? Filner’s real crime here is not governing as the far leftist that Donna Frye and her cohorts were expecting (for those unfamiliar with San Diego politics, Donna Frye is a former council person who’s slightly to the Left of Cindy Sheehan). Maybe Filner is guilty of these accusations, but as long as the media is willing to work as a tool of Donna Frye, and not demand witnesses, this whole episode is a travesty.