Thicker than political affiliation

I just saw a clip where Jake Tapper rightly called out Senator Sheldon Whitehouse for his failure to take early allegations against Graham Platner seriously.

https://x.com/TheLeadCNN/status/2077550284083966013 

"Called out" may not be the best term for it. There is a question and a response, then a kind of snide follow up with a quick "Thank you" from Tapper and a "You bet" that I perceived as angry but resigned. 

I guess that's how these interviews go. A history of people being more open and honest might involve Whitehouse saying something like that he wasn't paying that much attention or he is old-fashioned and doesn't worry too much about the complaints of women... there can be a lot of contributing factors.

I need to note that Jake Tapper sucks pretty frequently.

He has been better about this, following up with Lyndsay Fyfield and picking up the ball the New York Times dropped. 

Whitehouse is not a terrible senator. At least, there are worse ones. 

Representing Rhode Island, he might not even have been paying too much attention to the Maine race, but asked about Platner -- a candidacy that was getting a lot of attention -- Whitehouse said:

"Seems like a lot of nothing. I mean, the only one who had anything to say that seemed 'unsettling' was a woman who works for right-wing political operations."

That doesn't have to mean that Whitehouse was a big Platner fan either, but his answer came down pretty squarely on the side of Don't Believe Women.

I've written about this before, though it has been a few years. Once more, it's not that you automatically believe women, but you do take their stories seriously. You look into it. Is there corroboration?

One of the disturbing things about Whitehouse's comment here is that he refers to his experience as a prosecutor and professional skepticism is important, but there was no corroboration. 

Fyfield had corroboration, having told friends and having diary entries, which the Times knew but did not share.

Because of that, we can say it is not completely Whitehouse's fault that he did not know, but I can't help but wonder how perfunctory the dismissal of rape allegations was when he was a prosecutor. 

Whitehouse is a Democrat; this series is not just going to be picking on leftists.

Sadly, there are some forces that transcend political party, built into the structure of our society and government.

If I harp on that a little, well, I hope at some point it has an impact.