You Wanna Know What the 'S' Stands For? 'Shirley.' - #347

#346 S. VANCE WILKINS
FORMER SPEAKER (2000) OF THE VIRGINIA HOUSE OF DELEGATES

In 2003, Wilkins was regarded as the most powerful man in Virginia, able to tie up legislation that a democratic governor (had there been one) wanted.

Then in the course of less than a week, he was broken, fucked, forced out of the Speakership and quit entirely three weeks later.

'Yeah,' you're probably thinking. 'Those dirty democrats practice the Politics of Personal Destruction all the time.'

If you are thinking that, you'd be wrong. See, it was the REPUBLICANS that put the wood to this GOP Cocksucker, not the Democrats, although they stood by with ill-concealed glee at the spectacle of the OTHER party eating one of their own alive.

How could something like this happen? Well, the first sign was a fellow named R.H. Melton of the Washington Post. Melton wrote a very detailed piece about how Wilkins paid $100,000 in hush money to croak a sexual harassment charge against him by a 26-year-old woman. It was what former Washington Post Executive Editor Ben Bradlee called a 'Holy Shit!' Story. Once that came out, two OTHER women popped up who said Wilkins' had sexually harrassed THEM too. However, it all came back to that $100,000 'settlement.' Instead of putting things to rest, it kept sticking in everyone's craw. Everytime Wilkins made a speech, it got brought up again and again and again, by REPUBLICAN women, private citizens AND legislators. And all of them were madder than hell about it.

Why such fury? Well, Wilkins had ruled the House of Delegates with an iron fist. Nobody liked him because of his bare-knuckled use of power. His predecessor was alright; he was a back-slapping Gladhander people may have disagreed with but they all liked him. Wilkins, on the other hand, was just a mean-spirited bastard. Several Republicans resented the hell out of him, even as they counted him as their mentor. Younger Republicans in particular, once beholden to Wilkins, had no compunction about stomping on his throat when they saw their chance. There was also a sizable contingent that wondered how they could take the moral high road and criticize ex-President Clinton for getting a blowjob from a woman who wasn't his wife, while excusing Wilkins' lecherous behavior on the other hand. A third group also didn't care for Wilkins' attempts to imply that THEY were just as lecherous as HE was.

With thanks to the Washington Post and the blogs George.Loper.org and Conservative Babylon.

S. Olson