Over the River and Through the Woods

Actually over two rivers, the Patuxent and Potomac, and through the woods of Virginia lies it's capitol, Richmond, where there seems to be very little progress in resolving the Northman, Fairfax and what's his name matter.

Ace catches Buzzfeed in another lie (surprise, surprise): Learn to Code: BuzzFeed Repeats Northam Team's Spin That He Couldn't Be the One in the Blackface Photo, Because That Person Held a Beer in His Right Hand While Northam is Left-Handed. Lots of pictures showing him using his right hand, including signing legislation.

Hold up -- not sure why BuzzFeed is reporting that Northam is left handed. He's right-handed. pic.twitter.com/FbZOFZ55Kz

— Chuck Ross (@ChuckRossDC) February 8, 2019

Ed Driscol at Insty chronicles the Virginia Clown Show Update: Governor Blackface Brags about His Moral Compass and Explains How It’s All Our Fault. "You don’t get to brag about your moral compass when you’re in this situation."

Whatever. It's all Donald Trump's fault. It's so easy, which didn't we see it? He went back in time in his secret Presidential time machine and applied the blackface to Northam. It's all good because Northam Is Stealing Hillary Clinton’s Idea For A “Listening Tour”.

Stephen Green at Insty M. CATHARINE EVANS: The Virginia train wreck has set the stage for 2020.

Thanks to Virginia’s embroiled leaders, the Democrats have become not only the party of drugs, human-trafficking, open borders, MS-13, a Green New Deal, and socialism; they have now outed themselves as the Party of Infanticide, Racism, the KKK, Sexism (“F— the B—-“), and Rapists.
President Trump and the Republican Party should get a lot of mileage out of the Racist & Rapist party’s double standard. There’s little doubt among conservatives in Virginia and across the nation that if these were three Republican leaders simultaneously being accused of racism and rape, Antifa, MoveOn, Black Lives Matter, the NAACP, and #MeToo would be blocking traffic, threatening riots, and surrounding the capitol in Richmond until all three resigned.
In spite of the Democrats’ long history of getting away with everything, including murder (Ted Kennedy), the explosive and quickly moving chain of events in Virginia these past few weeks has made ignoring this political earthquake impossible for the media.

Yes, but… in recent years the media has largely taken a different tack on stories too big too ignore, but too damaging to their (D) friends:

• Coverage that’s as perfunctory as can be gotten away with
• Framed whenever possible as a (D)-said/(R)-said “controversy”
• In which “Republicans Pounce!”
• While applying no direct pressure on (D) for an investigation/resignation/etc
• And then when nothing like an investigation or resignation happens, present the story, if at all, as “old news.”

Oh, and one last thing. “Old news” is usually combined with “Republicans still obsessed with ‘old news’.”

Northam ain't goin nowhere. Get used to it. Now on the matter of Justin Fairfax, like rats deserting a sinking ship, Staffers to Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax resign following second sexual assault allegation. And Justin Fairfax placed on leave by his law firm after rape allegation. Hmmm, I guess they don't want to get tarred with the same brush. But, Virginia Dem Backs Off Plan To Impeach Fairfax Over Rape Claims After Black Lawmakers Object.

By way of the the Wombat's In The Mailbox: 02.11.19 , almost inevitably (too) sensible Megan McArdle thinks We need a single standard for Ralph Northam, Justin Fairfax — and all the others

The repugnant practice of blackface was mainstream entertainment a century ago. In the 1980s, blackface was still apparently acceptable enough in some quarters that young men put it on and smiled for a camera. But America has undergone a period of unusually rapid social change, and today no decent person would countenance such behavior. Over the course of a lifetime, some people will have done a bad thing before they fully realized its badness.

If those people are willing to acknowledge their past sins, they deserve some leniency, not because racist caricature is anything less than abhorrent but because the easier it is for people to leave behind their past wrongs, the faster society can move forward.

Sexual assault is a different matter. But it is not anti-woman, or pro-rape, to recognize that old memories can be unreliable, or to acknowledge that false accusations do happen, and therefore conclude that something more than a simple accusation is needed to justify drumming someone out of public life.

Had Democrats staked out this reasonable middle ground earlier, they would not be facing such an ugly situation in Virginia. It would be embarrassing to shift positions now. But that’s better than the tempting alternative: practice restraint when their political interests are at stake, and reassemble the vigilante squad when a Republican turns up in the dock.

That’s essentially what they did with Bill Clinton. Just when feminists were making serious inroads against sexual harassment, Democrats started pretending that it somehow wasn’t an appalling abuse of power for the most powerful man in the world to use an intern for sexual gratification. It’s nauseating to contemplate what the women in my generation were forced to endure while waiting for the Clintons to leave public life so that feminists could reclaim their principles from lost-and-found.

