September 10, 2016

"The reason men resort to the ‘nuts and sluts’ defense is because it may be the only way to undermine the credibility of a woman who is not, in fact, telling the truth."

Said Susan Estrich, defending Bill Clinton in 1998. Estrich — a prominent lawprof politico — had herself coined the term "nuts and sluts" back in 1991 to characterize attacks on the woman who accused Clarence Thomas of sexual harassment. Estrich is now defending Roger Ailes. Does that add up?

Here's Alessandra Stanley in the NYT with "The Curious Case of Susan Estrich":
For many years, Ms. Estrich was a lively liberal commentator on Fox News... Ms. Estrich described Mr. Ailes...  as a close friend.

“In the 18 years I was at Fox News, Roger has never told me what to say, what to do or what to wear,” Ms. Estrich said. “He kept me on the payroll for seven months when I was too sick to work.”...

Ms. Estrich, a partner in the Los Angeles office of the litigation firm Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, said that she first heard the allegations against Mr. Ailes on her return from London, and that by the time she got to her apartment there were 10 messages from her old friend on her home voice mail. She didn’t hesitate to take the case, aware that some feminists say that she sold out.

“It is painful, but at the same time I am a lawyer: Once she takes on a case she stands by her client,” Ms. Estrich said in a phone interview. “Roger needs someone to help him through this extremely difficult process. The last thing any client needs is a lawyer sitting in judgment.”
She's a lawyer. A lawyer and a politico and a media personality and a feminist. It's hard doing all these things. But when you do them all, you lose the ability to leverage your status as a feminist to vouch for somebody. If you want to stand aloof from the fray so you can palm off your judgments as cruelly neutral, you can try to do that. It's a different kind of life. Nothing really "curious" about these choices.

17 comments:

David Begley said...

Her lawyer gig paid better than the feminist job.

If it is true that Fox News paid all of the money, then she did a good job. Ailes was sued personally. Fox wasn't a party. Fox News indemnified Ailes for something that was against written policy and was nearly ultra vires.

Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan said...

Whatever else she may be she is a better person than Geraldo Rivera and Greta Van Susteren, who defended Ailes when he was powerful and dumped him like a hot potato when he lost that power.

damikesc said...

Whatever else she may be she is a better person than Geraldo Rivera and Greta Van Susteren, who defended Ailes when he was powerful and dumped him like a hot potato when he lost that power.

Is there a person on Earth who isn't a better person than Geraldo?

cubanbob said...

“In the 18 years I was at Fox News, Roger has never told me what to say, what to do or what to wear,” Ms. Estrich said. “He kept me on the payroll for seven months when I was too sick to work.”..."

Give her credit, she is no fair weather friend, a real stand-up broad. ARM is right in his comparisons to Rivera and Van Susteren.

traditionalguy said...

I always liked Estrich's style. Glad to hear she is still around.

Quaestor said...

In parallel Bill Clinton is in the news, delivering "an impassioned self-defense". He chides his critics, saying its easy to “just to discredit people and call them names.” Nuts and sluts are busy selling the good name of the Man from Hope.

Trump is probably wondering if Bill has a sense of irony. As the hero of every tale he's ever told Bill would find the question puzzling.

Quaestor said...

Selling? Jeez H... F'ing Safari. It's sullying, damn it!!!

rhhardin said...

You can't outargue a rhyme. If the glove doesn't fit, you must acquit.

rhhardin said...

Nüsse und Schlampen. The argument's no good in German.

n.n said...

Thus the Slut Walk was born with confirmation bias in their hearts and on their minds.

Brent said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Brent said...

I met Susan Estritch at California Baptist University around 8 years ago. She and Hugh Hewitt had a debate on current political issues. It went well for the evening and the mostly Evangelical crowd was polite. The only difficult time came when a pro-life woman, during the question-and-answer period, dug into Ms. Estritch about her pro-choice stand. I, like most of the crowd was pro-life, but I felt the questioner was a bit mean-spirited. After the debate both Hewitt and Estritch stayed to greet anyone who wanted to talk and sign books, and it was clear they were committed to talking to everyone no matter how long it took. I waited until almost everyone was gone then approached Professor Estritch. I told her I was an admirer, that I felt she had integrity, and that I had attended one of her USC law school lectures a few years back. I also told her up front that I agreed with her maybe 10% of the time on political issues. She was very gracious. We sat down and continued our conversation, which I found fascinating and refreshing. Around 10 minutes after we began I brought up the uncomfortable questioner. Her face got serious, kind of sad. She talked about her past abortions and about having been raped, something somewhat well known about her at the time, and that the fear and disgust never, at least for her, "goes away". She teared up while we talked, a few tears falling, which she quickly dried. We finished a little bit later on other topics. I felt heartbroken for her. I"m certain that some would attribute this to some form of an act, something calculated, but I didn't get that sense at that moment, and I have counseled people - some of them famous - in difficult situations for decades and believe I have a decent if not perfect semse of reading their realness. That said, I still admire her.

hombre said...

Susan Estrich holds political views that do not comport with mine. However, on the several occasions I have seen or read her comments I have been impressed by her intelligence and her professionalism.

She is a class act.

hombre said...

@ARM: I read an interview with Greta after she left Fox and she was still speaking highly of Ailes. Please provide a link to support your claim to the contrary

Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan said...

Would it kill you to type something into Google?

readering said...

Ailes should be using a PR firm to deal with the press, not a lawyer. Cheaper, better at dealing with press. Estrich should know that too. She should limit herself to statements in court papers and court/tribunal.

Amanda said...

“In the 18 years I was at Fox News, Roger has never told me what to say, what to do or what to wear,” Ms. Estrich said. “He kept me on the payroll for seven months when I was too sick to work.”...

The, "Well he never molested me defense"

7 Billion people on earth and you only sexually intimidated two of them? Well, your free to go then.