One of our state lawmakers entertained us again this weekend with the shenanigans of an on-again, off-again, on-again announcement of his resignation following revelations that he – the Tennessee House of Representatives’ majority whip – reportedly had sexually harassed three women with inappropriate text messages.
We say “entertained” because the details of both the text requests seeking inappropriate pictures and the yes-no-yes resignation are so ridiculous they seem slapstick.
Instead the comedy becomes tragedy with the realization that the whole mess is pathetically mired in the General Assembly’s lame policy on sexual harassment complaints – one that clearly is constructed to be more protection for lawmakers than protection for the victims of harassment.
The resigned majority whip, Jeremy Durham, does not deny sending the text messages. He says he doesn’t remember sending them. And he blames the “liberal media.”
Dear readers, please ponder that for a moment. While it’s true that the press does buy ink by the barrel, trust your gut that there isn’t a reporter alive who can control your mind or even the common sense-challenged mind of Jeremy Durham, to text young women after midnight inappropriately asking for meet-ups or pictures. Nor could the press force Durham to write a resignation letter that he later says was “not supposed to be out there,” then reissues it about two hours later with an additional paragraph.