To the Editor:
“Senator’s Star Shines as Nation Unites Behind Her Cause” (news article, Dec. 17) portrays Kirsten Gillibrand as a savvy politician advancing her political prospects while leading the legions marching under a banner of moral absolutism. I think the future will prove otherwise.
Putting herself in the fore of the fray surrounding sexual harassment and assault by effecting the resignation of Senator Al Franken, she has twice wounded any political ambitions she might have, as a presidential candidate in 2020 and as a leader in this most challenging matter of personal and public decorum.
First, while condemnation of Mr. Franken effectively removed him as one of her possible competitors for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, it also effectively removed him as a valuable, maybe decisive, running mate in the same venue.
Second, she has reduced the entire issue of sexual harassment and assault to the status of “zero tolerance,” a concept that has proved its ineffectiveness wherever it is applied in the public arena.
We need candidates who can thread the needle, not rip the fabric.
THOMAS G. MURPHY
OSSINING, N.Y.
To the Editor:
Senator Kirsten Gillibrand has united the nation? She has not even united Democrats.
Many of us are stung by what we see as her unfair treatment of Senator Al Franken and concerned about her statements that President Bill Clinton should have resigned for his sexual misconduct in the late ’90s.
Republicans then knew they could not remove Mr. Clinton; the Senate did not have the votes to make it happen. Rather, they sought to destroy his reputation and his place in history. They could not do that then (he was remarkably popular when he left office and is still viewed pretty favorably), but Ms. Gillibrand is doing their work for them now.
Continue reading the main storyJOE FERULLO, STUDIO CITY, CALIF.
Continue reading the main story