Do North Carolinian Democratic politicians have personal space issues, or something? There was John Edwards and his impregnation problem; Bob Etheridge and his assault problem; and now there’s this unfolding story about NC Democratic Party executive director Jay Parmley allegedly sexually harassing former staffer Adriadn Ortega. Note the use of the word ‘alleged:’ the principals are not confirming that Parmley harassed Ortega, or that there was a settlement made to sweep the whole thing under the house. There’s just a lot of emails floating around, many of which center around the problematical nature of having a potential same-sex harassment scandal appearing during the same electoral cycle as a proposed state constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage.
Via Tom Maguire of Just One Minute, who is perhaps justifiably cynical that the media is going to cover this situation with the same vigor and determination as they would if the principals were all members of the Republican party. Which is a fair cynicism, to be sure… but it may not really matter. As Ed Morrissey notes here, the North Carolina Democratic party is already facing tough times; it’s an open question about how this much this actually makes things worse for it…
“Is the North Carolina Democratic party protecting a sexual harasser?”
“That would be ‘what is a rhetorical question?'”