Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Accused of treason; bitches about the ratings. I am in awe.

There are a lot more evil idiots than evil geniuses.

DeSantis transforming Florida into 1930s Germany with gators and theme parks.

The rest of the comments were smacking Boebert like she was a piñata.

One of our two political parties is a cult whose leader admires Vladimir Putin.

Bad people in a position to do bad things will do bad things because they are bad people. End of story.

Everybody saw this coming.

Anyone who bans teaching American history has no right to shape America’s future.

Democrats have delivered the Square Deal, the New Deal, the Fair Deal, and now… the Big Joe Biden Deal.

Dead end MAGA boomers crying about Talyor Swift being a Dem is my kind of music. Turn it up.

Fight for a just cause, love your fellow man, live a good life.

This country desperately needs a functioning Fourth Estate.

It’s a good piece. click on over. but then come back!!

Let there be snark.

Teach a man to fish, and he’ll sit in a boat all day drinking beer.

Nikki Haley, who can’t acknowledge ‘slavery’, is a pathetic shill.

Books are my comfort food!

New McCarthy, same old McCarthyism.

Chutkan laughs. Lauro sits back down.

Balloon Juice, where there is always someone who will say you’re doing it wrong.

“Can i answer the question? No you can not!”

Quote tweet friends, screenshot enemies.

When do the post office & the dmv weigh in on the wuhan virus?

Let’s not be the monsters we hate.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Your Regularly Scheduled New York Sexual Harassment Update

Your Regularly Scheduled New York Sexual Harassment Update

by | 89 Comments

This post is in: 

A female commissioned Army officer has accused Rep. Tom Reed (R-NY-23) of inappropriate touching. The details are not good for old Tom:

Nicolette Davis said she was 25, on her first networking trip as a junior lobbyist for an insurance company, when she felt the 45-year-old congressman’s hand on her back. She and other lobbyists had gathered at an Irish pub in Minneapolis after a day of ice fishing, Davis told The Washington Post, and Rep. Tom Reed (R-N.Y) was seated to her left.

“A drunk congressman is rubbing my back,” she texted a friend and co-worker at Aflac that evening in 2017, adding later, “HELP HELP.”

Reed, his hand outside her blouse, briefly fumbled with her bra before unhooking it by pinching the clasp, Davis told The Post. He moved his hand to her thigh, inching upward, she said.

Frozen in fear, she said, she asked the person sitting to her right for help. He obliged by pulling the congressman away from the table and out of the restaurant, Davis said.

Davis’ account is supported by a person who was at the table that night.

Reed represents the Southern Tier of New York, which is a combination of Pennsyltucky-style rural areas, Finger Lakes wine country, and the very liberal Ithaca area. That Post story goes on to say that Reed was thinking about a run for Governor in New York. That rates a hearty chuckle from me. A Southern Tier Republican is dead on arrival for that job.

Part of the story of Reed running for Governor is that New York is facing a redistricting and we’re going to lose seats, how many is not yet clear. Reed’s district was re-drawn to include Ithaca last redistricting, which in theory should have made it more gettable, but it still hovers in the R+6 range. The next re-districting might either make the district less Republican, or it might combine it with NY-26, which means that Reed would have to challenge Republican Chris Jacobs for the seat. In other words, Tom might as well have taken a shot at Governor because his career as Member of Congress could well have been over prior to the harassment charge.

So, as with all New York politics of late, that brings us to Mario’s kid. The latest on Andrew is that the former Secretary to the Governor (a big deal job), who was called back to help with the vaccination rollout, made “are you loyal” phone calls on Cuomo’s behalf to county officials. And, now that the knives are out for Cuomo, women are coming forward to document a culture of harassment in Albany that included, but went far beyond, Cuomo.

The interesting thing about Cuomo is that Republicans want him to quit, but not because of the sexual harassment. They want to make it all about his COVID response, as a whatabout to own the libs whenever the pathetic performances of the numbskulls in Florida and Texas are mentioned. The less interesting thing is that this stubborn mofo isn’t going to quit anytime soon.

Reader Interactions

89Comments

  2. 2.

    Roger Moore

    The interesting thing about Cuomo is that Republicans want him to quit, but not because of the sexual harassment.

    In this case, of course interesting ≠ surprising. They want him to quit because he’s a Democrat, but they don’t want to spread the message that there’s anything wrong with sexual harassment.

