In sum, the court finds that a showing of a tangible job
detriment or adverse employment action is an essential element of
plaintiff’s Section 1983 quid pro quo sexual harassment claim and
that plaintiff has not demonstrated any tangible job detriment or
adverse employment action for her refusal to submit to the
governor’s alleged advances. The president is therefore entitled to
summary judgment on plaintiff’s claim of quid pro quo sexual
harassment.
For the foregoing reasons, the court finds that the
president’s and Ferguson’s motions for summary judgment should both
be and hereby are granted. There being no remaining issues, the
Court will enter judgment dismissing this case.
It is so ordered this 1st day of April
1998.
— Susan Webber Wright, United
States District Judge
Not so fast.
What Sharon Bialek described yesterday — an incident from
14 years ago in which she claims Herman Cain put his hand up her
skirt and stopped when she requested him to stop — is not sexual
harassment.
And no less than the federal judge in the case of Paula
Jones and Bill Clinton — that would be one Susan Webber Wright —
has quite specifically outlined what is not
sexual harassment.
And of all people, Gloria Allred should know. Ms. Allred
had Clinton target Paula Jones as a client all the way back then.
Something she seems to have forgotten as it emerges she gave $1,000
to Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign. The same Hillary
Clinton who, according to Kathleen Willey in her book
Target: Caught in the Crosshairs of Bill and Hillary
Clinton, hired a private
investigator to, in Willey’s words, conduct a “terror” campaign against
Clinton’s female accusers. It certainly appears curious that Ms.
Allred, a longtime liberal, would bring forth Sharon Bialek on a
fourteen-year old charge that isn’t even close to the dismissed
Clinton sexual harassment charge — while giving money to the woman
who had other women investigated.
While Clinton agreed to pay Paula Jones an $850,000
settlement, in fact he was granted “summary judgment” by Judge
Webber Wright — and the case of sexual harassment was
dismissed.
Let’s remember what Clinton was accused of. It’s graphic,
hide the kids.
As
stated in the Webber Wright decision, the
then-Governor of Arkansas, in a hotel room with the door
closed, “lowered his trousers and
underwear, exposed his penis (which was erect) and told (her) to
‘kiss it.’”
And after the media had insisted women tell the truth (in
the Clarence Thomas affair, in which the latter never touched Anita
Hill at all) and that sexual harassment was the be-all and end-all
— suddenly they took to ignoring Paula Jones. Her case only got
serious public attention when the Drudge Report
surfaced Monica Lewinsky, which in turn, in an irony of ironies,
opened the door for prosecutors to start formally dredging through
Bill Clinton’s sexual misadventures.
So what do we have here with Ms. Bialek, if what she is
saying is true?
At most — at most — a married man makes a move on a
woman not his employee. She rejects the advance, he stops, that’s
it.
Again, Judge Webber Wright on the actions of Governor Bill
Clinton with Arkansas state employee Paula Jones: The
Governor “lowered his trousers and underwear…” Said Judge Webber
Wright of this behavior:
Reduced to its essence, the record taken as a whole could not
lead a rational trier of fact to find for the nonmoving party
[Paula Jones] and the court therefore finds that there are no
genuine issues for trial in this case…. For the foregoing reasons,
the court finds that the president’s and [Arkansas State Trooper
Danny] Ferguson’s motions for summary judgment should both be and
hereby are granted. There being no remaining issues, the Court will
enter judgment dismissing this case.
In other words, again to be plain, the Governor of the State of
Arkansas summoned one of his employees to his hotel suite, closed
the door, dropped his pants, exposed himself and asked her to “kiss
it.”
Sharon Bialek alleges nothing even remotely close to this
— she says Cain put a hand up her skirt, started to tug her head
to his crotch, she said no — and that’s it. Fourteen years
ago.
So why all this fuss over Herman Cain?
