True, Trump’s tweet about New York Senator Kirsten
Gillibrand was demeaning. It did not befit a gentleman. It disrespected and dishonored a lady.
In a better world, a world where we actually had gentlemen and ladies, it would
not have happened.
You know which tweet I am talking about. After
Gillibrand said that Trump should resign because he was accused of sexual
harassment, Trump shot back with a tweet saying that she was a lightweight—no arguing
with that—and that she had begged him for campaign contributions. And then he added: “she
would do anything for them.”
Gillibrand shot back that it was a sexist smear, which it
wasn’t. Then Elizabeth Warren chimed in that Trump was “slut-shaming” the
senator, as though Gillibrand had engaged in behavior that some retrograde moralists would have called slutty. Clearly, Warren did not know what she was saying. In any case, we have no evidence that Gillibrand did or did not do what Trump accused her of doing.
Trump's tweet was more suggestive than explicit, but we all know precisely what he meant.
Now, the political/media outrage machine is doing its darndest to blind us to the
obvious question: Was Trump telling the truth? Did KG beg for a campaign
donation and did she offer to provide a sexual service in return?
We do not know the truth. KG has not said that it did not
happen. She just said that it was a sexist smear. These are not the same thing.
So we are back with the same consideration that we evoked when judging the charges against Roy Moore. Given what we know about the
senator, is the charge plausible? At the least, we know that KG has
accomplished nothing of consequence in her time in the senate. Were it not for
her rants against sexism and for transgender restrooms, we would not even know
who she is. As a proud New Yorker, I am persuaded that she is simply wasting a
senate seat.
True enough, KG has taken positions on all sides of most
issues. She is looking to advance her career, possibly even the first female
president from New York. For my part, I don’t think she will make it. Because there
is no there there. There is no substance behind the carefully made-up bleach-blonde persona.
Had Trump leveled the same ungentlemanly charge against
Elizabeth Warren or Hillary Clinton or Susan Collins, we would all have laughed
it off. In those cases, it is completely implausible. Yet, with Kirsten
Gillibrand it is far more difficult to dismiss out of hand. Which is why her
supporters are out screaming and yelling and ranting and raving about the
sexism of it all.
The standard is not truth, but plausibility. Unfortunately
for KG Trump's charge meets that standard.
I don't understand why she even tried. This is the sort of sport he enjoys and feeling insulted in return just rewards his game. There's no contest of insults that Trump can't win by lowering the standards of decency.
ReplyDeleteAnd as long as Bill Clinton remains free, Trump's international playboy toolkit from a decade+ ago is irrelevant. Al Franken's sacrifice mean nothing, although we can imagine there will be more #MeToo callings against more Democrats in the coming months, and KG can lead the charge just in case sexual-purity helps the Democrats win more votes.
"Al Franken's sacrifice..."
ReplyDeleteSacrifice????
:-D
Pound for Pound, Trump has deflated more self-righteous egos than the Guinness Book of World Records. I think this is why he has been elected - to pull down the pants of the ruling class and deride their high-minded sanctimony with earthy low mockery. It won't go on forever, but it certainly ought to go on long enough to bring these whigs to heel. The reset is long overdue.
ReplyDeleteI agree he's no gentleman, but when one compiles a list of his accomplishments against his list of campaign promises, there is measurable progress. And where there is none, it's usually because progress depends upon the collaborative efforts of his party, which have so far been a miserable failure, even falling short of entering the starting gate in many cases.
Aggie, looks like his biggest accomplishment, not to say he's making the picks personally, but his administration is filling the courts with conservatives after the Republicans blocked Obama from doing the same.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.motherjones.com/politics/2017/11/how-donald-trump-is-remaking-the-federal-courts-in-his-own-image
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Beyond new Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch, Trump has already nominated judges to more than half the vacancies, putting forward an astonishing 18 names for federal appellate courts and 40 more for the district courts. Of those, 12 have been confirmed. By this time in Obama’s first year, only two circuit court judge and four district judges had been confirmed.
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Thanks, Harry Reid! :-D
ReplyDeleteRobert Bork must be smiling in Heaven.
Is it me or does it not look like all these strong women get the "vapors" when they get the least little challenge. They immediately jump to the sex card even where there are a variety of perfectly valid reasons that do not include a sexual component, double entendre aside. I suspect that that is the reason Trump does it, and the fact that people who suffer from TDS, get enraged at any challenge, and are obsessed with their own importance get mad, stop thinking and jump for the "bait" almost before it hits the water,is because it works.
ReplyDeleteI do rather enjoy how Trump seems to be able to select the right word definition for an opponent or select that opponent weakness as something to enrage them especially hypocrites like Gillibrand. She was perfectly ready to take Bill Clinton's money and endorsements, even DJT's, when it was politically expedient and then willing to "stab them in the back" when she no longer needed them. Where was she when Clinton was sexually harassing, and in some alleged rape cases, large numbers of women? Where was she when Hillary was attacking and trying to destroy Bill's accusers? Gillibrand had to know just as much as most of Hollywood knew about their abusers. How easy it is for her to switch from NOT being a women's advocate to being one? Does not appear to be a very principled person.
Cutting the numbers of regulations alone is a great accomplishment.