Henry Hyde

The Sickening Sexual Harassment Scandals

Ronald 3 Comments

The last few weeks have seen the destruction of the public reputations of many prominent people in Hollywood and in politics.

Being a public figure, and with great power, influence, and financial assets, many well known men have exploited women, and in some cases, men, in a disgraceful way over the years.

It was an unspoken secret that this was going on for a long time, with few individuals being exposed.

The attention was primarily on Bill Clinton and Ted Kennedy, but also many Republicans, including Newt Gingrich and Strom Thurmond, plus Dennis Hastert, Henry Hyde, Mark Foley, Rudy Giuliani, Bill O’Reilly, Bill Cosby, and now in the last month, Harvey Weinstein, and numerous others who became infamously involved in sex scandals.

But now the list of exposed public figures continues to mount, with resultant disillusionment by many that such people as George Takei, Dustin Hoffman, Richard Dreyfuss, Kevin Spacey, and Al Franken, all much admired, have been engaged in sexual harassment and abuse, including children and boys, as well as girls, women, and men.

And now, Bill Clinton, who went through impeachment and disbarment twenty years ago, is again being pilloried, along with his wife, Hillary Clinton for covering it up, but somehow, Donald Trump, the ultimate sexual harasser and abuser, seems able to escape accountability, along with Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore.

The only good aspect of the present revelations is that women are now more engaged in doing something momentous about it, unlike the failure to move ahead on this after the Clarence Thomas scandal of 1991.

Women must insist on full disclosure of misbehavior, and do whatever is necessary, to change the situation in Hollywood, politics, sports, and the corporate business community.

The Harvey Weinstein Scandal Makes Holding Donald Trump Accountable For Misbehavior With Women An Urgent Matter!

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The disgraceful behavior towards women of Harvey Weinstein, famed Hollywood producer, has brought the issue of sexual harassment and sexual aggression of powerful men toward women in Hollywood and the corporate world and in society in general into new attention.

It is totally unacceptable that any woman in the work world should have to deal with this.

One would think after the Justice Clarence Thomas debacle in 1991, and the adoption of sexual harassment laws shortly after, that this would not be the problem that it clearly is in 2017.

One out of five women, and possibly more, have faced or will face such misbehavior by men, and our President is clearly a leading abuser of women and their bodies, as he himself bragged about in the infamous Access Hollywood tape a year ago, which should have been the nail in the coffin of his Presidential candidacy, but did not lead to his defeat.

But Trump still needs to be held accountable, as much as Harvey Weinstein and every other sexual abuser, no matter how famous or unknown each person is.

Bill Clinton was held accountable and impeached by the House of Representatives in 1998, although not convicted and removed from office by the Senate in 1999. But he suffered the torment and embarrassment of going through the impeachment process.

Meanwhile, the Republican leaders of the House of Representatives were themselves engaged in such misbehavior, including then Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, and others, including Henry Hyde, Bob Livingston, and even Dennis Hastert, future Speaker who had victimized teenage boys in his earlier career as a high school wrestling coach.

The Republicans were very willing to pursue Bill Clinton, while continuing their own bad behavior.

Where is the Republican outrage about Donald Trump and his misbehavior over the years?

It is time to hold Donald Trump accountable, as much as Harvey Weinstein, Bill Clinton, and others, and to impeach him for his misbehavior, along with many other impeachment charges, and make it clear that just because one is wealthy and powerful, that he cannot get away with such abuse.

Senator Rand Paul, Bill Clinton, And Hillary Clinton

Ronald 7 Comments

Kentucky Senator Rand Paul, a clear contender for the Republican Presidential nomination in 2016, has decided to go the route of attacking Democratic front runner Hillary Clinton through her husband, former President Bill Clinton.

Yesterday, on MEET THE PRESS, Paul brought up the sex scandal of the 42nd President sixteen years ago, reviving memory of Monica Lewinsky, and the impeachment of Bill Clinton.

No one is trying to defend Bill Clinton on his reprehensible, disgraceful, and potentially dangerous behavior, as if Monica Lewinsky had been a spy or connected to Organized Crime, which thankfully she was not, it could have been a danger to America’s national security. One cannot forget that President John F. Kennedy WAS involved with a Mafia woman, Judith Campbell Exner, a terrible gamble and dangerous action in the time of the Cold War and the battle against Organized Crime being key issues in American politics.

So it is not as if any ethical person was not shocked by Clinton’s misbehavior, and this author condemned the whole situation at that time. But the Republicans acted holier than thou, at a time when Newt Gingrich, Henry Hyde, Bob Livingston and other Congressional Republicans were engaged in sexual affairs outside of marriage themselves! What hypocrisy on a grand scale! Do not forget that the Republicans moved to impeach Clinton, and that his future obituary will always include the scandal and the impeachment in an early paragraph. But the impeachment was not justified, and the GOP failed to remove Clinton, and they suffered in public opinion, and Clinton’s popularity soared, and remains extremely high after 16 years since those events!

Meanwhile, Hillary Clinton chose to stay in her marriage, which is her business, and went on to a distinguished career in the US Senate and as Secretary of State, and she deserves to be judged on her own accomplishments, not the shortcomings of her husband!

