Accountability, She Says

Former NBC legal analyst and former US Attorney Mimi Rocah is right, up to a point, when she tweets

When women accuse Trump of something, he calls them liars & degrades them. Biden’s saying, I didn’t intend to make anyone uncomfortable but I’ll listen & learn.  If respectful statements like that aren’t welcomed, we’re just encouraging the Trump double down & smear approach.

Joe Biden is a decent person, probably a good person.  Donald Trump is not a good person, and he's not even a decent person. He does things personally and makes political decisions with a first priority that it degrades, angers, or harms others because he believes everything is a zero-sum game. If you lose, he wins.

So while contrasting Biden's behavior and motives with those of Trump is meaningful and relevant, it is setting the bar very low, perhaps below ground.

Lucy Flores was on point- and not only about the former Vice-President but about everyone, when she told Jake Tapper (at 5:58 of the video below)

You know, I fully recognize that- that this behavior- never do I claim this rises to the level of sexual assault or-or- anything of that nature. What I am saying is that it's completely inappropriate, that it does not belong in any kind of a professional setting, much less in politics and that is something that we should consider when we are talking about the background of a person who is considering running for President..

Flores clearly recognizes that it does not belong in a professional setting nor does it rise to the level of sexual assault.  She further recognizes something more elusive and less common- that lack of accountability is even more significant than lack of empathy. At 6:57 she adds 

I think that his response to the way in which he handled the Anita Hill Hearing was also completely inappropriate and lacks empathy and frankly lacks accountability. You know, saying that he wishes that there was something more that he could have done. I think- it's just again-it's just a complete lack of accountability. You were the chair. You were the chair of that hearing and you could have done anything you wanted.

Biden should not have to rack his brain to realize that he could have acted far more forcefully and effectively when chairing the Anita Hill hearing for the Senate Judiciary Committee. He might have seen House Oversight and Government Reform Committee chairperson Elijah Cummings swiftly and effectively dispatch the objection of Republicans Mark Meadow and Jim Jordan to continuing the Michael Cohen hearing. Or better, more recently and more eloquently, there was

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