密歇根新闻广播 康耶斯丑闻

 

Last week, Detroit Congressman¹ John Conyers became one more powerful man caught in a sexual harassment² scandal. It was revealed he'd reached a settlement with a former employee a few years ago. The woman was paid more than $27,000, evidently with taxpayer³ funds.

Conyers, who has served in Congress for more than half a century, confirmed the settlement but denied any harassment, and has stepped down from his post as ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee. That was fairly meaningless: If Democrats⁴ did recapture control of the House next year, they'd never allow a man about to be 90 to lead that powerful committee.

Now, of course, the question is whether Conyers can survive at all. But what strikes me as utterly⁵ hypocritical is the reaction from other members of Congress, mostly Democrats, who profess⁶ themselves shocked by all this.

They shouldn't be, and probably aren't. Stories about the way Conyers does business are legendary⁷ in Washington and Detroit. A woman named Deanna Maher used to be chief of staff for the congressman's downriver office. More than ten years ago, she complained to congressional authorities that she was being sexually harassed⁸ by both Conyers and one of his male staffers. So far as I can tell, they did nothing about this or other complaints.

Indeed, Conyers has been guilty of more than enough known other abuses to justify⁹ action long ago – based just on what has been reported in the media. Joel Thurtell was an investigative reporter for the Detroit Free Press for years who now continues his work part time on his blog, joelontheroad.com. He told me that "Democrats could have avoided this scandal if they had confronted this problem 14 years ago, when Conyers' errant ways with public funds were first reported," mainly by Thurtell himself.

Indeed, it was clearly established that Conyers had assigned his political staff to work on his and other political campaigns on government time and in government offices, which is a violation¹⁰ of House ethics¹¹ rules and also, apparently¹² of the law.

Nothing happened after that was reported. The next year, just before Thanksgiving, a charity brought 60 frozen turkeys to Conyers' office for distribution to the poor. Newspaper stories indicated staff members took the birds, and no poor people got any.

Two years later, Thurtell reported that Conyers used congressional employees to pick up his dry cleaning, do his laundry, clean his house, and tutor both his children and his wife Monica, who was struggling with law school.

One staffer was summoned to Conyers' home and ordered to live there and act as a nanny, something she did for almost two months. Several employees did complain to the House Ethics Committee that time, but Conyers didn't even get a slap on the wrist.

He just agreed to "clarify work rules" so workers would know what their proper duties were. To be sure, there was a sense that Conyers was an untouchable icon¹³ of the civil rights movement, whose voters would reelect him no matter what.

Eventually, Thurtell said his editors lost enthusiasm for Conyers corruption¹⁴ stories. But what is clear is that nobody in Congress should be the slightest bit surprised by last week's revelations. For years, they've had evidence of wrongdoing in front of them.

And they chose to do nothing at all.

Jack¹⁵ Lessenberry is Michigan Radio's Senior Political Analyst¹⁶. Views expressed in his essays are his own and do not necessarily reflect those of Michigan Radio, its management or the station licensee, The University of Michigan.

1 Congressman   

n.（美）国会议员

参考例句：

• He related several anecdotes about his first years as a congressman.他讲述自己初任议员那几年的几则轶事。
• The congressman is meditating a reply to his critics.这位国会议员正在考虑给他的批评者一个答复。

2 harassment   

n.骚扰，扰乱，烦恼，烦乱

参考例句：

• She often got telephone harassment at night these days.这些天她经常在夜晚受到电话骚扰。
• The company prohibits any form of harassment.公司禁止任何形式的骚扰行为。

3 taxpayer   

n.纳税人

参考例句：

• The new scheme will run off with a lot of the taxpayer's money.这项新计划将用去纳税人许多钱。
• The taxpayer are unfavourably disposed towards the recent tax increase.纳税者对最近的增加税收十分反感。

4 democrats   

n.民主主义者，民主人士( democrat的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The Democrats held a pep rally on Capitol Hill yesterday. 民主党昨天在国会山召开了竞选誓师大会。
• The democrats organize a filibuster in the senate. 民主党党员组织了阻挠议事。 来自《简明英汉词典》

5 utterly   

adv.完全地，绝对地

参考例句：

• Utterly devoted to the people,he gave his life in saving his patients.他忠于人民，把毕生精力用于挽救患者的生命。
• I was utterly ravished by the way she smiled.她的微笑使我完全陶醉了。

6 profess   

v.声称，冒称，以...为业，正式接受入教，表明信仰

参考例句：

• I profess that I was surprised at the news.我承认这消息使我惊讶。
• What religion does he profess?他信仰哪种宗教？

7 legendary   

adj.传奇（中）的，闻名遐迩的；n.传奇（文学）

参考例句：

• Legendary stories are passed down from parents to children.传奇故事是由父母传给孩子们的。
• Odysseus was a legendary Greek hero.奥狄修斯是传说中的希腊英雄。

8 harassed   

adj. 疲倦的，厌烦的 动词harass的过去式和过去分词

参考例句：

• He has complained of being harassed by the police. 他投诉受到警方侵扰。
• harassed mothers with their children 带着孩子的疲惫不堪的母亲们

9 justify   

vt.证明…正当(或有理)，为…辩护

参考例句：

• He tried to justify his absence with lame excuses.他想用站不住脚的借口为自己的缺席辩解。
• Can you justify your rude behavior to me?你能向我证明你的粗野行为是有道理的吗？

10 violation   

n.违反(行为)，违背(行为)，侵犯

参考例句：

• He roared that was a violation of the rules.他大声说，那是违反规则的。
• He was fined 200 dollars for violation of traffic regulation.他因违反交通规则被罚款200美元。

11 ethics   

n.伦理学；伦理观，道德标准

参考例句：

• The ethics of his profession don't permit him to do that.他的职业道德不允许他那样做。
• Personal ethics and professional ethics sometimes conflict.个人道德和职业道德有时会相互抵触。

12 apparently   

adv.显然地；表面上，似乎

参考例句：

• An apparently blind alley leads suddenly into an open space.山穷水尽，豁然开朗。
• He was apparently much surprised at the news.他对那个消息显然感到十分惊异。

13 icon   

n.偶像，崇拜的对象，画像

参考例句：

• They found an icon in the monastery.他们在修道院中发现了一个圣像。
• Click on this icon to align or justify text.点击这个图标使文本排齐。

14 corruption   

n.腐败，堕落，贪污

参考例句：

• The people asked the government to hit out against corruption and theft.人民要求政府严惩贪污盗窃。
• The old man reviled against corruption.那老人痛斥了贪污舞弊。

15 jack   

n.插座，千斤顶，男人；v.抬起，提醒，扛举；n.（Jake）杰克

参考例句：

• I am looking for the headphone jack.我正在找寻头戴式耳机插孔。
• He lifted the car with a jack to change the flat tyre.他用千斤顶把车顶起来换下瘪轮胎。

16 analyst   

n.分析家，化验员；心理分析学家

参考例句：

• What can you contribute to the position of a market analyst?你有什么技能可有助于市场分析员的职务？
• The analyst is required to interpolate values between standards.分析人员需要在这些标准中插入一些值。