  3. 3.

    Ken

    I’m starting to think the ancient Romans, Chinese, Persians, etc. were on the right track in using eunuchs.

  5. 5.

    laura

    God I’m sick of men this week. Just sick to fucking death of them. Every handsy sex pest in the entirety of my life, school, workplace, “friends” and family comes rushing back as though it were yesterday. Ask any/every girl and woman – she’s got stories of her unwanted experiences too.

  6. 6.

    Yutsano

    @Just Some Fuckhead:  Wait…so I’m doing this all wrong? Instead of treating women respectfully I need to be slapping butts under skirts? No wonder my non-existent political career hasn’t gotten anywhere!

  8. 8.

    JoyceCB

    @laura: Every woman has at least one Squid in her life – the guy with eight hands.  Every time you manage to brush one away another one starts groping somewhere else.

  9. 9.

    germy

    The expected nomination of District Court Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to replace Merrick Garland on the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals could be a precursor to another promotion for her — fulfilling Biden’s campaign promise to choose a Black woman for a seat on the Supreme Court.

    Sources close to the deliberations insist that no final decisions have been made, and a White House spokesperson declined to comment on any pending personnel announcements.

    But the preparations come ahead of what they say will be a more urgent push than previous Democratic administrations to fill judicial seats, after then-President Donald Trump and Senate Republicans confirmed scores of young, conservative jurists over the past four years.

    https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/white-house/biden-poised-announce-first-wave-nominations-reshape-u-s-courts-n1261414

  10. 10.

    Ken

    @germy: Is that because they also signed the tax returns?

    And, if it’s so dreaded, why do so many Republicans make every effort to accumulate ex-wives?

  12. 12.

    Anoniminous

    Reuters is reporting Proud Boys leaders Ethan Nordean of Washington, Joseph Biggs of Florida, Zachary Rehl of Pennsylvania and Charles Donohoe of North Carolina are being charged with conspiracy in relation to the Washington attack.  Since they solicited funds in order to cross state lines so they could commit a felony and a murder was a direct result of that ….

    Seems to me they be in deep trouble.

    (Note: IANAL )

  17. 17.

    Sure Lurkalot

    @Mike in NC: I’m sorry to say that such behavior is not limited to Republican men.  Or even outwardly creepy men.  It happens when your radar anticipates it and when it does not.  From people you like(d) and respect(ed) (and thought you knew) right before.

  18. 18.

    Brachiator

    And, now that the knives are out for Cuomo, women are coming forward to document a culture of harassment in Albany that included, but went far beyond, Cuomo.

    This could hardly be a startling revelation. The question is, what can be done about it? You can focus on a few individual malefactors until the cows come home, but this won’t necessarily change anything.

  20. 20.

    smith

    As several commenters above have noted, pretty much every woman has experienced something like this. These creeps are very, very common and probably have indulged in this behavior for so many years that it’s a habit that they don’t even focus on. In other words, the creeps probably don’t even remember what they’ve done, but the women never forget. I am amused to think that at least some of them might be paying attention to the various Downfalls of the Creeps playing out before them, and lying awake at night trying desperately to recall which of their many offenses might rise up from the past and take them down.

  21. 21.

    Skippy-san

    The fact that she is an Army reservist is not relevant to this discussion. She was not on active duty at the time – so she is the same as any other civilian  who got unwanted attention.

  23. 23.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    Wonder what Greenwald, Taibbi, Tracey et al will do when Substack finally folds?

  27. 27.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    Today, he is very approving of Silberman’s pro-GOP crazy dissent (the one that called for NYT vs Sullivan to be overturned).

    He is also very grudgy about David Miranda being seen as a useless boy-toy under Glenn’s thumb.

  30. 30.

    Anyway

    Out of the loop here – what’s going on with Substack? And Bari Weiss – where will she land?

  32. 32.

    WereBear

    @germy: Abusive authoritarians don’t usually mate for life.

    And now I’m having those Martha Mitchell flashbacks from Watergate. What she claimed sounds so much more plausible now…

  35. 35.

    germy

    Boebert is on to us:

    “So we are seeing a lot of ugliness uncovered, a lot of corruption exposed. But I believe that we are going to start seeing gifts and callings of righteous men and women exposed to counter all of this. Gifts that have remained dormant on the inside of people are going to start rising up. People are going to start filling these positions that they never saw themselves in, doing their part to serve their country.

