The saga of San Diego Mayor Bob Filner continues, as the ink is now drying on the sexual harassment lawsuit brought by attorney Gloria Allred on behalf of her client, Irene McCormack Jackson.
A few hours after the press conference with Allred and her client, in which the troubling details of Filner’s treatment of female staff members were revealed, the mayor offered this response:
“I do not believe these claims are valid,” Filner said. “That is why due process is so important. I intend to defend myself vigorously and I know that justice will prevail.”
Numerous local pundits opine that the charges against Filner are so deplorable that he will resign shortly.
I disagree.
Those of us who paid attention to Filner’s Washington D.C. antics (e.g., his assault of a Dulles airport employee) think that the man will absolutely not leave office of his own volition under any circumstances. In fact, he and his supporters will be clinging to “due process” with the same passion a drowning passenger holds onto a life preserver after fleeing a sinking ship.
Perhaps Filner believes after admitting in public that he “failed to fully respect the women who work” for him and and that at times he “intimidated them,” that he can hang onto his office and its perks as long as he isn’t convicted. He is hoping the “process” is so lengthy that the public will forget this incident.
The mayor’s supporters can now be heard chanting “due process” during public discussions of the harassment charges. And, the local Democratic Party has refused to ask for his resignation, also because of “due process”.
Party Chairwoman Francine Busby said the party was so divided and members had to take two votes during a three-hour closed session.
Busby said she supports the alleged victims, but also wants to stand up for justice, adding Mayor Bob Filner should have due process before he is asked to step down.
“The reason why this decision was so difficult was because the democratic party supports both principles,” said Busby. “The principals that these women were making these allegations and if the mayor has in fact done this and if we believe it is true, then we will ask for his immediate resignation, but there’s a strong sense in this room about the Democratic Party to stand up for justice.”
The continued support of Filner is also embarrassing a women’s group, who offered a twisted explanation for the reasons they continue to have the mayor slated as the keynote speaker for an upcoming event:
“We chose to have him be the keynote speaker, and make no mistake, coming before rape survivors … that’s exactly where we would like him to be,” [National Military Women Veterans Association of America President] Tara Jones said. “If he is sincere, we would be able to know.”
I will grant that Filner is sincere about one thing: Continuing as San Diego’s mayor.
It is shameful that the women in the Democratic Party and its leaders are so partisan that they can’t recognize the fact that they are now engaging in a “War on Women” of their own.
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I nominate the Mayor for the 2013 Ted Kennedy Award … awarded annually to the politician with the biggest set of political balls. Only democrats have been able to win this award …
As did Bill Clinton, this guy has learned the lesson of Nixon: Never resign in disgrace. As a good man of the Left, also like Clinton, he can expect continued support from his party and the media.
Double Standards
As we get older we see things, and depending on our passions, our reasoning talents, and the previous incidents upon which we then makes judgements we can see certain themes and articulate them.
Such has happened to me. What the heck am I talking about?
To me, one of the defining differences between those that adhere (or try to) “conservative” (or Christian) standards is that, while we certainly fail, and can sometimes be hypocritical, we believe in a single set of standards. Moral relativism, double standards, and moving goal posts are wrong. They are wrong on so many levels: They cause anger, revenge, loss of faith in “the system” (gov’t, school, [organizational]), and cause distrust between groups.
Conservatives, not pure party loving “Republicans”, hold everyone to the same standard.
Which then brings me to my point (yes, I have one, lol) : How many times have we seen men who have done things like this forced to resign just because of an allegation – except if they liberal democrats / progressives?
In popular TV shows you’ll see some firey, dynamic, compassionate feminist lawyer show up to a room of entitled smug men and dress them down for not immediately acting (firing) men in their organization who have been accused of sexual harrasment.
Rush Limbaugh (who I like, but he’s got his intensity level set to 11 all the time) gets castigated for inferring / calling Sandra Fluke a slut, when, by her own words, well … she is. The same feminists will hold a “Orgasm & Dildo Seminar”, but call males who use a toy a pervert, and men who talk about sex predators.
