Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

How Congress plays by different rules on sexual harassment and misconduct
The Washington Post ^ | October 27, 2017 | Michelle Ye Hee Lee and Elise Viebeck

Posted on 10/29/2017 11:19:59 AM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks

Briony Whitehouse was a 19-year-old intern in 2003 when she boarded an elevator in the Russell Senate Office Building with a Republican senator who, she said, groped her until the doors reopened.

She never reported the incident to her bosses for fear of jeopardizing her career. But she recently tweeted about her experience on Twitter as part of the #MeToo campaign, a social-media phenomenon that has aired thousands of complaints about sexual harassment.

Some of the accounts have called out by name Hollywood moguls, media stars, even a former U.S. president. Other women such as Whitehouse have stopped short of naming harassers. Whitehouse in an interview last week with The Washington Post declined to name the politician who made unwanted advances, convinced that he would retaliate.

“At the time, I didn’t know what to do, so I did nothing at all,” said Whitehouse, who works overseas as a political consultant. “Because this happened so early on for me, I just assumed this was the way things worked and that I’d have to accept it.”

If Whitehouse had chosen to pursue a complaint against the senator, she would have discovered a process unlike other parts of the federal government or much of the private sector. Her complaint likely would have been thrown out because interns have limited harassment protections under the unique employment law that Congress applies to itself.

Congress makes its own rules about the handling of sexual complaints against members and staff, passing laws exempting it from practices that apply to other employers.

The result is a culture in which some lawmakers suspect harassment is rampant. Yet victims are unlikely to come forward, according to attorneys who represent them.

(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Extended News; Government; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections; US: District of Columbia
KEYWORDS: arbitration; congress; congressmen; counseling; interns; men; metoo; misconduct; power; senators; settlements; sexualharassment; staffers; therapy; washingtondc; women

1 posted on 10/29/2017 11:19:59 AM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: 100American; 3D-JOY; abner; Abundy; AGreatPer; Albion Wilde; AliVeritas; alisasny; ...

Combined General and Maryland “Freak State” PING!


2 posted on 10/29/2017 11:21:43 AM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks (Environ-MENTAL-ism is MENTAL)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks

Congress.
I hate those guys.
And ...er...girls.


3 posted on 10/29/2017 11:24:40 AM PDT by Da Coyote
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks
... she boarded an elevator in the Russell Senate Office Building with a Republican senator who, she said, groped her until the doors reopened.

I can't get past the paywall. Were any instances of democrat groping or worse mentioned in the article?

4 posted on 10/29/2017 11:27:10 AM PDT by Menehune56 ("Let them hate so long as they fear" (Oderint Dum Metuant), Lucius Accius (170 BC - 86 BC))
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks

Ted Kennedy and Chris Dodd made sandwiches of waitresses.

Wilbur Mills was in the Tidal Basin with a stripper.

Congress has been like this forever.


5 posted on 10/29/2017 11:30:24 AM PDT by Lurkinanloomin (Natural Born Citizen Means Born Here Of Citizen Parents - Know Islam, No Peace -No Islam, Know Peace)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks

The excuse they offered when Bill Clinyon was president is that the first grope is free.


6 posted on 10/29/2017 11:30:58 AM PDT by a fool in paradise (Did Barack Obama denounce Communism and dictatorships when he visited Cuba as a puppet of the State?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks
he would retaliate
that rules out Kay Bailey Hutchison
7 posted on 10/29/2017 11:31:37 AM PDT by stylin19a (Best.Election.Ever)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Menehune56

Well, we can be sure it wasn’t Larry (wide stance) Craig or Flimsey Grahamnesty or Foam Boy Rubio.......


8 posted on 10/29/2017 11:32:27 AM PDT by Lurkinanloomin (Natural Born Citizen Means Born Here Of Citizen Parents - Know Islam, No Peace -No Islam, Know Peace)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: Menehune56

That’s interesting. I was able to read the whole article. I did reach it, however, by going through a Breitbart blurb on it.

Groping, unusually intense interest in 16-year-old interns, Mark Foley, staffer playing with women’s hair, etc.


9 posted on 10/29/2017 11:38:07 AM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks (Environ-MENTAL-ism is MENTAL)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks
I said it before across multiple Weinstein-related articles, so I apologize for the repetition. However, I feel strongly that this is a golden opportunity to not "let a serious crisis go to waste." Except here, we're not being slimy collectivists, but upright citizens.