Let’s go back to the first Clinton “bimbo eruption” (as
the Clinton folks called them in the day) — Gennifer Flowers. For
those who came in late, Ms. Flowers interrupted the Clinton march
on the White House during the winter of 1992 with a story that she
had been having an affair with Governor Clinton.
Years later, when a somewhat disaffected George
Stephanopoulos departed the Clinton White House for a fat book
contract and, later, a career at ABC News, he wrote of how the
Clinton campaign staff — that would be George and James Carville
— handled the Flowers episode in his book
All Too Human: A Political Education:
We’d either survive now and go on to fight other battles…
or… we’d become just another anecdote in the long lore of New
Hampshire.
As the reporters talked among themselves, I imagined their
conversation: “Should we ask him?… Don’t we have to?… Hate to,
though…. Remember Paul.” In 1987 Paul Taylor of the
[Washington] Post had broken a barrier by asking
[presidential candidate] Gary Hart flat-out if he’d ever committed
adultery. After that uncomfortable moment in a crowded room, many
reporters and their papers vowed to resist sex stories….
The ex-Clinton aide goes on to detail how the Clinton campaign
set out to make the case that there was no big deal here. It was,
of course, only about sex:
OK… He’s already said he didn’t have a perfect marriage; what
more do they want? And what does it matter — what does that have
to do with being president? The tabloids are attacking him to make
money; the right-wingers are attacking because they’re afraid he’ll
win and afraid of what he’ll do. We can’t let them get away with it
or it will never stop…. When two of the three network news
broadcasts that evening made no mention of Gennifer Flowers, we
rejected all the interview requests and returned to Little
Rock.
Then came the invite from CBS for Bill and Hillary to
appear on 60 Minutes to discuss the situation. The Clinton
team prepped the Governor, including with this note from
Stephanopoulos:
Use your family as a metaphor for character. You’ve had
problems in your marriage, you’ve faced them, you’ve worked through
them, and you’re coming out stronger than ever.
And what did Clinton say that night to America?
As his faithful aide wrote it up:
He admitted to causing “pain” in his marriage and added that
most Americans “get it.” And most viewers did. People heard that
Clinton hadn’t always been faithful, but they also saw a talented
and idealistic couple who were committed to their marriage and the
country’s future…. What’s past is past. It’s time to move on.
And so… America elected Bill Clinton President of the United
States.
Gennifer Flowers was dismissed as he said/she said.
Juanita Broaddrick charged rape and was given a big no-never-mind.
Kathleen Willey said she was groped in the Oval Office and she was
given a big no-never-mind. This was all about sex, thank you very
much. Or, as Stephanopoulos said, “What’s past is past. It’s time
to move on.”
“Move on”…words that later morphed into an entire left-wing
organization that fervently believed Bill Clinton should certainly
not lose his job for his behavior. Today this group is formalized,
of course, as “MoveOn.org.”
And Paula Jones? Her case of sexual harassment was
dismissed by Judge Webber Wright. The fact that Governor Clinton
dropped his pants in front of his state employee and asked her to
“kiss it” was deemed not a “genuine issue” for trial and was
dismissed.
When the Lewinsky case exploded — Bill Clinton was not
convicted by the Senate of the United States. He kept his job as
president, and today is arguably the most popular living
ex-president among the crowd of two Bushes and Jimmy Carter. And,
as mentioned in an earlier post, take a real good look over at
YouTube where you will find this recent video of Lady Gaga
shaking her booty at a laughing Bill and Hillary Clinton (and
Chelsea) and a laughing crowd of Clinton supporters.
Note the drum roll of an opening for this video as well,
presented in excitedly dignified fashion by the “William J. Clinton
Foundation.”
In other words, this incident where Bill Clinton
had: “lowered his trousers and
underwear…” is now just a fond memory of good ol’
Bill. That rascal.
So what’s the difference between Bill Clinton’s case and
Herman Cain in terms of media coverage, with every single known
charge thus far in both instances out on the table including Sharon
Bialek’s?
One.
Just one.
Herman Cain is a black man.
