At a women’s conference in Washington, Vice President Joe Biden touted Bob Packwood, a politician brought down by a sexual harassment scandal:
“It was Republicans who expanded access to the polls. It was Republicans in the Judiciary Committee that did motor voter. It’s Republicans that were involved — guys like Mac Mathias and Packwood and so many others,” Biden said, praising politicians Democrats were once able to work with. “It wasn’t Democrats alone. Republicans were the sponsors of raises in the minimum wage. I could go on and on. So I’m not joking — this is not your father’s Republican party or your mother’s Republican party.”
Packwood of course is Senator Bob Packwood.
“After Republican Robert W. Packwood was narrowly reelected to the Senate by Oregon voters in 1992, The Washington Post published a lengthy front-page story outlining the senator’s unwanted sexual advances as reported by 10 women, mainly former staff members and lobbyists,” the Washington Post writes of Packwood.
“The extremely detailed and convincing accounts of Packwood’s gross misbehavior were appalling. Outrage toward Packwood in his home state of Oregon and across the nation grew by day. The scandal and legal entanglements surrounding it would lead the senator to tearfully end his political career in 1995.”
