Actual NYT headline: "Does a Sex Assault Claim Kill a Political Career? It Depends."

[lostnfound]

10. Cost talent. Wow. From a certain point of view. But man it is an ugly world they bolster.

This happened only FIVE years ago. We don’t need to keep any man raped a woman at any time for any reason as a US senator. I’d rather lose the race and the Senate.

I say this as someone who held a small hope that he would be breaking the mold. A macho persona and direct way of speaking, potential media attention that would cross barriers with ideas. Maybe such a person could move certain political goalposts to the left by brute force. Public discourse is hopelessly narrow. Maybe a voice like that can break through some of the closed ears of men who have been supporting MAGA. I hoped, but it was hopeless. It always seems to work this way.

What an ass, so lacking in self respect and in empathy.

But it is not our principles as a party that cost us talent. It is the misogyny and the poor-upbringing (by the culture, not solely by the parents) that tolerates and equates use of force with manhood. We refuse to overlook it, the GOP overlooks anything.

Not comparing rape to consensual infidelity but as far as standing by their man, i remember when Hillary Clinton was derided or made fun of for doing just that’. Perhaps the Ken Starr, Karl Rover (sic), Brett Kavanaugh trio perhaps hoped that the in-office dalliance would cause an Oval Office divorce. GOP guys like that don’t understand that a marriage of equals with a strong woman can contain loyalty and love that is deep enough to forgive and survive.

When denial becomes futile, the GOP version tends to fall in three camps: religious pretense: ‘my husband and I are relying on God and on our faith as he makes our marriage stronger than ever’, financial bribes: ‘pay them off or threaten them with a fixer’, but especially through a media-shutout. The media is so locked up now, that GOP scandals evaporate before they get airtime.

We dodged a bullet. Better to suffer this now than have six months of media time devoted to the hypocrisy of a party electing a guy like this to the US Senate. The media would give that free airtime forever. Or they’d blackmail him, he’d change his positions, and we would have another DINO helping destroy our agenda in critical senate votes.