The Terror Will End When Men Get Time Machines And Go Back Into Their Pasts And Stop Harassing Women

by Nancy Ohanian

Ruben Kihuen was one of my favorite congressional candidates in 2018. Blue America did a dual endorsement for him and Lucy Flores, but his progressive record of leadership in the Nevada legislature. A former Harry Reid aide, he was elected to the state House in 2006 and then the state Senate, where he served as Majority Whip, pushing an agenda to benefit working families. As you know by now, the #MeToo movement has destroyed his political career-- supported by DCCC chairman (and closet case) Ben Gay Luján and Nancy Pelosi. If the House had any real rising stars, Ruben was certainly one of them.

Personally I became disenchanted with him once he was elected to Congress and joined the corrupt, corporately-owned New Dems and started voting consistently against progressive legislation in the House. His ProgressivePunch crucial vote score earned him a "D" rating, from from the "A" we expected. But that doesn't mean he deserved to be railroaded out of Congress-- the DCCC cut off his funding-- without any due process. My guess-- and it's just a guess-- is that he's probably a pig, but I'm not a judge, jury or a House Ethics Committee member. Over the weekend Kihuen, the son of a mother who works cleaning hotel rooms and a dad who worked as a n agricultural laborer, announced that he would not seek re-election. This was his sad statement:

Nothing is more important to me than my family and serving my constituents. It is the greatest honor of my life to represent Nevada’s Fourth District as a Member of the United States House of Representatives.

The support and encouragement of my constituents provides me with the strength and guidance to represent Nevada to the best of my abilities.

I want to state clearly again that I deny the allegations in question. I am committed to fully cooperating with the House Ethics Committee and I look forward to clearing my name.

Due process and the presumption of innocence are bedrock legal principles which have guided our nation for centuries, and they should not be lost to unsubstantiated hearsay and innuendo.

However, the allegations that have surfaced would be a distraction from a fair and thorough discussion of the issues in a reelection campaign. Therefore, it is in the best interests of my family and my constituents to complete my term in Congress and not seek reelection.

I want to state clearly again that I deny the allegations in question,” Kihuen, D-Nev., said in a statement to the Las Vegas Review-Journal. “I am committed to fully cooperating with the House Ethics Committee and look forward to clearing my name.

The accusations were enough to do him in, something that is going to cause a very serious backlash for Democrats, many of whom seem not to care, claiming that the movement is more important than the politics. Eugene Puryear made a crucial point we should all keep in the backs of our minds: "[H]istorically here, there was always a push for the Civil Rights movement to moderate itself, or subject itself purely to the political demands of the Democratic Party at the moment. The argument was that if they did not it would cause a white backlash that could kill the momentum on civil rights legislative priorities... This moment is bigger than the Democrats or the Republicans, it is bigger than partisan politics. We are seeing truly mass steps towards an extremely necessary, critical, indispensable cultural change in this country. We need to fan the flames. The time to fight to take on (and hopefully crush) the patriarchy is now, women are fighting and leading, we need to join them not lament that some pissed off dudes are gonna vote next year."

Democratic Party leaders first called for Kihuen to step down over allegations of sexual harassment made public in a BuzzFeed story Dec. 1. A former campaign finance aide said she quit in 2016 after Kihuen made unwanted advances and touched her inappropriately.

A second unnamed woman, who worked as a lobbyist in Carson City when Kihuen was a state senator, came forward this week with similar accusations of harassment against the lawmaker, according to the Nevada Independent.

The Ethics Committee will now empanel a subcommittee to investigate the accusations against Kihuen, a process that could take months. House Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer (D-MD) said the panel should review the allegations. If true, Hoyer said Kihuen should resign.

Sunday, Politico's Elena Schneider reported that "the wave of sexual harassment allegations on Capitol Hill is already beginning to reshape the 2018 election landscape, crushing some campaigns under its pressure but providing breakthrough opportunities for others."

What’s still unclear is how the spate of sexual harassment scandals might sway voters in 2018. Early public polling suggests Democratic voters are more likely to believe accusations of misconduct than Republicans. A Monmouth University poll released this week found that 37 percent of Republicans believe such reports about GOP legislators are accurate, while 63 percent of Democrats trust those reports about Democratic lawmakers.

...Some GOP strategists’ worry their party’s response to various scandals could further hurt them among suburban voters and women, two blocs that they can’t afford to lose as they try to defend their 24-seat majority in the House.

“The loss of urban and suburban voters in 2016 plus sexual harassment scandals is probably not a good way to secure these moderate Republican and Independent voters long-term,” said Kevin Schuvalov, a Republican strategist based in Texas. “It’s an opening for Democrats to go get voters who aren’t naturally available to them.”

Republican pollster Robert Blizzard warned that “women voters, especially Independent women, are a key audience in the ‘18 election up and down the ticket across the country,” so to “be perceived as weak on this issue at your own peril.”

photo by (and of) Kourtney Roy

And... another one-- a really good one this time-- looks like he's biting the dust. State Senator Daylin Leach, the "Liberal Lion" of the Pennsylvania state legislature and the hands-down favorite for the PA-07 congressional race has been accused. A Philadelphia Inquirer report yesterday noted that "None of the women who described seeing or hearing questionable conduct by Leach told the Inquirer and Daily News that they had been assaulted, denied promotions, or had their careers threatened. Each said that he created and promoted a culture in his office that objectified women and that he often framed his comments as harmless jokes. Leach, in his statement, said he never 'intentionally or unintentionally touched' these women inappropriately. 'It did not happen.' Although in the same statement he said of the two incidents: 'I recall one not at all and one only vaguely.' ... Leach's supporters have argued that allegations about his conduct are politically motivated." Meanwhile...