Because Republicans, the party which loves to give empty lip service to family values when it supports their bigotry, but never when it matters, and NEVER when they are responsible for violating family values, THOSE Republicans will hide and obstruct any attempt to hold the participants and the members of their party in the legislature accountable.
Brodkorb threatened to blow the lid off the hot steamy sex at the capital. Brodkorb specifically is challenging that the people having hot steamy sex at the capital are male legislators having sex with female staffers, apparently, because he is attempting to make the case that is dealt with differently, according to a double standard where men get a pass with having illicit sex with women, but that it is not the case with women who have sex with men. That may be correct; we don't know about those cases, but presumably Brodkorb's was not the only hanky-panky. And Brodkorb, a specialist in sleaze would know; he made his bones on other people's scandals. Admittedly, he was often lying or exaggerating those scandals. He had a different standard for scandals involving democrats, and apparently for behavior by other people than himself. Brodkorb was nothing if not holier than thou when pointing at other people while doing as bad or worse things himself - very much like the Nut job Gingrich in the days of the Clinton incident. Clinton was wrong; Gingrich was worse.
Now, those same Republicans that employed Brodkorb to be their dirty dealer are fighting hard against holding their own associates accountable. They have let Amy Koch off the hook; no ethics investigation for her. Do you think for a heartbeat that would be true if she were a Democrat? I don't.
Their explanation is that 'it is in the past'. SO WHAT? They didn't have an ethics violation when it was happening either, and other than Amy Koch voluntarily resigning, there were no consequences, no public censure, nothing. Being 'in the past' is not an excuse for strenuously avoiding an ethics investigation and a sanction, a penalty, a consequence.
Brodkorb was the subordinate, and he received a far, far more severe punishment than Koch did. The problem here is not that male staffers are treated differently than female staffers in receiving punishment. It is that superiors are treated differently than staffers in receiving consequences. It is that Republicans are treated differently than Democrats. It is that hypocrisy and secrecy and privilege are occurring for the family values legislators who aren't acting in family values ways by having office adulteries in our state capital, while receiving salaries paid for by taxpayer dollars. A statement from the PiPress online sums it up:
"We had to be very careful, and very mindful and...I really tried to bend over backwards to not reveal identities, to not give precise timelines, and I do not believe I was false or misleading or did anything to dishonor the Senate," he said.
I don't believe that there would have been a similar effort to avoid revealing identities had the participants been /Democrats, and I don't believe that withholding identities was desirable. It obscured transparency, and in turn obscuring that honesty about what happened allowed for preventing accountability. Brodkorb appears to have been scapegoated, given his subordinate position. Other men in superior positions aren't fired, and other women in subordinate positions aren't fired. Amy Koch wasn't fired, effectively; she continues to keep her job. That is not sexism; that is crooked elitism, that is partisan privilege, and it is wrong and it is corrupt.
This is a problem with Republicans NOT HOLDING THEMSELVES ACCOUNTABLE TO THE STANDARDS THEY PROFESS AND THE STANDARDS TO WHICH THEY PENALIZE OTHERS.
This is one more case of failed Republican Government, and one more case of false Republican values, and one more case of blatant Republican hypocrisy. Republicans talk a big values talk, they hold big noisy hypocrite Values summits where they pat each other on the back for their morals. And then they return to government and put those morals back in their little dusty cardboard boxes and stuff them back under their beds.
Put those values you claim to have back on the desk, back on the table, and use them for a change, Republicans. Hold staffer and superior EQUALLY accountable. Stop covering up for the other inappropriate relationships. Support the ethics investigation of Koch, support the ethics complaint about the cover up. That is why Brodkorb shouldn't receive a dime, but his law suit should proceed.
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