New Leadership For Congress

Look what an avalanche of accusations, from 38 years ago, will get you? In Judge Roy Moore’s case, it will prompt Leader McConnell to  say that, should Alabamians send him to the Senate, that he would expel him from the Senate.

Know what else it will get?

It will draw victims of sexual abuse, assault, and worse, out of the closet. And too many of them are in congress. Take Sen. Al Franken (D-MN). With real evidence, photographic evidence, and by his own admission, Franken committed sexual assault on a sleeping woman, and then some, based on her own statement.

For his part, senate majority leader Mitch McConnell is calling for an ethics investigation on Franken. Shouldn’t “leader” McConnell be on the floor of the senate now calling for the expulsion of Franken?

In McConnell’s world, it’s expulsion for accusations, and ethics inquiry for an admitted sexual assaulter.

Franken’s sudden fame as a sexual abuser is catching on, as victims with similar stories come out about other members of congress. Current members of congress.

First of all, don’t be fooled by the thought that an ethics committee investigation is something meaningful. It is not. They drag on for years, requires the victim to undergo sensitivity training to last 60 or 90 days, and in the end, do absolutely nothing. No representative, senator, or government employee has ever been sanctioned by an Ethics Committee investigation.

But it has cost taxpayers. Congress has a slush fund for paying off complainants in sexual misconduct of its members. They, I mean we, taxpayers, paid out $15 million to subsidize their bad behavior.  And, because they think they are being pro-active,  Speaker Paul Ryan and Leader McConnell are talking about new training on behaving normally. How to not treat women like meat or some such. That, and a hotline for victims to call.

Which brings me to a call for accountability. Based on all that is publicly known, it is clear that a culture of sexual abuse of power by politicians over women, and men, exists in Washington. What’s worse is, they have a way to sweep complaints under the rug. They call it an ethics investigation.

Speaker Ryan and Leader McConnell should resign and hold special elections for their replacement. They have no moral basis to stay as leaders of their chamber. They are part of the problem.