Hillary Clinton after winning the Nevada Democratic caucus vote in 2008. Todd Heisler/The New York Times
I’m sorry, gentle reader. You’ve spent the week listening to terrible news on everything from flu to foreign affairs, and now we’ve got a story about how Hillary Clinton tolerated sexual harassment in her presidential campaign.
There are several ways to handle this, and one is definitely to consider moving to another country. Another is to say that you’re not going to listen to any of this as long as the country is run by a man whose track record on sexual issues is Cro-Magnon. Or to ask what would have happened to Hillary if she had been recorded bragging about how fame gives her the right to grab men by their private parts.
But let’s be tough-minded and think this new controversy through: According to a Times report by Maggie Haberman and Amy Chozick, during the 2008 presidential campaign, a senior Clinton aide named Burns Strider was accused of sexually harassing a woman who had the bad luck to be working in his office. Clinton’s campaign manager recommended he be fired. Instead, the candidate opted for sending him to counseling and docking him several weeks’ pay. The law firm that worked for the campaign said it had set up a process for handling sexual harassment complaints and this was “appropriate action.”
One of the deep, deep ironies of this story is Strider’s job, which was “faith adviser.” Among his duties was sending Clinton scriptural passages every morning.
Things I take into consideration here: As Gail points out it was a first offense, and he likely would have remained in the Democratic Party system anyway. It was ten years ago when the landscape was very different. Hillary's 2008 campaign differed from her 2016 campaign. The earlier campaign was not focused as heavily on women's issues as the later one. In fact, advisors steered her away from the "woman candidate" role then.
Finally, and this is key to my take, no one, least of all Hillary Clinton, has ever said Hillary Clinton was perfect. It was an imperfect decision. She is human and makes mistakes.
A story appeared today about something that happened in 2008. I was dismayed when it occurred, but was heartened the young woman came forward, was heard, and had her concerns taken seriously and addressed.
What a weekend it was! Millions on the march on Saturday were largely ignored by Sunday morning TV as the government remained in shut-down mode. The GOP, which espouses family values and a strong military, stubbornly resisted Claire McCaskill's efforts to continue military pay and suspend Congressional pay for the duration. Linda Sarsour, a Women's March organizer, insisted the marches would have occurred even if Hillary Clinton had been elected. Hillary supporters, of course, would never have turned out.
It was another weekend in the rabbit hole that is Trump's America.
Amy Chozick's editorialin last week's New York Times suggested that Hillary was fading from the political scene. Refreshingly, Gail Collins does not see things that way at all.
Question: Do you think Donald Trump spends more time thinking about Hillary Clinton than Hillary Clinton spends thinking about Donald Trump?
Sure does seem like it. The other day, Trump was discussing Russia at a news conference with the prime minister of Norway, when he suddenly announced that Clinton “was not for a strong military and Hillary, my opponent, was for windmills, and she was for other types of energy that don’t have the same capacities at this moment certainly.”
Yeah, it didn’t make any sense. But he really can’t seem to get past her. Recently while promoting tax cuts and a congressional candidate in Pennsylvania, Trump veered off to remind the crowd that during the campaign, Clinton had once called his supporters “deplorables.”
“Who would have thought that was going to turn into a landslide?” asked the president, alluding to a contest in which he lost the popular vote by 2.9 million. Read more >>>>
Many of the women who marched Saturday said specifically that they marched because of Hillary.
Hillary Clinton is not going anywhere. The events page at the website for her bookcontinues to forecast additional events in 2018. Moreover, Donald Trump seems unable to let her go.
The movie Suffragetteis
now playing. With Hillary Clinton running strong for the Democratic
nomination, Gail Collins provides a Sunday morning history lesson on
how we arrived at this point. Who were the women who paved the way, who
opposed them, and how? Except for op-eds written by Hillary, there
have not been many featured here in recent years, but Gail spoke with Hillary, so this one is special and ranks right up there with
interviews. It is a nice concise summary of the women who have tried
with a few surprises. Have a lovely Sunday!
Credit Hieronymus, photograph by Ian Thomas Jansen-Lonnquist for The New York Times
Gail Collins
Op-Ed Columnist
IT’S
officially one year until the presidential election. Amazing how time
flies, isn’t it? Once again we’re watching debates featuring what
appears to be the entire supporting cast of “Ben-Hur.” Once again we’re
asking ourselves why Iowa always gets to be first. Once again we’re
wondering whether Hillary Clinton will make history by becoming the
first woman president.
“It’s hard
to believe there’s another year,” Clinton said in a phone interview,
taking the glass-half-empty perspective. She was on her way to the
airport during a fund-raising swing through California, broken up by an
appearance on Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night show. Her formula for making it
through another 12 months, she said cheerfully, was pretty simple:
“We’re just getting up every morning. Step by step.”
“It’ll be a
long slog,” she added with what I believe the entire nation understands
is total accuracy. “But it’s more fun this time because I feel like
we’re doing better.”
