Do you know who
Mel Reynolds is? If you're from
Illinois, I'm sure you do. He's a black
Congressman from up there who was sent to
prison for having sex with an underage girl. A girl who supposedly worked for him. A
subordinate. An
employee. An
underling.
I won't go into details about this sordid affair, but let's just say that there was little doubt the jury was going to convict him after the whole story came out. Messy, nasty stuff. With kids.
Bill Clinton, as one of his last acts of pure mercy, commuted Mr. Reynolds' sentence. He didn't actually pardon him, so he's still a convicted felon. But he is out of jail and was looking for work.
I doubt he was going to get hired by any real prestigious organizations with his history, but he did get a pretty cushy gig with Rainbow/PUSH. Jesse Jackson hired Mr. Reynolds as a consultant. You know what consultant means, don't you? Those are the folks who go and look at organizations which are doing just fine and say, "Hmmm. This is working in the real world, but I wonder if it will work in theory?"
Well, anyway, this next line comes from Deroy Murdock who writes for National Review Online in his article of 2/9/01:
This is a first in American politics. An ex-congressman who had sex with a subordinate won clemency from a president who had sex with a subordinate, then was hired by a clergyman who had sex with a subordinate.
Where are the
women's groups on this? Why no
outrage over this? I swear I don't get it. Is having sex with an employee only a bad thing when a
Republican or an evil corporate
robber baron does it, and perfectly acceptable when a
liberal does it?
I hope the IRS asks Rainbow/PUSH how they justify using tax-free money to support this sort of craziness.