East Coast front opens in Filner war on women

East Coast front opens in Filner war on women

Wednesday was a very bad day for Bob Filner, who was purportedly in his third day of an intensive two-week rehabilitation for his sexual-harassment addiction.

The worst development for the San Diego mayor was the word from several political pros that they had joined the nascent effort to recall Filner from office. It had seemed like amateur hour until this development.

But nearly as bad was perhaps the most offensive story yet about Filner and women. He hit on rape victims that he met at a conference on sexual assaults in the military!

Given that Filner spent more than half the year from 1993-2012 in Washington D.C. as a congressman, it was only a matter of time before we saw women from the D.C. area joining the hordes in San Diego reporting on the lecherous Democrat’s unwanted advances. But CNN’s report that broke Wednesday was just awful for his reputation.

filner.july.2013“[Eldonna] Fernandez, along with Army veteran Gerri Tindley, joins 11 other women who have publicly accused Filner, 70, of making unwanted advances, from groping to verbal passes.

“They are also among at least eight female veterans and members of the National Women’s Veterans Association of America (NWVAA) in San Diego who have made accusations against the mayor. Almost all of the women were victims of sexual assault while they were in the military.

“The women, like Fernandez, say the former chairman of the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee used his significant power and credentials to access military sexual assault survivors, who they say are less likely to complain. …

“Tara Jones, the president of the group, said she’s spoken to seven to eight women who had varying encounters with Filner at the women’s veteran events, from groping to unwanted requests for dates.

“‘He went to dinners, asked women out to dinners, grabbed breasts, buttocks. The full gamut. Everything that is complete violation of what we stand for,” Jones said. “He’s a sexual predator. And he used this organization for his own personal agenda.”

Filner defender claims anti-Semitism

Meanwhile, a high-profile Filner defender has emerged, and she suggests that the mayor is a victim.

“Two weeks ago, noted literary agent Sandy Dijkstra, a longtime supporter of Mayor Bob Filner, sent him a note, advising him to step down amid mounting accusations of sexual misconduct.

“Tuesday afternoon she reversed course, decrying what she called ‘a Scarlet Letter witch hunt’ to drive him from office.

“‘He deserves the chance to clean up his act and be the mayor we thought we elected,’ she said.

“In an email sent Tuesday afternoon to friends, and in a subsequent interview with U-T San Diego, she said she’s grown increasingly alarmed at the nature and tone of the allegations directed at Filner.

“In particular, she said, she was “sickened” by a Steve Breen editorial cartoon in Sunday’s U-T. It showed a leering Filner looking at a copy of Playboy magazine tucked into a sexual-harassment workbook. Dijkstra called it anti-Semitic and ‘a vile caricature right out of Hitler’s playbook.’”

Groan.


Tags assigned to this article:
Bob Filnersexual harassmentveteransSandy Dijkstra

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