    Now, I want to tell you, I heard someone who is in very close contact with President Trump and the ins and outs of the White House under that administration. Talk to the owners of Epoch Times. They talk to the owners of Epoch Times and they said: “don’t change anything. You are right over the target.”

    So anyone who tries to tell you that this is a fringe newspaper/media don’t listen to them. I have very good sources to say this is really good information. Is it a hundred percent? I don’t know. But it’s really good information. And we all know that there was information that was declassified just a few days before President Trump left office. And I know someone who is involved in declassifying that. And this person is getting very tired of waiting on the DOJ to do something about it. And we will be hearing about it very, very soon. And this is my opinion with that information that I have, I believe we will see resignations begin to take place. And I think we can take back the majority in the House and the Senate before 2022 when all of this is ended.”

    https://coloradotimesrecorder.com/2021/03/promoting-qanon-linked-conspiracy-boebert-says-resignations-will-soon-allow-gop-to-control-congress/35257/

  36. 36.

    germy

    @Jay:

    The last person who debated Joe Biden ended up hospitalized at Walter Reed and had to tweet out proof of life videos to let the country know he was still alive

    — Acyn (@Acyn) March 19, 2021

  37. 37.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @smith:As several commenters above have noted, pretty much every woman has experienced something like this.

    Yes, but the thing is most women say this happened back in the 90s and not so much these days. It is like things like politics, policing and entertainment have been frozen at 1965 while rest of society moved on.

    And I will point out, it isn’t just the women who suffer grief at the hands of these creeps. As with the Cuomo scandal the first accusation against Cuomo was from a male state assembly member Cuomo threatened.  This is disgusting, brutish behavior from a-holes drunk on power and not just some boys will be boys thing.

  39. 39.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @Yutsano:

    Too true. I still laugh when I remember the CEO of Gab of was boasting about Trump being on the platform and it turns out it was just some account that was created so his name wouldn’t be taken by somebody else; literally a placeholder. Then his and the fake Trump account were compromised by hackers lol

    Going off on a slightly related tangent. I remember seeing an SNL skit after the Insurrection and the all of the banning/deplatforming of violent right-wing extremists on social media.

    It was a talk show and the host interviewed various people and the jokes revolved around how American institutions no longer work. “Zuck” and “Jack Dorsey” were brought on and the fake Dorsey said something about how things weren’t going well because the deplatforming meant that extremists could more easily hide now from public view. And this was supposed to be funny. SNL pulled the same bullshit with making a “Haha Biden is Mr. Rogers!” joke back after the debates.

    I mean, WTF were Twitter and Facebook supposed to do? Let them continue spewing misinformation and violent, racist rhetoric? Twitter and Facebook are not above criticism but this is asinine. Stephen Colbert making a “Little girls can bomb Syria now when they grow up too” joke a few weeks back about the new female generals being sworn in also qualifies

    Is this supposed to “biting” political satire? The only explanation I can think of other than the producers and writers being hacks is that they’re trying to appeal to the widest audience possible and this results in appealing to the lowest common denominator. However, comedians like Seth Myers on late night TV are funnier and actually seem to have a clue, so it’s not that

  40. 40.

    Jay

    Trump State Department official Freddie Klein's alleged role in the Capitol insurrection isn't the first time he's shown pro-coup tendencies.

    Klein repeatedly praised the Argentine military junta.

    Turns out his uncle was a senior junta official.https://t.co/HCPHc9r45a— Cameron Joseph (@cam_joseph) March 19, 2021

  41. 41.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques:

    Yes, but the thing is most women say this happened back in the 90s and not so much these days

    Gonna need to see a source for these claims. I don’t think sexual harassment ended in the 1990s. Remember Matt Lauer, Weinstein, etc? Unless I’m misunderstanding you

  42. 42.

    VOR

    @Jay:  This is the part you’d have a hard time explaining 30 years ago. In a debate between the President of the United States and the leader of Russia, people who claim to be uber-patriots are openly cheering for the leader of Russia. Good lord.

  44. 44.

    Roger Moore

    @Anyway:

    Out of the loop here – what’s going on with Substack?

    There has been a kerfuffle about Substack cutting deals with some of their big name writers without publicizing it.  Basically, their standard procedure is for writers to get paid by the subscriber, with Substack taking a cut to run the site.  But a few of the big names who moved there got a deal for their first year where they get a negotiated payment in exchange for Substack getting all the subscriber revenue.