So – here you have a guy who has a LONG history of treating women like pieces of meat (see also: Bill Clinton), but since he wants to advance the liberal/progrssive agenda, he is not only given a pass, but protected, and his accusers are viciously attacked with words far worse than “slut”.
In a slightly related note, as a great example: In my personal experience, and from what I see and read in accounts in the news feminists are always aggressively denying false accusations exist. Even saying that will often cause a pack of them to use a back-door / whisper campaign against you, for them to cry “dad! He’s been mean” (getting higher ups to punish you), and they WILL try to destroy whole sections of your LIFE for simply trying to have a rational discussion about the FACT that there ARE false accusations.
But, come the day a person they need, support, or like is accused – and, here’s the double standard – then it’s time to ignore, attack, belittle, and shame the accuser.
IMO feminist / liberal women are the first to use a false accusation (see: Alan Dershowitz or Christina Hoff Summers), but deny that such false accusations exist.
Getting back to our point: Filner has a string of accusations from women who don’t know each other, have a LOT to lose, little to gain, and whose stories are apparently checking out – and feminists are, at best silent, and at worst, are helping this predator.
Filner is a symptom. In any group, sexual predators, feminist false accusers, race baiters, or practictioners of radical “Religion of Peace”, if you allow any perpetrator to know they can operate with impunity, they will continue to offend.
There will be more victims because the offender sees that certain classes of people – the right political stance, the right color, the right gender etc – are immune to the laws and repercussions.
We as conservatives must hold to having, keeping, and applying a single standard. Our political and ideological adversaries will not, but that’s on them.
They are ok with it because, as Greg Gutfeld said so well: “Conservatives think Liberals are wrong, but liberals think conservatives are evil : it’s how they justify their actions.”
I, for one, do not wish to become like the people we are fighting against – or else, in the end – we’ve lose the war for which we were fighting in the first place.
I hope I have added to the discussion.
Steven
As much as I deplore the alleged behavior, and as much as I think the allegations are likely to be true, I have to go with due process here.
If all it takes to drive a politician from office is an allegation of abuse, intimidation, rape, or (pick your preferred charge, the less objectively provable, the better), and democracy is dead.Don’t kid yourself; if this drives Filner from office, this will happen again, and again, and again. No politician will be safe; just ask Herman Cain.
Of course we all want people to have due process.
Just like the progressives wanted for George Zimmerman.
And of course we’ll accept the verdict of any criminal / civil hearing for Mr. Filner.
Just as the progressives have for George Zimmerman.
As the good Mr. Alinsky once said, “make them live up to their ideals”.
“I do not believe these claims are valid,” Filner said.
By “valid” we can assume he means provable in court, rather than true. Reminiscent of Clinton huddled with his advisers in the immediate wake of Monica to “determine the facts”. In both cases, the actor is uniquely position to already know the facts.
Allred vs. a Dem mayor? I wish they could both lose.
Gazing over the horizon to 2014, and with respect to how this drama plays for their team, I see a State Dem Party drone in this reprobate’s near future.
The “women’s group” doublespeak reminds me of the highest farce during the Clinton/Lewinsky affair. Despite many, many front-running candidates for top farce, the award goes to Gloria Steinem, who was one of the founders of the “feminist” movement. In a March 22, 1998 editorial in the New York Times, she argued that “even if all the allegations are true” regarding Clinton’s sexual abuse of numerous female employees, he “is not guilty of sexual harassment”, because of a new standard (never before accepted by feminists) Steinem invokes to protect Clinton that has come to be known as the “one free grope rule”.
Yes, she actually argued that you shouldn’t be faulted for grabbing your employee’s tit, even as she comes to you at “a low point in her life” for help, as long as you don’t to it again after she “says no” (i.e. runs horrified from the room). Peachy keen, no harm no foul, says “feminist” Gloria Steinem.
