BREAKING: three *more* women have come forward to @cnn.com and accuse Rep. Eric Swalwell of sexual misconduct...

[Jedi Guy]

143. These allegations are certainly troubling and they're not going to just go away.

They need to be investigated thoroughly and, if there's sufficient evidence, charges should be brought and Swalwell should have his day in court just like anyone else.

That said, neither he nor anyone else has a right to a political office, neither the one he currently holds nor the one he's seeking. Judging by the wave of rescinded endorsements and resignations, there's sufficient smoke to make people close to him believe there's actual fire in there somewhere. That alone should be food for serious thought and concern about his future viability in politics.

To those latching onto the notion that this is a lie fabricated by Republicans, I have a simple question: why now? He is (or was) poised to potentially win the primary. If this is all smoke and mirrors, why not wait until after the primary and then spring this? If you're going to launch this kind of attack, you wait until the opportune moment and this isn't the opportune moment. Tarring him with these allegations after he'd won the primary would have been far more devastating and possibly thrown the race to the Republican candidate.

Furthermore, and I know this is going to draw some fire, if the allegations were precisely the same and the only difference was that he had an R after his name, no one would be offering tacit or active defenses that it's a fabrication or suggesting that he should stay in the race. It'd be universal condemnation and calls for him to drop out of the race and resign from Congress.

Defending him just because he's on our team is not a good look. The standard and the response should be the same regardless of which side of the aisle he's on because the principle matters. It's not logically or morally consistent to condemn the behavior from Trump or other Republicans and then hand wave it away when it's a Democrat or prevaricate about the person's behavior not being as bad as Trump's. Trump was convicted of 34 felonies. Does a hypothetical Democrat have to match or exceed Trump's criminality before it's problematic?

Approaching it that way changes it from #trustwomen to #trustwomenunlessitsademocrat and makes it look like it's less a principle and more a front determined by political expediency.