There is a Democratic member of congress who has payed a sexual harassment settlement with tax payer funds.


A more helpful answer would have been "Congressman Conyers has served his country honorably in the US Army and in the halls of congress. However, he sexually harassed a member of his staff and payed a settlement with taxpayer funds. If we are going to create an environment where victims of harassment feel comfortable coming forward we have to send a message that powerful people will be held responsible for their actions and taxpayers won't pay for their misdeeds, even if they are an icon"


How can we have any credibility on the the issue of sexual harassment when we defend someone in our own ranks who has payed a settlement with tax payer money.

that is not what I heard.

pelosi certainly cannot come out and say he did anything wrong.

she can speak for due processs, she can speak for updating the system for handling complaints, she can speak for not using tax payer money for settlements, etc., but she can't say the situation for conyers is worse than what we know it to be.

for many businesses and famous people, getting sued and sometimes settling lawsuits is a cost of doing business having little to nothing to do with the merits of the case because it costs time and money to defend a lawsuit and a settlement to make it all go away often has appeal, especially if accompanied with an agreement not to publicize the result.

people are free to speculate, and one can certainly say it's better to have someone without a cloud that one with, but you can't call settlement anything more than questions without answers.

which is what you're asking pelosi to do.

nor would i do so if it were a republican.

i can say something like "why can't they find someone who hasn't been accused" and i can say the same in conyer's case.

note that pelosi already pushed him out of the judiciary chair.


and i agree that the current process for handling complaints against members of congress is ridiculous.

but donnie and moore have made some revealing statements, admissions, or tried to defend themselves in ways that point to their own guilt.

conyers has not.

having multiple accusers is never a good sign, and i think pelosi was right to push him aside, at least until we have more clarity, though that may be never.

i'm hardly giving conyers a free pass here. i'm not sure why you feel the need to rush to judgement and i'm not clear at all why you think i would feel compelled to if it were a republican, or why you think that's an important point.

There is one settlement against Conyers.


To my understanding he answered one female wearing a towel or a bathrobe. Given his age that could be a sign of dementia and unrelated to the harassment issue.

Just to be completely clear, I have no reason to defend Conyers. Any person who engages in serious or serial harassment should not be in a position of public trust.

That said, Conyers has stated that the settlement was for a complaint of wrongful termination. Granted, that stemmed from an allegation of harassment according to the complainant, but the media is making it sound like he is paying hush money to avoid an allegation of harassment directly.

My wife was an employee at a company providing mental health services. The managers of the program really liked her. Then one of the managers left the company and a new clinical director was hired that had a 2 year degree instead of a doctorate like my wife. My wife being who she is, is opinionated and will correct wrong information. She did not get along well at all with the new clinical director and the manager who previously loved my wife, appeared to change and step back. All of a sudden, my wife's position was "eliminated" because of restructuring. The company shifted my wife to a different unit and split her time, then began to pull back hours, then eventually ended the position. We went to a lawyer who stated that we could sue for wrongful termination and would likely get a settlement of some percentage of my wife's salary as a severance. The lawyer was very confident that he could get that settlement because companies do not like to go to court. The lawyer even offered to reduce his retainer, but we did not have the money to move forward at that time. The point of the story is that while the company terminated the employment in a very unprofessional and messed up way, there wasn't really any discrimination or other protected status that would support a major lawsuit, but there was enough to worry the company and have some leverage to get a settlement.

Just to make it clear again, I am not saying that Conyers did not do anything wrong or that the accusers are lying. I think that there should be hearings to look into all of the allegations and bring the happenings to light. I also agree that there should be no "secret money", especially in government. I do find it somewhat hypocritical however, that these Republican congress women are criticizing Conyers and Franken, but stay away from the situation with their president.

funds one way or another. We just don't know about most of them. If they are paid with political contributions that is still taxpayer funds. I am not certain what "misdeeds" we are talking about? It's not that sexual harassment and assault are right by any means but I worked with these kinds of cases in the government. A lot depends on nuance and whether or not the behavior of some men is accepted or rejected. It used to be that the initial overture was not considered harassment or assault if it happened once, was rejected and the behavior stopped. At least the charge would have depended on whether or not the woman said "no." Both male and female managers often speak to their staff with less than courteous tones and some actually curse at them. I have witnessed harassment charges by women who brought charges of harassment because her co-worker was receiving favored treatment and promotions because of a consensual relationship (though secret) between her co-worker and the supervisor.

Conyers agreement was over an actual "wrongful termination" because of an alleged sexual harassment charge that went no where. More to all of this than meets the eyes and ears.

Due process should afforded Rep. Conyers as much as Trump and Moore. The media is beginning to become an enemy of the people who support them most. It is sickening. Especially from the women in journalism who know what really goes on behind closed doors in corporate America and the Congress.

Why is it so difficult to wait for the truth to come out on all sides? I never heard Conyers demean the women accusers. I heard him deny the accusations. Equating Roy Moore allegations to those of others is phony diversion. I believe the women who accused Conyers of what they believed happened. I now want to hear what Conyers has to say about what happened. Many times civil suits are settled out of court to the satisfaction of all parties.

They even brought in a former B Clinton staffer to discuss how "badly" Dems are handling this.

Not. One. Mention. Of Roy Moore.

didn't the the lady ex Clinton staffer say Bill CLinton should've resigned when asked?

I will never understand how Dems do not defend each other well at all. Be smart, be diplomatic, disciplined and BS the onus back to the republicans? Too much to ask I guess.

She also said that Democrats would be demanding McConnell's resignation if he was facing the same accusations as Franken and so they should demand Franken resign or they are hypocrites.

Again, no mention of R hypocrisy WRT Vitter, Sanford, Hastert, etc, etc. It's the Dems who are bad, bad, bad!

about almost everything. Until we UNITE and stop doing the Repukes' work for them, things won't get better. Unfortunately, there seems to be very little evidence of unity taking place.

in the entire state.

Comey released the letter to the republicans in Congress that reported "the email investigation had been reopened". THAT WAS A LIE. They then proceeded to parade every right wing politician across their screen to propagate that lie for the next several hours, while other news outlets followed that same pattern.

Is it really a surprise that 25% of the American populace believe that President Obama isn't American?

I think Chuck Todd characterized the fourth estate he is part of perfectly, when he said it wasn't their job to correct falsehood made by the republicans in regard to the ACA.

Good Grief.