    Some of the writers who didn’t get those deals are upset because they think Substack used those big name writers’ presence on the platform as an implicit promise that it was a good way of making money even though they were getting a completely different deal.  Some of the writers have been pretty up front about the deal they’re getting- Matt Yglesias has said exactly how much he’s getting paid- but I can see why someone who didn’t get the deal would be upset.

  45. 45.

    James E Powell

    @VOR:

    That’s because right-wingers see the rest of us as their real enemies, the ones who want to get rid of them. And you know what? We are.

  46. 46.

    smith

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques:

    Yes, but the thing is most women say this happened back in the 90s and not so much these days

    This probably reflects the typical age range of your women acquaintances more than the actual extent of sexual harassment.

    From the https://abcnews.go.com/US/timeline-accusations-york-gov-andrew-cuomo-calls-resignation/story?id=76207242 ABC News timeline of allegations against Cuomo:

    Anna Ruch, 33; Lindsey Boylan, 36; and Charlotte Bennett, 25, have come forward over the past week to accuse the governor of unwanted advances over a time period from December 2016 to June 2020.

    The thing I see changing from years gone by is that women are not punished quite so severely now for complaining about it.

  48. 48.

    James E Powell

    @laura:

    God I’m sick of men this week. Just sick to fucking death of them.

    Yeah, same here. The urge to say #NotAllMen is overcome by the knowledge that it’s #ALotofEnablers

    Instead of calling it cancel culture, we should call it done with this shit culture.

    I saw the story where the Teen Vogue editor resigned over tweets she did when she was a teenager. I feel for her, I really do. But if the message to teenagers is “racism, misogyny, and homophobia are wrong, so don’t post that stuff or it will hurt your future” then good.

  49. 49.

    James E Powell

    @Starboard Tack:

    Blobert voted against condemning the coup in Myanmar, along with Ken Buck and 12 other Republicans.

    Republican dogma: right-wing coups, good. People being able to vote, bad.

  50. 50.

    Cheryl Rofer

    @Roger Moore: There’s a subplot that gay and trans writers have been a big part of Substack and moved it along, while now the people being given the big bucks are gender bigots – Greenwald, Sullivan, and others.

  53. 53.

    Brachiator

    @germy:

    Boebert is on to us

    Conservatives used to argue that you shouldn’t elect elitists to public office. You know, people who had an education.

    Now, with Boebert, conservatives have lowered the bar even further. They appear to believe that insane people should be elected to public office.

  54. 54.

    laura

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques: Yes, but the thing is most women say this happened back in the 90s and not so much these days.

    Just stop, please. Mansplaining misogyny and opining on most women and back in the day is the opposite of helpful.

  55. 55.

    germy

    @Brachiator:

    Marjorie Taylor Greene now explains that she did not intend any anti-Semitic connotations. “I didn’t even know and didn’t find out until recently that the Rothschilds were Jewish,” she tells Ami magazine.

  60. 60.

    Ken

    @germy: “I just insulted the Rothschilds because, well, it’s something I heard all the time growing up, and never really asked or wondered why everyone said they were subhuman money-grubbing parasites.”

    Obligatory link.

  61. 61.

    Roger Moore

    @Cheryl Rofer:

    There’s a subplot that gay and trans writers have been a big part of Substack and moved it along, while now the people being given the big bucks are gender bigots – Greenwald, Sullivan, and others.

    I hadn’t gotten that part, probably because my lens on the business is admittedly pretty narrow.  In general, I think Substack is a decent idea, and I don’t have a big problem with them giving some big name writers a special deal.  I do think it’s questionable that they’ve been secretive about giving big names a different deal from the rest of their writers, and it’s a big flashing warning sign that so many of the big name writers they’ve been working to attract need the work because their scumminess got them driven out of mainstream media.

  62. 62.

    Starboard Tack

    @Ken:

    From @kristin_wilson

    Myanmar

    Lauren Boebert

    Andy Biggs (Both)

    Matt Gaetz (Both)

    Tom Massie (Both)

    Ken Buck

    Mary Miller

    Chip Roy

    Jodey Hice

    Alex Mooney

    Scott Perry

    Andy Harris (Both)

    Ted Budd

    Barry Moore

    Marjorie Taylor Greene (Both)

     

    Capitol Police

    Biggs

    Massie

    Harris

    Gooden

    Gaetz

    Cloud

    Clyde

    Greene

    Gohmert

    Steube

    Good

    Rose

  64. 64.

