Mitch McConnell Says He Stood Up for Women in a Sexual-Harassment Scandal and The Real Story Is ...

[MindMover]

Facing his toughest reelection battle in years against a well-known and well-financed female opponent, Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) recently boasted that he led the Senate in ousting a GOP colleague accused of sexual harassment in 1995. But news reports from that time show that late in the investigation, McConnell tried to stall the probe against his fellow Republican, Sen. Bob Packwood (R-Ore.). He derided efforts by Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) to hold public hearings on Packwood as "frolic and detour"—after the Senate ethics committee had substantiated nearly two-dozen claims of sexual harassment leveled against Packwood by female lobbyists and former staffers.

Talking about the Packwood scandal this past week, McConnell noted that he was chair of the Senate ethics committee when Packwood resigned. In a Tuesday interview with the Lexington Herald-Leader, McConnell said he had taken "the toughest possible position." The newspaper reported that McConnell had "offered himself as an example of how elected officials should handle situations when a member of their own party is accused of sexual harassment."

But the bulk of the ethics probe against Packwood took place when the committee was chaired by a Democrat. When Republicans regained a majority in the Senate after the 1994 elections and McConnell became chair of the committee, he transformed the Packwood investigation into a partisan mess.

Here's the backstory: In late November 1992, the Washington Post reported that at least 10 lobbyists and former Packwood staffers said they had been sexually harassed by Packwood. Several of the women claimed that Packwood had grabbed them or forcibly kissed them until they protested or pushed him away.

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2014/04/mitch-mcconnell-bob-packwood-sexual-harassment

[Laelth]

1. k&r for the truth. n/t

-Laelth

[WhiteTara]

2. It would be good to be rid of the Turtle. nt

[groundloop]

3. You'd think Turtle would figure out when to keep his mouth shut (and stay in his shell)

Turtle apparently hasn't learned too much about the newfangled thing called "internet". It makes it just too darned easy to catch GOPers in really egregious lies like this one. If he'd have just kept his mouth shut this ugly part of history would have remained forgotten, but he just gave us yet another tidbit to use in his downfall.

edit to add: Now I'm thinking about how this story will fit into a 30 second commercial. I can envision a set of a dozen or so different commercials, each exposing various lies and unsavory bits of Turtle-history. All those ads would run in rotation, so people can see all his various lies and manipulations of history in all their glory.

[daleanime]

5. Some one please make it so...

[libodem]

4. I can't stand that glassy eyed turtle

What a liar and a scoundrel.

[catbyte]

6. Morans like Yertle just can't seem to get it through their heads there's a little thing called the

Internet & fake claims like his can be easily fact checked.