But that is nothing compared with the damage that would be done if the left went soft on its own, while maintaining a hard line for its opponents. That reduces vital principles to mere tactical political weapons — and in doing so, renders them largely useless either as weapons or as principles.

Instead, what’s needed is a single standard for everyone, one that delivers swift punishment for clear and recent offenses but recognizes the inherent ambiguity of older and less well-corroborated ones. In the short term, tempering justice with mercy will be better for Democrats. And in the long term, much better for America.

In principle, I agree with all of this. As a practical matter, however, if we allow the Democrats to skate again on the idea that the offenses are just "Old News", they will simply continue to persecute Republicans for the same offenses. No quarter! Unless they beg nicely.

Over the River and Through the Woods

Not much is happening in Richmond. Northam and Fairfax are standing pat, despite extensive cries for their resignations, and impeachment in Fairfax's case. Apparently there is no procedure for impeachment of the Governor in Virginia, and Northham has nothing to gain from resigning. If he resigns, he's the former governor of Virginia who resigned over racist actions. Maybe he can beat it in the long run.

Northam's apology tour got off to a poor start when, on a CBS interview, he confused slaves and indentured servants. While slaves were generally originally blacks from Africa captured as booty in war, and sold to slave traders as property, indentured servants were generally Europeans, Scots, Irish and lower class English, who voluntarily signed a labor contract of limited duration for a chance to emigrate to the new world. A hard life for both for sure, but hardly the same. Roll digits:



Hey, I understand. Northam was a premed major, and probably, like me, took the bare minimum of non-science courses, and did a minimum amount of studying in the liberal arts like history.

Ace: Governor Northam: Stop Digging! Although, On Second Thought...

Enjoying the schadenfreude with Ace and me is Michael Walsh at PJ Media, In Virginia, Democrats Are Hoist with Their 'Intersectionality' Petard

It's not easy being a Democrat these days. At any moment, some action or character trait that was celebrated just a few years ago suddenly becomes verboten; or some hitherto unknown social-justice concern comes flying in from left field or outer space and lands in your lap. Such is the case with the senior Democrats in the Virginia state house, who from the governor on down have suddenly been accused of behavior that was perfectly acceptable when Al Jolson, Laurence Olivier, or Harvey Weinstein used to do it. What's a jackass to do?

Bonus for Virginians! Paul Mirengoff at Power Line points out how Virginians profit from blackface scandal

The good people of Virginia are about to get a reward for enduring the sh*tshow that has been playing out in the Commonwealth. They are going to get a tax cut.

I’m not sure they deserve it. After all, Virginians elected the Northam-Fairfax-Herring slate. But they did so with imperfect knowledge about the trio, so let’s not be churlish.

The tax break affords Virginians $1 billion in relief. According to the Washington Post:

The deal includes a sharp increase in the standard deduction for people filing state tax returns — for individuals, to $4,500 from the current $3,000; and for married couples, to $9,000 from $6,000.
In addition, taxpayers will get a one-time refund in October — just before election season — of up to $110 for individuals and $220 for married couples.
State and local taxes will continue to be deductible at current rates instead of being capped, as they are in the federal plan. And several business tax breaks bring the total value of the package to at least $976 million.
Republicans have been pushing for tax relief for some time. They want to offset the effect of the 2017 federal tax cut that capped the amount of state and local taxes that can be deducted. Virginia taxes, though much lower than Maryland’s, are high enough that the cap on deductions hurts many Virginians.

Virginia Democrats resisted, as Democrats almost always do in these cases. Northam held out for spending increases, as Democrats almost always do in these cases. The tax relief package seemed to be going nowhere.

But after the blackface scandal broke, Northam reconsidered, his willingness to go to the mat for fiscal liberalism seemingly sapped by demands from Virginia liberals that he step down (Northam reportedly is considering leaving the Democratic party and becoming an independent). He agreed to the tax cut and got little in the way of extra spending.

Also from Steven Hayward at Power Line, The Virgina Dem Meltdown Continues.

A Democratic nominee for the the Virginia state legislature (Virginia has legislative elections in odd-numbered years, which fits an increasingly oddball state) has issued an apology for anti-Semitic social media posts. The folks at Big League Politics—the same folks who broke the original story about Ralph Northam’s accidental exposure to shoe polish—have the story:

Ibraheem Samirah, the Democrat nominee in Virginia’s 86th district House of Delegates election on February 19th, issued a statement Friday evening apologizing for anti-Israel and anti-Semitic social media posts that were published Thursday by Big League Politics. Samirah, a Muslim-American born to Palestinian refugees, said that giving money to Israel is worse than giving money to the Ku Klux Klan and wished for the late Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon to “burn,” in addition to other hateful screeds.
“This slander campaign is using my 5-year old Facebook posts from my impassioned college days, posts that upon reflection and with the blessing of time, I sincerely regret and apologize for. I am so sorry that my ill-chosen words added to the pain of the Jewish community and I seek your understanding and compassion as I prove to you our common humanity,” Samirah stated.

