It turns out the senator was the late Daniel K. Inouye of Hawaii, the decorated veteran and civil rights hero, according to people with knowledge of the incident.Oh, those supporters of women's rights are the worst sort of sexists underneath it all, I bet.
With his deep baritone and courtly manner, Mr. Inouye was revered by his colleagues and was a powerhouse in both Hawaii and the Senate, where he was a reliable supporter of women’s rights.
Here's my post from last week speculating about why Gillibrand wouldn't name names. I thought of 5 reasons why not and polled readers, and by far the most popular guess was: "Maybe it didn't happen." That answer seems more apt now that the response to the pressure was to name a dead man.
IN THE COMMENTS: EMD said: "You think she'd have enough smarts to name a dead Republican," and, really, that's the strongest evidence that she's not lying. If you're going to use death to insulate your lies, why not pick an opponent? One answer is: The Republican Party would fight back, call me a liar, etc. My party has its interest in me.
And Todd makes 2 important points. First, the linked article doesn't specify that Gillibrand divulged the name, only that "people with knowledge" did. I am assuming that the "people" are either Gillibrand herself or her agents, speaking for her. It's possible, though, that they acquired their knowledge through Gillibrand, but not as a consequence of the pressure she's felt to name names and that their decision to speak to the press was an independent choice, unconnected to any decision by Gillibrand to name names. I think that's unlikely, but the text of the NYT piece preserves that possibility. The NYT could clarify that. But I believe the NYT would tend to protect and help Gillibrand, so I don't think they'd publish this fact unless it was what Gillibrand wants.
Speaking of how the NYT phrases things to help Democrats, Todd's other observation is a discrepancy between the text I cut and pasted — "It turns out the senator was the late Daniel K. Inouye of Hawaii, the decorated veteran and civil rights hero, according to people with knowledge of the incident" — and the text that appears at the link now — "It turns out the senator was the late Daniel K. Inouye, Democrat of Hawaii, the decorated veteran and civil rights hero, according to people with knowledge of the incident."
The original text did something that's frequently seen, the omission of "Democrat" in a mainstream media report of something negative about a Democrat. I'm guessing that somebody criticized the omission — somebody usually does — and the NYT stuck the "Democrat" in there. I looked for a reference to a correction but found none.
I did, however, find that the page I was reading is a new NYT feature, beginning today, called "First Draft," which is "a continuously updated news feed." Does "continuously updated" mean that corrections don't need to be noted? If so, "First Draft" is a misnomer. I don't know what draft I'm reading.
Posts
80 comments:
Blame the dead guy!
Dead men do a lot of bad things in retrospect.
Maybe we can have a video of chubby girls at a sporting event bouncing in slow motion. Women's basketball, perhaps.
"Oh, those supporters of Women's Rights are the worst sort of sexists underneath it all, I bet."
I think it's certainly the case that the men who claim to be big supporters of women's rights (at least as defined by feminists of the Left) display the worst sexist behavior--largely because they feel they have "cover" and therefore aren't truly "sexist". How often do you hear things like "he couldn't have done what he's accused of, he's always supported women's rights!"? Just look at Clinton, who because he was accepted by the feminist Left, felt it was okay to grope and harass and allegedly even rape. It's not as though he ever got any backlash from that quarter over such instances.
On the other hand, men who are painted as part of the patriarchy have more incentive to stay on their toes (not that they always do of course) knowing that the feminist Left and their media allies are watching them closely for their sexist behavior.
As for Inouye, he is from an older generation and the child of immigrants from a more male-dominated culture than America's, so it's not hard to believe (particularly since he's considered "good on women's issues") that he'd say or do some of the things Gillibrand accuses him of. But with him not alive to defend himself this just makes her look nasty.
As I'd mentioned before, she would have been better off not trying to personalize this issue. It's taking the focus off of whatever her original point was, and put her on the defensive.
With his deep baritone and courtly manner, Barry White was revered by his colleagues and was a powerhouse in both the hot tub and the bed, where he was a reliable supporter of women’s rights to sweet sweet love..
"according to people with knowledge of the incident."
Inouye was a member of the 442nd, the most highly decorated combat unit of WWII. James Michener described how the men basically braved a 'wall of shrapnel' to rescue the Lost Battalion.
It's too early to call shenanigans, but maybe not too early for some politically motivated updates to his wiki page.
I suppose Inouye said it, and I suspect she didn't name him because it would have been difficult to use the off-hand comment of a then-aged, now deceased Hawaiian of Japanese descent as a cudgel against the general population of white American men under the age of 80.
Making the statement anonymous was the only way to shoe-horn it into the "WAR ON WOMEN" theme. Now that it is out there, the context irrelevant.
I don't even think it's as big as any of those. Let's assume it's true and it's Inouye. "80+ year old man says something mildly inappropriate to much younger woman." Does that really surprise anyone who has met an old man?
Not only did it never happen, there probably isn't even a Senator by the name of "Gillibrand"
But if she is a real person then for sure there is a Blue Fist poster hanging above her desk.
Our former governor, William Donald Schaefer, got into a little bit of trouble for commenting that he'd like to watch a woman walking away because he appreciated the view. He, too, was from a different era. He's also dead.
Sliming a dead war hero. Classy!
John Kerry never got into trouble after being overheard saying "I like my women with a fat bank account."
Why is it a terrible thing to:
1. Express to a colleague that she may have lost too much weight (many dieters lose too much, then later put it back on)?
2. Express your liking of chubby girls (I thought we were allowed to like whatever kind of girls, guys or "others" that we want to)?
The never ending search for victimhood goes on.
Omigod, that dead sort of white guy used to like chubby girls. And he told someone about it. Revoke his military honors today !!!
How is expressing an attraction to, or preference for a certain body type, "sexist" towards women?
Gay men do this all the time. Some like twinks, some like bears, some like leather daddies.
What we have is allegedly liberal women accusing straight males of being "sexist" for expressing their sexuality, when what they are actually doing is engaging in anti-male heterophobia.
I am tired of anti-male heterophobic lefty women getting away with spewing their hatred of men and calling it "empowerment".
"Oh, those supporters of women's rights are the worst sort of sexists underneath it all, I bet. "
Sung soulfully with background guitar riffs: "Ad Hominem. . . Ad Hominem. . . "
"Nothing is often the right thing to do, and almost always the right thing to say." -- A. Lincoln (attributed)
...told her she'd "lost too much weight" and "I like my girls chubby."
Oh, the horror.
At least she's making up trivia.
SGT Ted said...
How is expressing an attraction to, or preference for a certain body type, "sexist" towards women?
It's not inclusive! It's not diverse! Male gaze!
Blaming Ted Kennedy would have been cliche.
Ted Kennedy didn't want his women chubby, but he wished they'd be buoyant.
Imagine the trouble you can get in just for whistling Louis Prima's "Closer to the Bone".
If you had spent your lifetime in Hawaii you would have known which box to check in that poll. Right answer didn't get many votes. (Actually there were two possibilities, depending on Gillibrand's motive.)
"But in an all but forgotten chapter of his career, the senator had been accused of sexual misconduct: In 1992, his hairdresser said that Mr. Inouye had forced her to have sex with him.
Her accusations exploded into a campaign issue that year, and one Hawaii state senator announced that she had heard from nine other women who said they had been sexually harassed by Mr. Inouye. But the women did not want to go forward with their claims.
A spokesman for Ms. Gillibrand would neither confirm nor deny that Mr. Inouye was the unnamed senator in the incident. Ms. Gillibrand in her book described the senator only as “one of my favorite older members of the Senate.”
After all this time, Inouye is thrown back into combat in The Battle of the Bulge.
Like the man who wanted to define what "is" is, and the man who left a pregnant woman in his drowning car, these "supporters" know they would be immune from scrutiny if they said the right words and allocated lots of taxpayers' money to placate the grievance peddlers.
On the other hand, Inouye had done nothing wrong. He was being grand fatherly, worrying a most sensitive Gillibrand might starve herself to that perfect figure, and lost her mind in the process. He was right.
Btw, Ann needs another choice in her poll:
It happened. She owes these unnamed perpetrators' backing for her Senate seat.
Another poll idea for Ann: name the perpetrators:
1. the man named Bill,
2. the sex-crazed poodle,
3. the man who drove his car off the bridge,
4. Inouye...
Missing choice:
"It did not happened, she just lied to focus us on sexism"
Its the typical feminist play.
...according to people with knowledge of the incident.
Are these people with knowledge of the incident, or people with knowledge of Gillibrand's telling of the incident?
Huffington Post Headline: "Daniel Inouye Is The Senator Who Called Kirsten Gillibrand 'Chubby': The New York Times"
He didn't call her Chubby. These journalists don't even try anymore.
Blaming dead people is a theme we have been compelled to "study" on this blog for many months now. But if, as we have been taught, the living are as much to blame as the dead are we then to blame living Democrats or just men? Is Gillibrand asking for reparations? Should she?
I think it's certainly the case that the men who claim to be big supporters of women's rights (at least as defined by feminists of the Left) display the worst sexist behavior--largely because they feel they have "cover" and therefore aren't truly "sexist".
I think its the reverse - they are sexist, but pretending to support feminism is their Indulgence - ie. "sure I made a pass at the babysitter but I BELIEVE! in feminism so I can't be a total douche"
"according to people with knowledge of the incident, but are too chickenshit to come forward"
/fixed
Shakespeare nailed it:
Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears;
I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him.
The evil that men do lives after them;
The good is oft interred with their bones;
So let it be with Caesar.
Julius Caesar, Act III, scene ii
It probably happened, but only a loser thinks this is significant. So Inouye liked a little cushion for the pushin' and told Gillibrand, probably to let her know that some people thought she looked nice just the way she was. So what? It's just a comment. He didn't say he would have pursued her for sex before, but now that she lost weight, he wasn't interested. That would be inappropriate. I wonder if that is what she heard?
I once told a girl I was immune to her charms because she had short short hair. Mainly to put her at ease b/c every guy she knew had tried to make at a pass at her. Inohofe's remark could easily have the same context.
Inohofe Inouye whatever. Just another corrupt pig.
If I were a chubby chick, I'd be pissed at Ms. Gillibrand. We've all heard skinny women tell us how they eat like a pig. Yeah right.
"Oh my gaawd, he said I was too skinnaayy". Sounds like something an airhead Homecoming Queen would announce to the self-conscious in a locker room.
Inouye probably would support all of this. He'd be like, I'm dead. Please use me to try and hold on to power. Democrats bonzai!
I like that new Times column to which you link.
So Japs like sumo girls. It is what it is.
I was going to post exactly this in the original thread: if she names names, it'll be somebody dead so they can't refute it or defend themselves.
She's lying.
Back when the male on female violence first became a big issue in the late 1980s, there were Shelters were being opened and fund drives started to support them by serious women, one of whom I already had a business friendship with.
Wanting to stand out and maybe win favor with her and her friends, I gave them a large donation.
All I got for it was distrust and a rumor that I beat women, since apparently only men who felt guilt donated like that.
If my family had been put in a concentration camp by FDR I'd be much less generous in my comments to a leading member of his party than Inouye.
He may have been referring to the fish.
Did he say it as they passed in the halls of congress as a snide remark?
Or did he say it lovingly while he caressed her softly firm, pleasingly white ass while in the throes of post coital bliss in the "Senators Room" at the Watergate Hotel?
It would make a difference.
Sorry but from that article, it does not appear that "she named names". The quote was It turns out the senator was the late Daniel K. Inouye, Democrat of Hawaii, the decorated veteran and civil rights hero, according to people with knowledge of the incident. Gillibrand did not name any names, "people with knowledge" did. Unless that is stated in some other article.
"Missing choice: 'It did not happened, she just lied to focus us on sexism' Its the typical feminist play."
It's the first choice on the poll.
Also, just curious Ann, the passage you posted reads:
It turns out the senator was the late Daniel K. Inouye of Hawaii, the decorated veteran and civil rights hero, according to people with knowledge of the incident.
The passage from the link reads:
It turns out the senator was the late Daniel K. Inouye, Democrat of Hawaii, the decorated veteran and civil rights hero, according to people with knowledge of the incident.
Did you edit the passage or did they change it after you made your copy?
AJ Lynch wrote:
Blame the dead guy!
Blame the dead fat guy!
You think she'd have enough smarts to name a dead Republican.
The best is the Vogue spread where she looks like she's been cast in the next season of House of Cards.
"Did you edit the passage or did they change it after you made your copy?"
I cut and pasted.
So... I guess the NYT heard the typical criticism and responded.
The typical criticism being that when it's a Democrat that does something bad they leave out the Democrat, but when it's a Republican, they put it in.
"You think she'd have enough smarts to name a dead Republican."
Great point.
Confused: I thought the problem was someone said she was fat, now it appears the problem is someone said she wasn't? I don't get it. At all.
Sounds like a compliment to me, expressed in the way an old geezer might use.
Honestly, are there women out there who wouldn't be secretly thrilled if someone told them they'd gotten too thin?
And how is this sexism? Ask Chris Christie if he thinks the jibes about his weight are sexist.
