A few thoughts before the next accusation breaks
by Spocko
I was listening to Howie Klein on the David Feldman show today.
They were talking about the Kentucky legislator Dan Johnson who committed suicide on Wednesday night following accusations he molested a member of his church when she was 17.
I had been following the stories of multiple sexual harassment cases in the Kentucky Legislature for weeks with stories like this:
- Sexual harassment claims against lawmakers were secretly settled out of court.
- Payoffs to the women involved came from private donors.
- Four of the representatives involved lost chairmanships of committees, but are still state reps.
- House Speaker Jeff Hoover stepped down but is still a representative.
So I knew about the Dan Johnson case, and I also knew that it was much more than a single accusation. There was a seven-month investigation based on more than 100 interviews and more than 1,000 pages of public documents. Read or listen to, “The Pope’s Long Con” the investigative series from the Kentucky Center for Investigative Reporting and Louisville Public Media.
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| Rep. Dan “Pope” Johnson singing with the Heart of Fire ‘Gun Choir’ from Guns. Com video. |
But unless you read that story you will probably only hear about the most high profile or most recent accusations.
Feldman asked Klein about the case. Howie is never shy about stating his opinions about politicians, including Democrats. Dan Johnson was a gun toting, bible thumping, Republican Kentucky senator, not someone Howie would have a kind word for. I liked his response.
“I believe in due process, I really do. I mean he’s accused, I mean I’m not the judge, I’m not the jury I don’t even know all the facts.”
It’s important to have investigations, due process and accountability for all. Republicans, Democrats, men and women.
The Kentucky political harassment cases in particular interest me because I want to know what happened after the stories about the settled lawsuits came out. Is losing your committee chair the appropriate response? Who decides?
There are multiple other charges that we know about Johnson that are true. What would have been the legislative response to them? Lost of chairmanships?
Johnson’s wife is running for his seat. What are her qualifications? We shouldn’t tie the actions of the husband to the wife. But we should ask, what did she know and when did she know it? Again, this is not a story about a single accusation in a vacuum. They show a pattern.
If there needs to be more investigations to prove it to the public, that should happen.