It’s Thanksgiving Morning!

1 It’s also my wedding anniversary. I am very thankful , and proud, frankly, that I am one of the very few people among my pretty large and diverse community of friends, acquaintances and colleagues still married (after 37 years…yes, I married at 13) to the same person I pledged to make a life with “til death do us part.” It’s not easy, for anyone, and determination and commitment, forgiveness and contrition, are a large, crucial, indispensable part of it. A lot of the journey is based on ethics, in other words.

2. Surprise! More accusers of both Rep. John Conyers and Senator Franken surfaced yesterday. Conyers’ new alleged victim is Melanie Sloan, formerly the head of CREW, the left-wing D.C. ethics watchdog that somehow manages to see unethical conduct by Republicans about five times more often than it fingers Democrats. Sloan says she was not sexually harassed, but alleges that Conyers called him into his office to verbally abuse her while being dressed in his underwear. Uh, Melanie? If your boss is ever berating you in his underwear, that is per se sexual harassment. This is a hostile work environment; I don’t care if your superior is built like Batman…well, like his costume.

The predictable proliferation of accusers was why, in the hypothetical apology I authored for Alternate Universe Al, I included the part about mistreating other women. It was a sure thing; harassers harass, and if you are going to pretend that the first accuser was “just a mistake,” you might as well skip it and head for George Bailey’s bridge. In the sexual harassment training field, nothing is more certain than the fact that with the real harassers and predators, if there’s one victim, there are many. This is why the narrative about Anita Hill amounts to a Left-driven, media-driven smear of Clarence Thomas for the crime of being a black conservative.

An unanticipated horrible consequence of this leg of the Harvey Weinstein Ethics Train Wreck, which also includes new allegations about the Democratic Party’s keynote speaker when it was accusing conservatives of a “war on women,” as well the revelation that the GOP President who selected Thomas emulates his favorite magician, “David Cop-a-Feel,” is that it very well might elect Roy Moore, who is worse than any of them. Meanwhile, most analysts think that both Franken and Conyers will have to resign. ( I would eagerly vote for a mad scientist-make hybrid of Conyers and Franken—Frankenconyers!—before I would even shake Roy Moore’s grubby hand…and really, who knows where it’s been?)

Republicans have been incredibly lucky with their choices of foes, luckier than they deserve.

3. No sympathy from Ethics Alarms whatsoever. That cute stud, Texas Congressman Joe Barton, appears to have been the victim of “revenge porn,” which is illegal in Texas. Here’s a tip, Joe: If you don’t send disgusting nude selfies to women, they won’t be able to send them around the web after you go back to your wife. Yeah, it looks like his ex-girlfriend broke the law. It doesn’t change the Naked Congressman Principle in any way.

4. How brave of you… Another unethical side effect of the various wrecked careers as the Weinstein Express rolled over them is the proliferation of opportunistic cowards, who didn’t have the courage to criticize these predators while they were thriving, suddenly kicking them while they writhe on the ground. I am not speaking of the victims, but of vultures like Eve Fairbanks, who authored a piece for BuzzFeed called “We’ll Be Paying For Mark Halperin’s Sins For Years To Come.” His sins, in her eyes, are not so much the fact that he was a sexual predator (and another proud masturbator…what is it with these guys?)  but that he—ready?—paved the way for Donald Trump by convincing the public “that politics is only comprehensible, like nuclear science, to a select few.” Eve saw this imagined sinister plot by a man who about 90% of the American public couldn’t pick out of a line=up all along, of course, but only now chooses to blow the whistle on him. This would be like standing over a pedestrian crushed by a falling safe and shouting, “Look out!,” if her assertion weren’t complete nonsense as well as craven.

Also in this unethical category is former HHS Secretary Kathleen Sibelius, who chooses now to be critical of her party, Bill Clinton, and Enabler in Chief Hillary for lying, covering and rationalizing so Bill’s serial sexual misconduct didn’t interfere with the Democratic agenda.

5. A depressing list…but impressive! If you haven’t kept up with the list of powerful men done in by this classic witch hunt, the New York Times did a nice summary two days ago. This means it is already out of date, however. I wonder what turkey will be outed today?