The National Organization for Women (NOW), a prominent feminist group, called Thursday for Ellison to withdraw from the race, with NOW President Toni Van Pelt saying in a statement, “Politics doesn’t matter. We believe survivors.”
Gov. Mark Dayton backed Ellison, even as he said Ellison still has questions to answer about the allegation.
An accused is to be presumed guilty, if XY and accused by an XX? That is downright head-in-the-dark stupid, to even suggest. It is an incredible and preposterous notion. Why is NOW going onto such shaky ground? Does Toni Van Pelt speak for the group with solidarity, or are there some in that operation with better sense? The Strib item continues:
“I have no reservations about saying Keith Ellison is the vastly superior candidate” over Republican Doug Wardlow, Dayton said at the news conference with Martin and the DFL candidate for governor, Tim Walz. Dayton said he takes the allegation seriously but said he doesn’t know if he believes it.
Most Democratic lawmakers, including close Ellison ally U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, aren’t talking. And Minnesota DFLers have generally been reluctant to speak out against Ellison in recent days, comment on the matter for attribution or even respond to requests for interviews.
Some DFLers are still angry — or at least torn — over the decision by national party leaders to force U.S. Sen. Al Franken to resign last January after a series of sexual harassment allegations. Social media sites have seen frequent posts about perceived discrepancies in how the party has handled Ellison’s controversy vs. Franken’s. Ellison’s comments criticizing Franken last winter have also received renewed attention.
DFL Rep. John Lesch, a St. Paul attorney who formerly prosecuted domestic assault cases, said that “this is the reason we have a legal process — so that allegations can be vetted in a fair setting permitting due process and justice for all parties.”
Lesch said he wishes Franken’s fellow Senate Democrats had not pushed him to resign before a Senate ethics committee investigation.
Lesch should not need to have explained things. Reasonable burden of proof allocation should be ingrained in the nation's collective thinking. Curiously, NOW is silent about domestic violence complaints among lesbian couples. Who gets the bad end of things then? Believe the "victim" always, or look at size and strength and personalities, in that instance?
What?
Has Ms. Van Pelt articulated any coherent thoughts about that? Any thoughts at all?
____________UPDATE____________
The article, beyond the above quotes has an interesting fact, and an interesting but wrong opinion:
The DFL’s Central Committee is meeting in Cambridge on Saturday to officially endorse party candidates who won primaries but had not been previously endorsed by the party. Ellison is in that category.
[...] U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar said in a statement: “I know this is being reviewed, as it should be, and Representative Ellison must continue to address it directly with the people of Minnesota.”
That DFL confab looks to be a great show, for any in attendance. Will it be a lynch mob, or more measured; majority ruling?
Next, Klobuchar, a former prosecutor, should know better. WTF is the mening of "... Representative Ellison must continue to address it directly with thepeople of Minnesota"? Envision that. Every morning Kieth calls a press conference? What? Beyond saying it never happened and that hence no such video exists, why would anything else be needed absent a video being produced? Certainly, I among others would want to hear Ellison if a video does surface. That would go to truthfulness, which should be a requirement of every office holder.
But "... continue to address it ..." is a recipe for overemphasis of something the Monahan camp, not Ellison faces. Put up or shut up.
That truth does not lessen the wrong of domestic abuse, verbal or physical, by either spouse in a traditional or LGBTQ marriage or loving relationship. It is a wrong to be suppressed, since abuse of another, of anyone, is wrongful conduct. We all know that. But do not in over enthusiasm for fixing the problem move to indefensibly stupid thoughts or statements.
It is unbecoming for a U.S. Senator to show gender bias. Especially one with a law degree and administrative experience. It is something the senior Senator from Minnesota should reflect upon before issuing rote statements. Indeed, a popular U.S. Senator might be capable of intervening, to privately view a video if one exists, or to be stonewalled with "Believe the 'victim' " stuff. It would be an offer to help and should be respected as such by the Monahan camp. If they've nothing to hide but want privacy, Klobuchar could accord that. Klobuchar, as an independent but respected for years of honest public service could lend credibility to an ex-lover's ill-timed bomb thow. If there is credibility to the bomb. If not, Ellison would make a dynamite AG, and should win handily.
_____________FURTHER UPDATE_______________
This "believe the 'victim' " thing troubles me. If Tina Smith holds a ton of med-tech stocks and sponsors a bill to exempt held firms from a currently imposed tax, we can question a conflict of interest, as Richard Painter did, it is fair game; but if Tina Smith says Archie pulled her off a bed, we have no choice but to believe Archie did it and is evil?
Is that where America is now? Some folks need to get real.
____________FURTHER UPDATE_______________
Where America is, or should be, with the totality of the situation pending, is precisely where Mark Dayton is, per Strib:
“I have no reservations about saying Keith Ellison is the vastly superior candidate” over Republican Doug Wardlow, Dayton said at the news conference with Martin and the DFL candidate for governor, Tim Walz. Dayton said he takes the allegation seriously but said he doesn’t know if he believes it.
Ellison is the DFL's AG candidate. If the party confab Strib referenced decides otherwise, the DFL is adrift and beyond saving.