Mind you, I really do not like the idea of using the behavior of dirtbags and the tears of actresses/the misfortune of an innocent as a weapon against an enemy (to quote another Freeper). Real men would take these losers out back and beat some sense into them. I am also a free market capitalist and I don't want to regulate anything unless it is in line with the intent of the Founders.

All that said, we're dealing with the lowest of the low. If the Republicans had any sense of testicular fortitude - or a desire to MAGA for ALL individuals - they'd call a press conference and say:

"Democrats are clearly pro-misogyny. Silence equals consent. They said nothing while one of their fundraisers roamed as a sexual predator in Hollywood.

"It is sad that the loudest Democrat since this story broke has been Hillary Clinton, as she acknowledged that the Oval Office has seen a sexual predator - her husband.

"The Republican leadership asks the Democrats to stop treating the Second Amendment like Weinstein treats women, to reject Democrats' harboring of anti-woman fundraisers, and join us as we announce the start of hearings on this poisonous atmosphere in Hollywood, with an eye toward regulating studios and actors and actresses under the Commerce Clause as so many Democrats have with other parts of the economy."

Others have noted that the Republicans likely have skeletons in their closet and there is a risk in this approach. I agree, but maybe it's time to man-up and clean the Augean Stables. Frankly, I don't care if it's Hollywood or Wall Street or Main Street...this isn't the way real men act.

The time to act is upon many of us. From Moses to St Joseph to men of fidelity throughout history, now is the time for Deplorables to reclaim the mantle of "compassion" from the statists, and expose their War on Women.

10 posted on 10/29/2017 11:50:27 AM PDT by DoodleBob
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks
Hello Michelle Ye Hee Lee and Elise Viebeck - did you two know your paper didn't give a damn about Paula Jones or Juanita Broaddrick being raped? Because it was a democrat who did the rape...

Yes, the Washington Post covered for Bill Clinton... didn't give a damn about powerless traditional women being abused.

The Post DID care about Anita Hill so we know they were 'aware' of women's rights. Oh, and Anita was a powerful liberal elite lawyer... civil rights lawyer... but your paper ran to protect HER. And she wasn't raped or grouped. Nope, someone told an off colored joke around her... and your paper went running to defend her. THEY CARE ABOUT POWERFUL ELITES. Just NOT conservative women - women outside of DC's elite wealthiest ZIP code areas... the women Clinton targeted. The women Hillary's 'sluts and nuts' teams targeted.

11 posted on 10/29/2017 11:52:15 AM PDT by GOPJ (Fake hate crimes against traditional Americans: http://fakehatecrimes.org/)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks

They have rules? My favorite joke from the 80s scandal: why don’t congressmen use bookmarks? They like their pages bent over.


12 posted on 10/29/2017 11:53:48 AM PDT by discostu (Things are in their place, The heavens are secure, The whole thing explodes in my face)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks

Sexual abuse is always more about power, not sex. When you make the rules, of course you have less reason to worry about consequences of abusing your power. Just look at all the failed and fallen Congresscritters from all kinds of scandals - sex, financial, conspiracy, bribery, etc. How many have there been? So many we lose track...

But here’s the thing: I’ll bet you would find a higher incidence of all these white collar crimes among the 538 than in any sampling of the general population.


13 posted on 10/29/2017 12:40:49 PM PDT by bigbob (People say believe half of what you see son and none of what you hear - M. Gaye)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: discostu
Brought to you, courtesy of the actions of the gay US Rep. Gerry Studds, MA (D).

The rest of the morons in Congress failed to boot him out then and there, and then again, when his was being censured, he turned his back on them.

14 posted on 10/29/2017 2:03:19 PM PDT by Calvin Locke
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies]

To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks
While I would not put it past any of the scumbags in congress I can't help but wonder what are the chances of a senator riding an elevator alone with an intern without any staffers sucking up to them?

Kind of raises the BS flag to me, especially with a repub mentioned. But maybe it was McCain which is believable.

15 posted on 10/29/2017 2:26:42 PM PDT by where's_the_Outrage?
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: bigbob

I hate to tell ya but sex abuse is about sex. It may also be about power but it’s about sex too. There are other ways to abuse people if it is only about sex.

People shouldn’t buy into feminist bromides.


16 posted on 10/29/2017 3:40:19 PM PDT by miss marmelstein
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 13 | View Replies]

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson