Consistency

After wading through the "ick" of the Polanski case to get a picture of how our conservative culture warriors are using it, this story was a real kicker: Franken Wins Bipartisan Support For Legislation Reining In KBR’s Treatment Of Rape by Faiz Shakir, Think Progress 10/07/09; Meet The Senators Who Voted Against The Franken Amendment by Jason Linkins Huffington Post 10/07/09. Minnesota Sen. Al Franken introduced an amendment prompted by the case of a woman working with KBR (Halliburton) in Iraq, who in 2005 was held in a shipping container for 24 hours and gang-raped by fellow Halliburton/KBR employees. The company's contractual terms effectively prevented her from taking the case to court. And as Faiz Shakir reports, hers "was not an isolated case."

The amendment passed the Senator on a 68-30 vote. Meaning that 30 Senators voted against legislation to prevent Halliburton/KBR from covering up cases of rape committed by its employees. You can check out the full list of votes here. The Jason Linkins piece above lists the 30 who voted to protect rapists. It includes great champions of decency like Jim DeMint. And the bold Maverick John McCain, who's leading a new effort to highlight "moderate" Republicanism. And the Maverick's faithful puppy-dog Lindsey Graham. And hardcore torture supports like Thad Cochran of Mississippi and Kit Bond of Missouri.

I wonder if Al Mohler will do a column claiming the 30 Senators voting "no" are saying that "when it comes to one of their own, [gang-rape] is within the pale." I'm guessing not.

Sadly, it's consistent: using sloppy reporting of facts to unfairly bash the "Hollywood cultural elite" over the Polanski case, while voting to protect rapists from a favored Republican company like Halliburton/KBR. Consistently disgusting and shameful.

Tags: culture war, republican party

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