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Me Too [Cuomo joins hall of shame]

Pat Meehan says he saw younger aide as 'a soul mate' but denies harassment

The comments were his first extensive response to a New York Times report Saturday that revealed that he had used thousands of taxpayer dollars to quietly settle a sexual harassment claim brought by the former aide, who was decades younger than the married, 62-year-old Congressman.

In the 40-minute interview, one of several Meehan did with local news outlets on Tuesday, the Congressman in many ways confirmed the outlines of the Times story. He said he had “developed an affection” for his aide “in a way in which I was struggling to make sure that I would never put that into our professional relationship.”

He said he felt bad about lashing out in his office when told of the woman’s relationship, attributing it to the tension-filled stretch around the House GOP votes to repeal the Affordable Care Act, when he faced intense pressure from both sides of the debate.

“Sometimes I have the tendency to lash out to others on the staff … and you go hardest on the ones that you care the most about,” Meehan said in the interview.

He said he later expressed his feelings of affection to the aide, and sent a heartfelt, hand-written letter congratulating her on her new relationship, to try to clear the air “to make sure that I didn’t let that kind of thing which was growing just as a natural result of a relationship to step into a place that it ought not be.”
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WTF
 
 
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Not mad about it because the guy is such a vile piece of shit, but having a judge grandstand like that is akin to TV Teddy antics. We're talking about her now. And if it's some Republican judge yelling Ezekiel 25:17 at a young black kid who pled guilty to selling 2 pounds of marijuana, it suddenly doesn't look so good. That's not the judge's job, imo.

That Daily Caller Piece is garbage but the Atlantic piece makes a fair point.
 
Shooshmoo said:
Not mad about it because the guy is such a vile piece of shit, but having a judge grandstand like that is akin to TV Teddy antics. We're talking about her now. And if it's some Republican judge yelling Ezekiel 25:17 at a young black kid who pled guilty to selling 2 pounds of marijuana, it suddenly doesn't look so good. That's not the judge's job, imo.

That Daily Caller Piece is garbage but the Atlantic piece makes a fair point.
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Don't compare pleading guilty to selling 2 pounds of marijuana to sexually abusing 150+ young women and little girls over 30 years.
 
Shooshmoo said:
Try to get my fucking point.
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I got your point. I'm saying you communicated it very poorly and it doesn't really apply in a situation like this.
 
PhDeac said:
I got your point. I'm saying you communicated it very poorly and it doesn't really apply in a situation like this.
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You didn't get my point if you think it has anything to do with comparing the nature of the two crimes.

At what point is a crime serious enough for a judge to grandstand? Why doesn't my point apply in this case -- cause he was really, really evil? Do you think the judge just decided to act this way in this particular case?
 
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Shooshmoo said:
You didn't get my point if you think it has anything to do with comparing the nature of the two crimes.

At what point is a crime serious enough for a judge to grandstand? Why doesn't my point apply in this case -- cause he was really, really evil? Do you think the judge just decided to act this way in this particular case?
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Do you have examples of her doing this in the past? She's probably been a judge for a long time.
 
PhDeac said:
Do you have examples of her doing this in the past? She's probably been a judge for a long time.
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haven't done the research, but unlikely because it's not going to be on tv. And maybe she's grandstanding here because she is on TV, which would kind of make it worse. But judges get reputations locally and the judges I always dislike as a lawyer are the ones who gained reputations for their personalities -- being "hardasses", getting off on yelling at the lawyers. Not the job.

Like I said, not mad at her for doing it in this case, but I hate the idea of judges doing this shit regularly.
 
avalon said:
Being sexually assaulted can leave women feeling powerless, especially when assaulted by someone who has power over their lives. The judge gave the women some of that power back, and they thanked her.

The Transformative Justice of Judge Aquilina
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If that's the piece you're referencing ITC, it has nothing to do with what I'm complaining about -- like the decision to let the victims speak.
 
The judges in the stories at the beginning of that piece showed which side they (and therefore the state) were on with their statements at or after sentencing. Judge Aquilina demonstrated what side she was on. That also gave the women their power back.
 
Shooshmoo said:
Not mad about it because the guy is such a vile piece of shit, but having a judge grandstand like that is akin to TV Teddy antics. We're talking about her now. And if it's some Republican judge yelling Ezekiel 25:17 at a young black kid who pled guilty to selling 2 pounds of marijuana, it suddenly doesn't look so good. That's not the judge's job, imo.

That Daily Caller Piece is garbage but the Atlantic piece makes a fair point.
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Agreed. She went beyond where the vast majority of judges would go, and yeah, she was grandstanding for the camera. Probably would have been a little different without the camera there, which is why most judges don't want cameras in their courtroom. That said, I don't give a shite that she did. What amazes me about this case was how he was able to get away with this for so long both with the Olympic team and in Lansing, especially with the number of police reports there.
 
avalon said:
The judges in the stories at the beginning of that piece showed which side they (and therefore the state) were on with their statements at or after sentencing. Judge Aquilina demonstrated what side she was on. That also gave the women their power back.
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The judges in the stories at the beginning are exactly the problem I am talking about. She should have ended it with letting the victims make their statements and sentencing the sick motherfucker. She didn't, and it's not a big deal, but it's that kind of thing from judges that leads to the results in the stories at the beginning of the piece.
 
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avalon said:
The judges in the stories at the beginning of that piece showed which side they (and therefore the state) were on with their statements at or after sentencing. Judge Aquilina demonstrated what side she was on. That also gave the women their power back.
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Just to be clear, I commend her for letting all of the accusers testify at the sentencing hearing. Courts usually allow and encourage such testimony in sentencing hearings, and especially here where you had a guilty plea so there wasn't a trial on guilt/innocence. I just thought she was a bit unjudgelike and over the top in her comments.
 
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