With a tip of my imaginary hat to Mark Finkelstein and his partially eponymous finkelblogger.com, here is an actual dialogue between CNN political analyst Karoun Demirjian and show host Alisyn Camerota, regarding the difference between allegations against Roy Moore and Bill Clinton’s predatory past:
KAROUN DEMIRJIAN: It’s certainly, it’s probably not something you’re going to hear a lot of Democrats jumping on and saying, well, Bill
Clinton should have resigned over the Monica Lewinsky affair. And then, you’ll probably start to hear a lot of parsing of details. We’re talking about Roy Moore. Those are children, in some cases, with a 14-year-old.
ALISYN CAMEROTA: Underage.
DEMIRJIAN: Underage. Underage, right. Teenagers, let’s just put it that way. Teenagers is the trend for Roy Moore. In the case of Al Franken, this is a question of — it’s sexual assault if he was groping her and forcably kissing her and she didn’t want that.
In Bill Clinton, are we talking about the situations in which there’s allegations of misconduct or, you know, an affair that shouldn’t have happened that might have been consensual. And you’ll start to see these breakdowns.
You know you’re in trouble if even Alisyn Camerota – as partisan as they come – has to push back on you.
Can it be possible that Ms. Demirjian thinks the allegations against Bill Clinton involved only one woman?
Which one was it, Karoun? Paula Jones, who won an $850,000 judgment against him? Monica Lewinsky, a powerless intern who President Clinton had 100% control over and could have gotten rid of any time she said no? Juanita Broaddrick who accuses Clinton of raping her – and said as much contemporaneously, not 25 or 35 or 40 years later? Kathleen Willey? Or do you have someone else in mind?
I actually heard a similarly ridiculous analyst (sorry, can’t remember the name) say that because Leeann Tweeden has now accepted Al Franken’s apology for sticking his tongue down her throat and then molesting her, on camera, when she was asleep, it somehow should not count against him – as if that somehow erases the slate.
Does it count that a second woman, writer/TV commentator Melanie Morgan has come forward with her own Franken horror story? Or can someone invent/concoct/imagine an explanation to make that disappear as well?
What we have here, self-evidently, is a double standard at work. It is a good bet that you will hear variations of this double standard from plenty more “analysts”, joined by Democrats, in the near future.
One last thing, in the form of a note to Senator Franken: if you think that calling for an investigation of your behavior either absolves you of guilt or means you can then duck the allegations against you on the grounds that such an investigation is ongoing, forget it. That’s not going to happen.
Would anyone be surprised if other women now come forward about Franken? I’d be surprised if it stopped at two.
After reading the above I believe Bill Clinton could rape Karoun’s dog and she would find an excuse to make it okay. What a twisted awful woman she is.