    Roger Moore

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: ​
     

    I have no idea what the woman is talking about

    One of the big things that QAnon has been on about since the very beginning is that a whole bunch of important people- primarily but not exclusively Democrats- are going to be arrested real soon now. She’s doing more of the same. They’ve been promising arrests real soon now for years. You’d think they would have figured out it wasn’t going to happen. I swear, these QAnon loons are like one of those doomsday cults that kept having to recalculate the date of Armageddon because it never arrived on schedule.

  65. 65.

    Brachiator

    @germy:

    Marjorie Taylor Greene now explains that she did not intend any anti-Semitic connotations. “I didn’t even know and didn’t find out until recently that the Rothschilds were Jewish,” she tells Ami magazine.

    So she is either incredibly stupid or a liar.

    Not sure which she would prefer to be known as.

  66. 66.

    smith

    @Roger Moore:  Speaking of Qanon Doomsday, wasn’t March 20 the most recent date on which Joe Biden will peel off the mask and reveal that he was Donald Trump all along? And then the arrests, etc. That’s tomorrow! Are we all ready for it?

  70. 70.

    Mike in NC

    Reading a book called “The Apprentice: Trump, Russia, and the Subversion of American Democracy” by Greg Miller. In one chapter he quotes a guy close to Putin who was hoping for two terms for the Orange Clown, followed by two terms for Ivanka, then two terms for Jared Kushner. Can you spell Dystopian Hellscape?

  71. 71.

    West of the Rockies

    @germy:

    Righteous is such a foul word when used by evangelical types:  it’s rage, resentment, judgment, and intent to commit or condone violence against somebody.

  72. 72.

    Skippy-san

    @RSA: Then how can she be on a lobbying trip? You can’t be a regular officer and be  junior lobbyist for an insurance company. It’s a major conflict of interest – and against the Hatch Act.

  73. 73.

    JanieM

    @Mike in NC: Could someone who believed that know anything at all about the US? Or did they think their machinations would succeed at installing this dynasty of malevolent clowns?

    (Rhetorical question.)

  74. 74.

    JanieM

    @Skippy-san:

    Then how can she be on a lobbying trip? You can’t be a regular officer and be junior lobbyist for an insurance company. It’s a major conflict of interest – and against the Hatch Act.

    WaPo headline: “Former lobbyist accuses Rep. Tom Reed, a potential Cuomo challenger, of sexual misconduct”

    “Nicolette Davis, now a commissioned officer in the U.S. Army….”

  75. 75.

    Brachiator

    @Mike in NC:

    Reading a book called “The Apprentice: Trump, Russia, and the Subversion of American Democracy” by Greg Miller. In one chapter he quotes a guy close to Putin who was hoping for two terms for the Orange Clown, followed by two terms for Ivanka, then two terms for Jared Kushner. Can you spell Dystopian Hellscape?

    Nothing for Don Jr?

    I guess even the Russians have their limits.

  82. 82.

    Steeplejack (phone)

    @Skippy-san:

    All is explained in the linked story. The incident happened in 2017. “In 2020, she left AFLAC to pursue a lifelong dream and enlist in the Army.”

  86. 86.

    OGLiberal

    Our PA house is very near the Southern, Southern Tier and find it weird that it’s so wingnutty.  But then most of my exposure is going shopping in the Greater Binghamton area, which seems very diverse, relatively speaking.  Not many black people, like most of that region, but many South Asians/East Asians.  Suppose that’s the University and huge hospital network at play.  But, yeah, you can go not that far from Binghamton and it’s Confederate and Trump flags, which is jarring for somebody who spent most of his life in an area where New York plates symbolized something much different.

    IBM and defense industry used to be huge there.  Corning still a big presence.  And Johnson City was the land of the “square deal”.  Weird thing about the area?  Lots of public carousels.  A lot less now than in the past but a number are still there in various parks.

  89. 89.

    Heidi Mom

    I got the first shot today (Moderna). Just like getting a flu shot, but a different Rite-Aid. I would like Samwise, please — he looks like a gray kitty I lost too soon.

Comments are closed.