Rep. John Conyers Jr. (Mich.), the longest-serving member of Congress, stepped aside as the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee amid growing internal pressure as an ethics investigation of sexual harassment allegations against him begins.
Conyers, 88, said he would not resign from Congress and instead would fight the allegations in the hope of reclaiming his spot atop the committee, which oversees federal laws and other legal issues. �I very much look forward to vindicating myself and my family before the House Committee on Ethics,� he wrote Sunday in a letter to House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.).
Conyers settled a sexual harassment complaint brought by a former staffer in 2015, leaving her on the payroll as a temporary employee and paying out just under $30,000.
Pelosi issued a statement immediately after Conyers�s announcement: �I particularly take any accusation of sexual harassment very seriously. Any credible accusation must be reviewed by the Ethics Committee expeditiously. We are at a watershed moment on this issue.�
And this is the appropriate response to allegations of sexual misconduct.
However let me just point out that Roy Moore is still the Republican's candidate for the Alabama Senate, and that their president, Donald Trump, continues to reside in the White House.
Currently it appears that only one side of the political divide is taking sexual harassment seriously.
Unfortunately that puts us at a disadvantage, especially if we start freeing up Senate and House seats in response to these charges, while the conservatives jealously cling to theirs and then capture the newly vacated seats as well.
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