When former GOP Senator Al D’Amato suggested hypocrisy on the part of feminists, who demanded former Republican Senator Bob Packwood resign after charges of unwanted sexual advances, but who now refuse to call for Congressman Gary Condit (D-CA) to resign over his obfuscation in the Chandra Levy case, Newsweek’s Eleanor Clift lectured: “You know the difference between consensual sex between adults and sex that is not consensual, and that was the difficulty with Senator Packwood.”
The following exchange took place at about 11:30am EDT Tuesday on the Fox News Channel between D’Amato and Clift:
D’Amato: “If this was Bob Packwood, and I go back some years ago, I remember you and your whole clique going wild over somebody who was accused of kissing some women. Here you have somebody who’s admitted after he lied that he had sex with an intern, who’s obfuscated the facts, who’s asked people to perjure themselves, and I don’t hear you raising your voice as you did when Packwood had problems where there was no missing person, there was no one who might have been killed, nothing like that, and yet you were there howling for him to step down, and you were. You were. But this man, oh no, let the people vote.”
Clift: “Sir, I think you’re a grownup and you know the difference between consensual sex between adults and sex that is not consensual, and that was the difficulty with Senator Packwood.”
D’Amato: “I think you know the distinction between subornation of perjury and a missing person as opposed to your drumbeat to throw Packwood out of the Congress.”
Clift: “Second point, the feminist community was very slow in calling for Packwood’s resignation, and I think some members of Congress were upset about that.”
Assuming that’s true, it’s only because media “progressives” and feminists were so pleased with his pro-abortion efforts and anti-budget cutting work — shields missing from the resume of Clarence Thomas. As Clift’s ideological soulmate Margaret Carlson bemoaned in the May 29, 1995, Time magazine:
“There should be an effort to reconcile the two Packwoods: the lout — who purportedly pounced on unsuspecting women, sticking his tongue in one’s mouth, running his hands up the legs of another, 18 reprehensible acts over 21 years — with the Senator who was a lonely champion of women’s rights, and who is proving himself to be a voice of honesty and probity among the budget slashers in his own party.”
(This update courtesy of the Media Research Center.)