Read the whole story. Samirah sounds like a real charmer.

CONFIRMED: Washington Post ranking editors quashed VA Lt. Governor Fairfax sexual assault story.

EXCLUSIVE: Washington Post VP Confirms Ranking Editors Spiked Fairfax Rape Allegation Storyhttps://t.co/c9WI7YaYS4

— Peter D'Abrosca (@pdabrosca) February 11, 2019

Da Caller, Chelsea Handler, Spike Lee Troll Virginia Dems Following Multiple Blackface Revelations. Matt Margolis, PJ Media, 9 Liberal Celebrities Who Have a Blackface Problem. It's not a problem for them if no one holds them accountable. And no one will. News Busters, Megyn Kelly vs. Jimmy Fallon: NBC and Double Standards

Megyn Kelly, she famously late of NBC, was fired not long ago from her NBC morning show. The New York Post’s “Page Six” headlined the Kelly story this way: “Megyn Kelly out at NBC After Defending Blackface."

The Post story began:

“Megyn Kelly is out at NBC following controversial comments she made about blackface this week, a source told Page Six.
It took just 48 hours for Kelly to be cut from the network.
During a panel discussion on “Megyn Kelly Today” on Tuesday with Jenna Bush Hager, Jacob Soboroff and Melissa Rivers, Kelly said, “You do get in trouble if you are a white person who puts on blackface for Halloween, or a black person who puts on whiteface for Halloween. Back when I was a kid, that was okay just as long as you were dressing as a character.”
The former Fox News host, 47, apologized to her staff in an email later that day and on Wednesday, she made a public apology on-air.”

NBC, you see, has a strict no-tolerance policy for blackface.

Oh wait. Let’s amend that. NBC has a strict no-tolerance policy for blackface - unless you are liberal Tonight Show host Jimmy Fallon. Here is Fallon in blackface as comedian Chris Rock.

As writer Eddie Scarry headlined over at the New York Post, Fallon has curiously fallen silent on the subject of Virginia Governor Ralph Northam’s blackface scandal. So too, as Scarry, has noted, has silence descended on ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel, that late night host also infamous for his blackface impersonation, this one of basketball’s Karl Malone. The Scarry headline was this: “Why Jimmy Kimmel and Jimmy Fallon Aren’t Talking About Blackface.”

If it weren't for double standards, they'd have no standards at all.

Over the River and Through the Woods: A Second Rape Allegation

Over in Richmond, Remember how yesterday, I said with respect to Justin Fairfax, the Lt. Governor of Virginia:

He is certainly entitled to reasonable doubt, and due process, but it seems unlikely that this "she said he said" can be settled on a factual basis. He also benefits a bit by being the black guy in the mix. But if a contemporary account or another victim declares herself, watch out!

It seems that soon after I hit the publish button, that became a reality. WaPoo, Second woman accuses Va. Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax of sexual assault. And worse for Fairfax, unlike the original allegation, it appears that she told friends at the time.

A Maryland woman said Friday that she was sexually assaulted by Virginia Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax (D) in a “premeditated and aggressive” attack in 2000, while both were undergraduate students at Duke University. She is the second woman this week to accuse him of sexual assault. Fairfax forcefully denied both allegations.

Democratic Party leaders quickly called for Fairfax to resign, including the influential Virginia Legislative Black Caucus. Many who had withheld judgment after the first allegation this week said they could no longer stand by him, including most of Virginia’s Democratic congressional delegation and national Democrats with presidential aspirations.
. . .
The new accusation against Fairfax came from Meredith Watson, who said Friday in a statement through her attorney that she shared her account with several classmates and friends immediately after the alleged assault occurred. Watson did not speak publicly Friday, and her lawyer did not make her available for an interview.
. . .
Smith said the details of Watson’s alleged attack are similar to those described by Tyson, who said that Fairfax had forced her to perform oral sex.

Kaneedreck Adams, 40, who attended Duke with Watson, said that in spring 2000, Watson lived across the hall from her in an on-campus apartment complex and came to her in tears.

“She was upset,” said Adams, a lawyer. “She told me she had been raped, and she named Justin.” “She said she couldn’t speak, but she was trying to get up and he kept pushing her down,” Adams said. “She said he knew that she didn’t like what was happening, but he kept pushing her down.”
. . .
Watson’s attorney provided an email exchange from 2016 between Watson and Milagros Joye Brown, another friend from Duke, after Brown invited some Duke friends to a fundraising event for Fairfax’s nascent campaign for lieutenant governor.

