The New Republic claims to be a Democratic outfit but they seem to enjoy criticizing Democrats more than they enjoy criticizing Repubicans. How else can we explain James Kirchick’s decision to bring up a 22-year-old disputed episode to claim that “the Democratic party is crossing a line by tolerating this sort of old-school, old-boy D.C. misogyny.” The word ‘tolerating’ has a present tense, as if the Democratic Party is currently engaged in tolerance for misogyny. So, we might ask, ‘how so?’
Kirchick quotes from an old Michael Kelly article, Kennedy on the Rocks:
It is after midnight and Kennedy and Dodd are just finishing up a long dinner in a private room on the first floor of the restaurant’s annex. They are drunk. Their dates, two very young blondes, leave the table to go to the bathroom. (The dates are drunk, too. “They’d always get their girls very, very drunk,” says a former Brasserie waitress.) Betty Loh, who served the foursome, also leaves the room. Raymond Campet, the co-owner of La Brasserie, tells Gaviglio [a waitress] the senators want to see her.
As Gaviglio enters the room, the six-foot-two, 225-plus-pound Kennedy grabs the five-foot-three, 103-pound waitress and throws her on the table. She lands on her back, scattering crystal, plates and cutlery and the lit candles. Several glasses and a crystal candlestick are broken. Kennedy then picks her up from the table and throws her on Dodd, who is sprawled in a chair. With Gaviglio on Dodd’s lap, Kennedy jumps on top and begins rubbing his genital area against hers, supporting his weight on the arms of the chair. As he is doing this, Loh enters the room. She and Gaviglio both scream, drawing one or two dishwashers. Startled, Kennedy leaps up. He laughs. Bruised, shaken and angry over what she considered a sexual assault, Gaviglio runs from the room. Kennedy, Dodd and their dates leave shortly thereafter, following a friendly argument between the senators over the check.
This episode, if it occurred at all, happened in 1985. How is it relevant to today? Kirchick doesn’t say. He does mention, “since marrying again in 1992, Kennedy has tempered his behavior.” As for Senator Dodd, he only mentions him to note that he is a long-shot contender for the Democratic nomination and a former carousing buddy of Teddy Kennedy. One can only draw the conclusion that Kirchick is criticizing any Democrat that doesn’t condemn Senator Dodd at every turn for his alleged participation in the sexual assault of a waitress in 1985.
You might expect this kind of attack from Michelle Malkin. Hell, you might even expect it from a rival Democratic campaign if Senator Dodd was leading or threatening in the polls. But Senator Dodd is polling below the margin of error.
So, why attack him? Maybe because Senator Dodd has signed on to the Reid-Feingold bill that would put an end to the war? Any other reason?
Nah.
[h/t to The Carpetbagger Report]