…that is, as long as you’re a supporter of a political agenda of which Steinem approves, “vital to […] preserving reproductive freedom”. Then randomly grope as many women as you want…
What’s a few demeaned women sacrificed for the banner of feminism?
I don’t know about Filner from either his current or past roles. But if he has no shame, he will fight to the last second. So far, it appears he has no shame.
I’m not following this closely, but I don’t believe Filner is accused of a crime, so he is exposed only to the danger and publicity of a lawsuit. That means that whether he remains in office is determined mainly by his party. They calculate whether they are hurt more by him hanging tough or resigning, and pressure him accordingly, but of course some stubborn politicians have resisted this kind of pressure.
It’s interesting that recent high profile cases from New York have resulted in Democrats resigning, so possibly we’re moving closer to a single standard in the wake of President Bill successfully toughing it out. (OK, I believe the governor was guilty of a crime.)
Also, following what Ichneumon said:
Gloria Steinem was a shoddy example to follow for young women. Her famous “women need a man / fish & bicycle” comment was big when I was in college – HOWEVER – she, herself, was constantly leeching off of rich men and using sex to do it.
She had several times in her life (Google it yourself) where she latched onto a rich guy and was sleeping with him and then had the nerve to ask for a “loan” to help her get started (MS magazine comes to mind) in her feminist endeavor. Loans that she never paid back, mind you.
I won’t say it – but, what do you call a woman who sleeps with you for a time and then expects some kind of financial reward while doing so?
Gloria’s only, and I mean ONLY, real success has been her advocacy. And considering her advocacy has been one sided, sexist, and opportunist, I say the word “success” loosely. Outside of that she has been a failure. She has not been able to keep a steady relationship, maintain a solvent business, has destroyed people’s lives (including those formerly close to her), and is the epitome of the angry female feminist who is dearly clinging to her cause because she has nothing else in life.
We have her to thank for the 1984 Mary Koss “1 in 4” rape statistic that has been debunked for 20+ years but still poisons the well in discussions on sexual assault.
Toxic, angry, unsuccesful, willing to sleep around for cash, and was part of indoctrinating a generation of young women to distrust, use, and discard a generation of young men.
What. A. Legacy.
Here’s what the (alleged) victims of Mayor Filner need to do. Since they’re already ‘outed’ they need to go and protest in front of the headquarters of the Democrat Party, and really, really stick it to the Democrat machine on the whole women’s rights issue. Get the protesters out there with signs that read ‘Filner a Molester’ or ‘Filner a Predator’ or ‘Dems tolerate Filner’s Abuse of Women’ would make at least a ripple in the news, if not a splash.
Make the Democrat Party make that choice (they’ll choose Filner) and show the public that the entire support for “women’s rights” is nothing more than a crass political play to be sacrificed at a moment’s notice in support of the ‘progressive’ agenda.
DP = Due Process = Delay & Pray.
We’ve known Filner was a scumbag for a long time… But when Gloria took the case, I knew for sure he was innocent this time. The only thing truly shocking to come from an Allred press conference is that she hasn’t been disbarred yet.
I had a friend who had Filner as a Prof at San Diego State University 20 odd years ago. He said that he had never seen such an egotistical bully in the classroom, and was surprised that he never got in trouble. He thrived on humiliating people.
This is the scorpion that he is.
@LSBeene “what do you call a woman who sleeps with you for a time and then expects some kind of financial reward while doing so?”
My wife?
@ Redneck – har har – ok, you got me.
Yea, I’ll bite (and this is lighthearted) – sure, in the same way my wife, who is a total keeper and for whom I am grateful to God that I married, gets my financial assets in exchange for what she brings to the table.
However, Gloria, specifically her, was a one woman sloganeering decrier of women having ANY assitance from men. She encouraged “strong, independent women” (with a serious attitude) to treat men & women’s mutual need of each other as akin to servitude.