This tactic of Rand Paul will backfire in a major way, and he needs to “get a life”, and spend less time attacking Bill Clinton, and more time trying to justify why a person who came to office on the back of his dad, former Texas Congressman Ron Paul, and has done nothing positive in three years, except to embarrass himself and make one wonder how he became an eye specialist, although not certified by the national organization, seems to think that he is qualified to be President of the United States!

The Total Hypocrisy Of Republican Politicians!

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The Republican Party and the conservative movement love to pontificate about morality and ethics, and yet are the biggest hypocrites that exist!

So we have the late Congressman Bill Young of Florida, who left his wife of 36 years in 1985 for his secretary, and totally ignored his children from that first wife, and they were even denied allowance to come to his funeral, after he died last year, after 42 years as a senior “Family Values” Republican in the House of Representatives.

So we had House Judiciary Committee Chairman Henry Hyde of Illinois, who led the impeachment move against President Bill Clinton in 1998-1999, who it was shown he had a child with another woman while condemning Bill Clinton for his sexual exploits.

So we had Congressman Bob Livingston of Louisiana, who was supposed to be Speaker of the House in 1999, after Newt Gingrich left, but was also shown to have had children and relationships outside of his marriage.

And of course, Newt Gingrich, the most obvious hypocrite of all, had spent his years in Congress, cheating on his wife, serving her with divorce papers while undergoing cancer surgery, married the woman he had the affair with at that time in the late 1990s, and then divorced her, after having an affair with wife number three, the blond bimbo who accompanied him on his Presidential run in 2012. Gingrich has no shame, never has, and was condemning Bill Clinton while doing the same thing, but acting puritanical.

There are so many other examples, including gay members of the Republican Party, such as Ken Mehlman, Republican National Chairman under George W. Bush, who finally “came out of the closet” after doing great damage to gays and lesbians; former Congressman David Dreier of California; Senator Larry Craig of Idaho; and most recently, Congressman Aaron Schock of Illinois, all of whom have done everything to harm and limit gay rights, while all being clearly gay men.

The lying and deceit of these GOP Politicians past and present, in the midst of condemning others for what they do, is beyond normal condemnation. It is worse than committing the acts that others do, and being “holier than thou”, and this includes evangelical pastors who are corrupt, and Catholic priests who are corrupt, but are only too willing to condemn the behavior of others who conduct their lives in the same fashion.

So the Republican party and the conservative movement are NOT the paragon of virtue. and NOT good role models for “Family Values”!

15th Anniversary Of Bill Clinton Impeachment By The Republican House Of Representatives

Ronald 3 Comments

Fifteen years ago today, President Bill Clinton was impeached by the Republican House Of Representatives on flimsy grounds, and well knowing that there was no possibility of Clinton being removed from office in his impeachment trial in the US Senate.

The major issue was Clinton’s illicit sexual tryst with Monica Lewinsky, but as reprehensible as that was, it was not an impeachable act, a high crime or misdemeanor, and Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, Majority Leader Bob Livingston, and Judiciary Committee Chairman Henry Hyde were guilty of the same reprehensible behavior.

Clinton survived the impeachment trial, and has recovered very nicely in public opinion ever since, really the most popular former President in modern times while still alive and kicking.

His wife, Hillary Clinton, has had a distinguished career in the Senate and State Department, and is for now the frontrunner for the Presidency in 2016, even if one can see faults and issues in her record, which is par for the course for any Presidential candidate.

Bill Clinton has devoted his life to good deeds through the Clinton Initiative and Clinton Foundation, and like Jimmy Carter, has devoted his post Presidency to commitment to social justice.

Impeachment was a major mistake, and yet now the Republicans in the House are threatening to impeach President Barack Obama, although he has done nothing to deserve such action, and were he to be impeached, again he would not be removed, but it is all based on vindictiveness and hate.

The Republican Party: The Party Of “Family Values” And A Multitude Of Sex Scandals!

Ronald 44 Comments

The Republican Party broadcasts its belief in “family values’ constantly, and the most religious people in this nation tend to vote for that party on a regular basis!

The author is not trying to claim that Democrats are not capable of engaging in sex scandals, but they do not use the hypocrisy of claiming to be the party of “family values”, and the number of Republicans who have engaged in sex scandals is much longer than that of Democrats!

A selected list of Republicans involved in sex scandals includes:

Governor Mark Sanford of South Carolina, just elected back to his House seat
Senator David Vitter of Louisiana, who has been reelected by his state despite his scandal
Senator John Ensign of Nevada
Senator Larry Craig of Idaho
Senator Bob Packwood of Oregon
Congressman Henry Hyde of Illinois
Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich of Georgia
Congressman Bob Livingston of Louisiana
Mayor Rudy Guiliani of New York City
Congressman Mark Foley of Florida
Presidential Candidate Herman Cain of Georgia

Instead of promoting “family values”, including concern about the lives of the elderly, the young, the poor, women, and the disabled, the GOP does the “religious” thing, while lining their own pockets with the money of lobbyists, who work against the interests of the American people, and promote the rich becoming more wealthy, and presiding over the poverty and deprivation of many of their constituents who, stupidly, vote for them!