“Justin raped me in college and I don’t want to hear anything about him. Please, please, please remove me from any future emails about him please,” Watson wrote on Oct. 26, 2016.
. . .
“I deny this latest unsubstantiated allegation,” Fairfax responded in a statement. “It is demonstrably false. I have never forced myself on anyone ever.”

Asked what evidence Fairfax had that would demonstrate that the charge was false, spokeswoman Lauren Burke said: “In due time, all the facts will come out.”

And from Ace (because the WaPoo and NYT won't report this, you can be sure), Former Boyfriend of Dr. Vanessa Tyson: Due to Her Trauma Over Being Sexually Molested By Her Father, She Would Never Have Consented to Oral Sex. Ughh.

This is now less of a he-said, she-said and now a he-said, she-said, and he agreed with what she said.

Doesn't mean Justin Fairfax is guilty. But given that this former boyfriend is saying, if you read between the lines a bit, "No, she absolutely refuses oral sex because her father forced that on her," it does suggest that she would not have volunteered to commit the same act on a near-stranger.

You really can't prove this kind of serious sexual assault just by testimony, but as far as stories go? This is a really strong one.

You know why you're not allowed to ask about prior sexual experiences, in order to establish that if she said "yes" before she's more likely to have said "yes" now, in a rape trial?

Such questions are ruled to be impermissible by the Rules of Evidence due to public policy considerations -- singing the reputation of a woman who says (and just might be) a rape victim -- but not because they're irrelevant. They are relevant. It's always noted that it would be relevant that a woman had never before consented to sex before, because that would suggest it would be less likely that she would consent on any particular occasion.

And so while previous instances of granting consent would, then, logically suggest that a woman would be more likely to grant it later, they had a look a this question and decided yeah, but this sort of thing tells us so little -- it's barely relevant, in other words -- and the capacity to intimidate a complaining witness is so high, that for public policy reasons we won't let defense lawyers attempt to prove that a claimed victim of rape has had sex before. The slight probative value of such information is greatly outweighed by the public policy considerations of scaring rape victims from bringing forward complaints at all.

The reason I bring this up is because this ex-boyfriend's claim -- that she never engaged in oral sex, she was horrified by it due to a past history of abusive incest -- is pretty much that paradigmatic example of why past sexual history actually could be relevant (indeed, very relevant) in a rape trial in which consent is at issue.

Again, none of this means this story is true. And Justin Fairfax has not made any claims about what the sexual encounter consisted of; I imagine at this point he might just say "Yeah we didn't have oral sex."

Stacy McCain Democrat ‘Rising Star’ Fading Fast

Yeah, expect to see lots more shoes dropping in this case:

Days after Dr. Vanessa Tyson went public with her sexual-assault allegations against Virginia Lieutenant Governor Justin Fairfax, another woman has accused him of rape.
In a statement from her lawyer, Meredith Watson claims she was raped by Fairfax, who is next in line to become governor, in 2000, when they were both students at Duke University. The letter characterizes the alleged attack as “premeditated and aggressive.”
“The two were friends but never dated or had any romantic relationship,” the statement said.
. . .
“Ms. Watson was upset to learn that Mr. Fairfax raped at least one other woman after he attacked her,” Watson’s lawyers said.

Nice phrase — “at least one other woman” — because there are already rumors of more women coming forward to accuse Fairfax.

Generally speaking, as we have seen since the #MeToo movement got rolling in fall 2017, someone with one complaint of sexual misconduct will usually show a persistent pattern of predatory behavior, as in the cases of Harvey Weinstein and Kevin Spacey. So if Fairfax had assaulted one woman, chances are there were others out there with similar stories.

Now, a number of prominent Democrats — including 2020 presidential candidates Kamala Harris and Elizabeth Warren — are calling for Fairfax’s resignation. And all the liberal journalists who called Fairfax a “rising star” are watching to see how soon he will fall.

To make amends, Gov Northams aides want him to read Roots and Ta-Nehisi Coates: Virginia governor to learn black sensitivity by going back to somebody else's Roots

Virginia Democratic Gov. Ralph Northam’s aides want him to read his way out of trouble.

If you can believe it, the aides' strategy for helping him survive his "blackface scandal" involves assigned reading, including Alex Haley's book Roots and an essay written by the Atlantic’s Ta-Nehisi Coates, according to BuzzFeed News.

It’s the whitest solution to a blackface problem that only the whitest of whites could have devised.

Insty catches a whiff of hypocrisy in VIRGINIA CLOWN SHOW, NOW-THEY-TELL-US EDITION:

Without going into a long litany of people saying Northam and Fairfax should resign, suffice it to say that neither of them has shown any inclination  of resigning (although the day is still fairly young). Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring (D), who also admitted to donning "dark makeup" while imitating a rapper in the '80's, when he was 19, does't seem to be facing quite the same level of pressure, likely because he is the last Democrat in the line of succession.