In the past few weeks, I have hammered the US Senators (and our cardboard cutout of a congresswoman, Jaime Herrera) from this state, Cantwell and Murray, for remaining silent in the face of the massive sexual assault/harassment club that Congress has become... on BOTH sides of the aisle.
Yesterday, they finally joined the chorus of outrage in demanding the resignation of Sen. Al Franken.
I give them credit for piling on. I would have given them much more credit had they led the way on this issue instead of joining the "me too" chorus.
I would have given much more credit had they not remained silent on the issue for the entirety of their tenures in the Senate, Senator Murray's stretching back to 1992 and Senator Cantwell's now exceeding 16 years.
Where have these three "representatives" been on this? WHY did they remain silent? How can they claim to have been remotely concerned about women when they sat there... for years.... and did nothing, KNOWING that sort of thing was going on?
In politics, it is important... no, it's VITAL that we, as the voting public, not be swayed by what they say.
What is THE most important element is that we be swayed by what they DO.
This sort of thing goes on at EVERY level of government. It goes on in Washington, D.C. It goes on in Olympia. And it goes on around here.
And those who have been and remain silent in these matters are complicit.
They enable this to happen.
Every woman confronted with this sort of thing has a duty... if not to themselves, then to those who will be attacked in the future... to speak out.
In office... out of office.
That was the duty of our US Senators. That is the duty of our Congresswoman.
For the vast majority, our Senators have remained silent. Our Congresswoman has, to the best of my knowledge, never addressed the issue of her colleagues attacking, in any manner or form, the women she knows who have suffered at the hands of her colleagues.
This should be a crusade. I want these three to lead the way, in a bipartisan manner, to out the names of every Member of Congress who has ever settled a claim using taxpayer dollars.
I want them to go after those who have used women, and used our money to pay them off. I want them to introduce legislation making it illegal to use taxpayer or campaign dollars for these settlements.
I want them to ACT.
And I want them to do it now.
Yesterday, they finally joined the chorus of outrage in demanding the resignation of Sen. Al Franken.
I give them credit for piling on. I would have given them much more credit had they led the way on this issue instead of joining the "me too" chorus.
I would have given much more credit had they not remained silent on the issue for the entirety of their tenures in the Senate, Senator Murray's stretching back to 1992 and Senator Cantwell's now exceeding 16 years.
Where have these three "representatives" been on this? WHY did they remain silent? How can they claim to have been remotely concerned about women when they sat there... for years.... and did nothing, KNOWING that sort of thing was going on?
In politics, it is important... no, it's VITAL that we, as the voting public, not be swayed by what they say.
What is THE most important element is that we be swayed by what they DO.
This sort of thing goes on at EVERY level of government. It goes on in Washington, D.C. It goes on in Olympia. And it goes on around here.
And those who have been and remain silent in these matters are complicit.
They enable this to happen.
Every woman confronted with this sort of thing has a duty... if not to themselves, then to those who will be attacked in the future... to speak out.
In office... out of office.
That was the duty of our US Senators. That is the duty of our Congresswoman.
For the vast majority, our Senators have remained silent. Our Congresswoman has, to the best of my knowledge, never addressed the issue of her colleagues attacking, in any manner or form, the women she knows who have suffered at the hands of her colleagues.
This should be a crusade. I want these three to lead the way, in a bipartisan manner, to out the names of every Member of Congress who has ever settled a claim using taxpayer dollars.
I want them to go after those who have used women, and used our money to pay them off. I want them to introduce legislation making it illegal to use taxpayer or campaign dollars for these settlements.
I want them to ACT.
And I want them to do it now.
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