Let’s imagine ourselves at the grubbiest police interrogation room in any Baltimore area district lockup, where the cops are questioning some creep arrested on a rape charge.
“This woman’s given us all kinds ofintimate details,” the cops tell this guy. They show him a photo of the woman.“She says it’s sexual assault. What do you say?”
“Number 1, she’s not my type,” theguy says.
“So you’re saying she was toounattractive, and that’s why you wouldn’t have assaulted her?” thecops ask.
The guy realizes the idiocy of hisremark, which combines the worst elements of arrogance and sheer failure todeny.
“Number 2,” he says quickly, “neverhappened.”
The cops roll their eyes. They hearexcuses from sexual gropers all the time. The most naive rookie on the forceknows such remarks inhibit many sexual assault victims from coming forward.
“And there’s another woman, anearlier complaint,” the cops say. They tell him this other woman’s name. “Shesays you groped her.”
“That would not be my first choice,” says the defendant. “Check out her Facebook page, you’ll understand.”
“Not attractive enough for you?”the cops say. Again, that’s not exactly a denial.
“I mean, it never happened,” theguy adds.
The cops roll their eyes again. And why shouldn’t they? Beyond the first two women, they’ve got more female accusers, lots and lots of them from every corner of the country, all pointing fingers at this same alleged degenerate.
“We’ve got 15 or 20 other women whosay you groped them,” the cops say.
“They’re lying,” says the defendant.
“All of them?”
“All of them.”
“But the very charges they’remaking against you, we’ve got a tape recording where you’re boasting aboutgroping.”
“Locker room talk,” says thedefendant. “Joking around. You know how guys are.”
“Oh. Right. Case dismissed.”
Only, it’s not the cops saying, “Case dismissed.”
It’s America saying it.
There’s not a street cop in anypolice district anywhere in the world who would buy this creep’s denials, yetthey somehow get tolerated when it comes to the president of the United States.
Joe Biden puts his hands on a woman’s shoulder, and Democrats are ready to toss him overboard in the ensuing uproar.
Al Franken imagines he’s being funny when he was getting too frisky, and he gets the bum’s rush from his U.S. Senate seat.
Donald Trump faces detailed rape charges— just the latest in a long line of sexual allegations against him — andAmerica shrugs its shoulders. Oh, thatDonald, he’s such a character.
What does he have to do before we’ve had enough? Separate innocent children from their parents? Oh, wait, he’s done that. Start a war (and the “obliteration” of another nation) without understanding the consequences? Oh, wait, he’s threatening to do that.
But the sexual stuff is baffling. The New York Times underplayed the storyso much that the paper’s editor apologized. TheWashington Post shoved the story into a small corner at the bottom of page1. Democratic presidential contenders have been muted about it, if not silent.
Their excuse? The issue doesn’tpoll well.
What does it all mean? It means this president has worn us down so badly — with his boorishness, his crassness, his shadow-dancing with all manner of crime, his cozying up to the worst dictators, his relentless lying — that we shrug it off now, even if the latest allegation is so detailed and so grotesque.
Folks, lock up your daughters, this man’s invincible.
A former Baltimore Sun columnist and WJZ-TV commentator, Michael Olesker is the author of six books, most recently “Front Stoops in the Fifties: Baltimore Legends Come of Age” (Johns Hopkins University Press).
At its annual meeting this year, the Baltimore Jewish Council will honor the late Harford County educator and longtime Holocaust education champion.
The former Colt, who passed away on May 25 at age 93, achieved immortality during a cold December day in 1958, writes Michael Olesker.
A new biography on the creator of "Doonesbury" misses the mark, writes Michael Olesker.
What does it mean to be fully present with each other and the sacred, asks Maryland-born cultural anthropologist Alanna E. Cooper.