Dayton's opening sentence resonates, " '... Ellison is the vastly superior candidate' over Republican Doug Wardlow ... ;" and how you resolve other stuff, that truth remains. Ellison is a progressive. Wardlow a troglodyte. No contest. What is in the best interest of Minnesota is to send the superior individual to the job; and that's Ellison. Just as Lori Swanson was decisively voted as the superior AG candidate over Jeff Johnson, despite two 2008 hit pieces published by Eric Black at MinnPost, here and here; so too is Ellision the sanest choice in the two party game, as currently posed. Ellison has a public service track record that is outstanding, whatever his domestic relations are, or have been. It is how it is. And Kirsten Gillibrand is not presidential, the way she went on the warpath against Franken and despite raising single-issue money in amounts the consultancy crowd loves. She keelhauled Franken to advance her career and rebelled at the suggestion that Franken was due a due process hearing. One gag photo and Franken was used as Gillibrand's springboard. With power-lawyer, big finance, and big Pfizer war chest credentials to present to elite money, and to the rest of us.
_____________FURTHER UPDATE_____________
Karen Monahan speaking to media is reported, the item stating:
Monahan said she should not have to release the video of the incident in order to be believed. She believes her words should be enough.
Monahan told CBS News she has the video on a thumb drive.
CBS News asked Monahan why she decided to speak now.
"I followed my gut," she said. "The gut that I kept trying to push down."
The gut is getting Kieth? The gut chooses timing and parades Austin in front. What a gut. The woman is playing games. No longer is it adult child Austin's doing, it's the gut; and lame is the only word for the answer she gave to the "why now" question.
Ellison should pick his lovers more sensibly, and should next time file an eviction action. But he is as good in public service as his record, which is both progressive and outstanding. To say producing the video would be a trauma, when she willingly talks on camera is strange and less than credible, as to motive and process. She clearly wants to torpedo Ellison's career, and it is tawdry how she is going about her vengeance. There are a multitude of better ways if the incident actually happened and a video actually exists. And timing, the eve of a primary, that is a circumstantial fact making the rock she's pushing against far heavier. And Ellison won big in the DFL primary, anyway, which might be galling to her. But in that field, he was best, voters said so, and against Wardlow, expect the same result. If Monahan then concludes the public does not care about her alleged plight, the way she's conducting herself now is not a way to engender much of a positive regard for her, in my mind, and Ellison might be best served by this thing putting her forever out of his life, as appears to have been the situation before she went public days before the primary. A woman scorned, all that, has been a lasting notion for a reason. Shakespeare did not invent the insight, although he worded it well. The public really does not need to see the fury. Yet it is more a learning experience for the public than the Franken shaming. In every dimension.
As to when this off-the-bed-pulling allegedly happened, the date, reporting is unclear; but if a statute of limitations applies, such statutes are part of law because after a time some things are, at law and for sound reasons, best left in repose. And if Ellison and Monahan were in a relation for any time, did she ever swear at him or otherwise verbally abuse him? Had she ever struck him, in anger or frustration, over the time together is a question also currently hanging fire. Some turbulent relationships do involve mutuality that way, and Ellison, for now, has lodged no complaint about Monahan's conduct, be it berating or supportive, or a bit of each.
He dumped her. She got dumped. She's smarting over it, apparently. It was not a marriage, nor has reporting characterized it as long term or short. We await November, and an Ellison win as a better candidate choice than Wardlow (who attracts an older predominantly white male crowd per this image). Wardlow's campaign website captions that image "Stand-Up-For-Your-Fundamental-Rights.jpg". Defining the venue on the campaign site, Wardlow publishes,
Addressing the Belle Plaine City Council on February 6, 2017, Doug defends the constitutional rights of Belle Plaine Veterans Club members, successfully arguing for the restoration of a memorial depicting a soldier kneeling before a cross marking the grave site of a fallen compatriot.
That gimmick bit by Wardlow did not end so well for the position Wardlow argued; but it gained him name recognition points so he's likely not too disappointed.
While the Wardlow website is replete with usage of the word "rights" Universal Healthcare as a right does not register with Wardlow, nor does a woman's absolute right to privacy between her and her doctor in every instance of medical need. That women's right is a privacy right that should stand free of any nanny state will on the part of some to want to intrude, intervene and constrain such a fundamental right. And Wardlow believes his belief system should tamper with the separation of church and state, clearly so, from the wording he published to accompany the image of Wardlow addressing that all-white predominently elderly male standing-room-only crowd.
VoteSmart shows Wardlow with a 93 rating by the NRA, a 100% rating by "Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life," and a goose egg rating by AFL-CIO. The Nurses gave him a big zero too. About as anti-progress as anyone alive and walking within the state. Wardlow was one-term-wonder in the Minnesota House, 2010-2012, having been voted out 51% to 48% in favor of DFL candidate Laurie Halverson.
Wardlow went to a good law school, Georgetown. It is fair to say that. The same is true of Ellison. His law degree is from U.Minn.
Searching Minnesota cases, to show appellate litigation experience per both Ellison and Wardlow shows neither has a history of extended appellate litigation participation or predominate success. Numerically, Ellison appears to be the more experienced appellate litigator; with neither having a history of major sized law office administration. The Wardlow search returned only one case, an unpublished opinion from 2011 involving a Torrens registration trespass/easement real estate dispute, an appeal of a partial summary judgment with Wardlow as co-counsel representing appellant, where a partial remand was attained.
To say range or extent of appellate litigation favors one or the other, on that web searching record, would be a reach.
If I were facing some breach of law claim by the state, I would choose Ellison over Wardlow to represent me, and I'd seek a jury trial.
But that is subjective.