I don't know, once you are the party that was home to Bill Clinton and Ted Kennedy, where young female subordinates have a choice of being groped or drowned, it makes Inouye's alleged comments seem pretty tame by comparison. Still, it seems pretty mean to accuse a guy who's dead and can't give his side of the story.
Sources close to the deceased Senator countered that it was all a misunderstanding. The then-octogenarian Inouye was reminiscing about listening to Chubby Checker albums with his wife while she recuperated from the birth of his son, Ken.
Sen. Gillibrand (D-Crony Island, NY) misheard those remarks and thought Sen. Inouye was describing himself to her a as a "chubby checker".
"Honestly, are there women out there who wouldn't be secretly thrilled if someone told them they'd gotten too thin?"
I'm sure the comment (if it was indeed made) was intended as a compliment, though I'm guessing Gillibrand's objection is based on the idea that her figure was a topic of conversation with a senior colleague who should only be discussing professional matters with her. My question though would be whether this is a female colleague being singled out or being treated more like "one of the guys".
Just the latest example of the Party of Microagressions fawning over the perpetrators of actual sexual predation because equality.
ALthouse: "Its the first choice in the poll"
Nope. First choice is:
It never happened, and she's lying by naming Inouye.
Not the same as
""It did not happened, she just lied to focus us on sexism"
"Ù† Damian Bennett @DamianBennett 4m
@AmyOtto8 @MPeper @instapundit Gillibrand spox wld neither confirm nor deny, saying somberly, "Let the little Jap rest in peace.""
"Julie C said...
Sounds like a compliment to me, expressed in the way an old geezer might use.
Honestly, are there women out there who wouldn't be secretly thrilled if someone told them they'd gotten too thin?"
So, uh, Julie; Come here often?
You from around here?
Wanna ride in my Corvette?
What are you wearing right now?
"First Draft": Can't trust the NYT. No where, no when, no why...No Way!
why can't we see the poll results?
I don't think she should have caved under the pressure to name names. Her original stance was the higher road.
And of course it is grossly inappropriate to "express attraction" towards a freaking Senator in a professional setting. It's the more ostensibly polite flip side of all the shit Condi Rice took on an international level, which was just variations from various Russian and Venezuelan hellholes on " the little dark lady is bitter because she has no kids and needs to get laid."
its not that these people are old, it's that they are stupid, spoiled, and entitled.
" In 1992, his hairdresser said that Mr. Inouye had forced her to have sex with him. Her accusations exploded into a campaign issue that year, and one Hawaii state senator announced that she had heard from nine other women who said they had been sexually harassed by Mr. Inouye. But the women did not want to go forward with their claims.”"
Another Democrat Rapist for Women's Rights!
In her writing and in being interviewed, she appears not to have imagined she would be pressured enough to actually name someone. She thought she could make the blanket accusation without naming a person.
Barry Dauphin:
Sure, why not. Extrapolation from the specific to form general conclusions has become... nay, has been reinvented as a political and scientific art. There is even a degenerate religion constructed on doctrines of collective and inherited sin. Induction is tres chic.
I shared a van ride with Inouye's aide on the island of Molokai 19 years ago when they were holding the opening ceremonies for the new National Guard Armory in Kaunakakai. She was... pleasantly plump. :-)
Abusive Dead Democrats
A great name for a band.
I thought that band already existed.... "Dead Kennedys".
It's hoʻopunipuni all the way down
I KNEW it wasn't republican. No republican is going to tell a democrat woman they can't win because they're too fat.
Democratic War On Women. They don't pay them as much as the guys and now are forcing women to have sex with them and calling them fatties.
What a gutless turd Gillibrand is. If one is going to leak the identity this way, have the integrity to do so through one's own mouth.
All in all, I still say it is a lie through and through, and glad I am not an New Yorker.
Maybe it should be called Ongoing Draft.
Gillibrand spokespeople have no comment about whether Inouye made the remark. Gillibrand herself said that at the time, she wasn't in a place where she could 'tell him to go f- himself.'
I have heard her name as a potential Presidential contender. Just what we need, another chief executive with paper-thin skin. She should hang her head in shame at having defamed this man.
I hope whoever said it had a nanosecond thought, "Piss on anyone who would have me measure my words for the sake of anyone including the person I spoke it to, the PC police, feminists of all stripes, you, A/A and the man on the moon."
Maybe men should take a page from the warriors for a crass, vulgar culture and force women to endure so much plain talk that they get immune to it. The weak ones can melt like the wicked witch.
"...according to people with knowledge of the incident." is yet another Journalistese phrase for "I am lying to you."
Post a Comment