Almost back-to-back before the holidays, Sen. Al Franken and then Rep. Trent Franks announced their resignations, forcing Congress to learn that sexual harassment scandals were sadly bipartisan. What’s more, staffers heard rumors that it was about to get much, much worse — as many as 1 in 10 male lawmakers were going to be exposed and summarily booted off of Capitol Hill.
Justice would be swift.
SOURCES: @CNN and @washingtonpost working on exposing 20-30 congressional members 4 sexual harassment. #DC
— Michael Trujillo (@mikehtrujillo) December 7, 2017
Justice would also be sweeping.
Hearing the total may top 40. https://t.co/SIRQ9B4YLE
— Neil King (@NKingofDC) December 7, 2017
And ultimately, it would come to nothing. Over a month-and-a-half later, neither the Washington Post nor CNN have exposed congressional creeps en masse. There are at least three explanations for the lack of an exodus, each more disturbing than the last.
The possible explanations? Perhaps reporters from competing outlets are sitting on or still working on the story of their careers. While being thorough is a virtue, dawdling is not. If there was a list of five, let alone 40 credible leads, at least a couple should have been run down by now.
Getting sources to go on the record about powerful politicians is never easy, though. It’s also possible that staffers have been cowed, and dozens of creeper lawmakers are still lurking around the halls of Congress. The narcissist politician certainly fits the description of a serial predator. After all, the case of Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., revealed the horrific existence of 264 sealed cases of sexual harassment.
But if a tenth of Congress is blatantly sexually harassing their staff, it seems like Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., would have made several examples out of members by now. They have been walking in lockstep to enforce a joint zero-tolerance policy. Ryan, for instance, pressured Franks to immediately resign. Why would he let others stick around?
The third and final possibility is the most perverse. Perhaps real leads about impropriety got rolled into inflated rumors about exposing congressional members wholesale. It is possible the gossip was meant to stir up hysteria. Misinformation isn’t out of the question.
Michael Trujilo said it was 20 members. He is a seasoned Democrat operative who worked for big names like Hillary Clinton. And Neil King said it could be as many as 40 members. He is a longtime journalist who now works at Fusion GPS, the same firm that pushed the salacious Trump dossier. Both know oppo, and both know how to kick off a narrative.
If that was the goal, it certainly worked. “Congress’ Sexual Harassment Scandal is About to Get Even Worse,” a Vanity Fair headline blared. “Hoo Boy,” TownHall followed up, “WaPo, CNN Preparing to Expose Dozens of Members of Congress on Sexual Harassment and Misconduct?” More than one congressional source got spooked that maybe their boss was next.
More accountability is good, and the #MeToo movement has been painful but healthy. If journalists have credible leads, they need to report them. If congressional leadership knows about sexual harassment, they need to expose it. If operatives started a whisper campaign, they need to own up to it.
