Thursday, January 22, 2009
Legislature / Politics / Woods Sex Scandal at the Capitol: Day Three
Posted by Jeff Woods on Thu, Jan 22, 2009 at 6:39 AM
Naifeh: Crazy like a fox Former House Speaker Jimmy Naifeh is a cunning pol, as he demonstrated last week in orchestrating the instantly celebrated Mumpower Smackdown. Now, Naifeh's finding a crafty way to defend Kent Williams against sexual harassment charges. On Channel 2, Naifeh suggested that Republicans fabricated the memo containing the accusations against Williams. Says Naifeh:
"It's just real funny to me that if this is something that allegedly happened two years ago that all of a sudden, when Speaker Williams becomes the new speaker, it's no longer a closed record and they've just opened it up and given it out. I don't know if that memo is from two years ago or two days ago."
Note that Naifeh never actually says he thinks the memo is phony. Instead, he merely plants the seed of suspicion and lets viewers come to their own conclusion. The idea is preposterous, of course. Even Republicans aren't that devious. But it's better than the two alternatives that Naifeh might have considered: either claim Rep. Susan Lynn is lying or defend what Williams said to her in that parking garage two years ago.
Of course, Naifeh also could condemn sexual harassment and say that, if Williams did what various credible witnesses say he did, then he ought to be ashamed of himself and resign as speaker. Nah, that's silly. Naifeh would never say that.
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