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Politics : Did Slick Boink Monica? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: greenspirit who wrote (12986)	4/7/1998 12:46:00 AM
From: Zoltan!	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 20981

April 7, 1998 ON MY MIND / By A.M. ROSENTHAL A Lady of Arkansas The young woman who walked into the Governor's hotel suite looked as she did every workday -- trim, dressed in a simple, elegant suit, hair cut in short chic, just the right amount of lipstick. She did not know why she had been called to meet the Governor; the trooper did not say. But she was tickled to be there. She was a clerk but had expectations that her education at Vassar and the law degree for which she had enrolled would move her up in the state government. Getting to meet the Governor was great luck. The Governor told her she was a real doll, stood up, dropped his trousers, exposed his genitals and invited her to service him with her mouth. She said nothing doing. He said O.K., zipped himself up, escorted her to the door and suggested they keep the episode to themselves. What to do? Too late to scream, and if she made a fuss she could say goodbye to her ambitions, not just in the state but maybe everywhere. Forever she would be the woman who saw the Governor's penis, and maybe was asking for it. Her parents came from a discreetly rich family, one of the best known in the state, active in the Democratic Party and many social causes. What would they think to see their name muddied in the press? But when she told them, they and her friends said not only did she have a right to file a harassment action but had no right to hide what had happened in the Governor's room. It would encourage him to do the same thing to other female employees. The Governor was a rising right-wing Republican. By the time she made the charges publicly he was President. She got help from liberal lawyers and groups around the country, particularly from feminist organizations like NOW, and the American Civil Liberties Union. The press treated her with consideration. This one was no bimbo. She was a lady -- you could tell by looking at her, by her speech and education, her parents' lineage, and money. The President's men could not call such a lady a trailer tramp. But they said she was part of a left-wing plot -- look at the help she was getting from lefty organizations, a lefty prosecutor and lefty press. The Supreme Court turned down the President's efforts to stall the trial. But one day a Federal judge back home in Arkansas threw the case out of court. The judge said that assuming the top executive of the state did invite a female employee to his office, drop his pants and ask her to "kiss" his penis, it could not be considered an "outrage" within the meaning of the law. As Americans, we should respect and uphold the process of the law. But we do not have to respect or uphold all the decisions arrived at by that process. This country often has been riven morally and politically by legal decisions. Today Americans are deeply divided on court decisions affecting some of the most important issues of our time, including affirmative action, abortion, gun control, capital punishment. If we think so, and I do, we have the right and obligation to say that an outrage did take place in Arkansas. The outrage was the decision of the judge that it would not be an outrage for a Governor to exhibit himself to a female employee, and then ask her to "kiss" his penis -- a step beyond the modus operandi of many exhibitionists who get their kicks just showing their genitals to strangers. We are also entitled, and obligated, particularly Clinton voters like myself, to ask questions: What would have been the reaction of leaders of feminist organizations if the accuser had been a woman like them -- well educated, well connected and with shared political opinions? What would have been the reaction of liberal Democrats who defended Bill Clinton so passionately if the accused had been a right-wing Republican who made it to the Presidency, faced charges of sexual exhibitionism against a female employee while Governor, and then as President charges of sexually risking the Presidency? The decision to throw out the Jones case, if it stands, is a political triumph -- for the President. But for civil liberties, women's rights, freedom from sexual aggression, the dignity of the law, justice for all classes, the reputation of the courts -- to all of which the President's supporters ceaselessly proclaim their allegiance -- it was another bleak day in Arkansas. nytimes.com