As two new victims come forward, it looks like San Diego Mayor Bob Filner (Democrat) was engaged in a one-man “War on Women”.
Earlier this week, I reported on a press conference in which Victim #1 offered details on the “Filner Headlock” and other examples of sexual harassment by the mayor.
Now, two others are talking to the press. The second victim is Laura Fink, who runs a political consulting firm. Fink told the local PBS station that she was working as then congressman’s deputy campaign manager when he encountered her during a 2005 fundraising event. Fink indicated she was asked to “turn around”. When she complied, Filner patted her “posterior” while making a crude joke.
Though several people witnessed the incident, Fink—co-founder of Fink & Hernandez Consulting—said she did not go public about the encounter at the time because she “was trying to build a career in the political field … and Bob Filner has a reputation for swift retribution and for holding grudges.”
The third woman is a San Diego school official, from whom Filner tried to force a kiss during a business meeting.
Morgan Rose, a psychologist with the San Diego Unified School District, told KPBS: “He tried to move my face toward his to kiss me on the mouth, and now listening to the stories of the other victims, it probably wouldn’t have been on my mouth, it would have been in my mouth.”According to the interview, Rose met with Filner in January 2009 when he was a congressman in an attempt to bring national attention to a program she founded known as America’s Angel Campaign. After the initial meeting, Filner called to ask for a private meeting.They met in a restaurant near his congressional office, Rose said, and during that meeting Filner started staring at her and told her “your eyes have bewitched me.” He then sat next to her and told her he wanted to kiss her.She told KPBS that Filner tried to kiss her four separate times. She said she tried to get him to stop.
Filner may be lecherous, but he didn’t get where he’s at by being stupid. He just announced a new chief-of-staff, his former legal adviser Lee Burdick…who is clearly a woman. I suspect he will be angelic in meetings with her, and this fact will be promoted. However, since City Attorney Jan Goldsmith has prohibited Filner from meeting with women alone at city facilities in the course of his mayoral duties, Burdick may face a different type of work challenge.
The new appointment notwithstanding, the liberal base is beginning to erode. San Diego City Beat, a very progressive publication, is calling for his resignation:
But our job is not to convict Filner based on clear evidence of wrongdoing. Our job is to make recommendations based on what’s best for San Diego and its citizens. We still support Filner’s vision for San Diego, but we’ve lost confidence in his capacity to see it through. It was fine—desirable, even—when it was only his political opponents with whom he had no credibility. It was even OK with us when it was more middle-of-the-roaders like City Council President Todd Gloria and his ilk. But his credibility among his own political base is eroding. And, more importantly, he’s admitting that he has a severe problem in how he treats half the population, an entire gender of human beings. That is the worst part of this. San Diegans shouldn’t have to wait and see and hope that Filner can figure out how to calibrate his human-decency compass.
And the National Women Veterans Association of America has just cancelled its invitation to have Filner give the keynote address. “The mayor speaking at our event interferes with the moral compass of my organization,” [association President Tara] Jones said.
It’s good to finally see the “progressives” begin to find the proper direction to take.
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