纽约时报 弗吉尼亚领导人将民主党人拖入噩梦(4)（在线收听）

Even before Ms. Watson made her accusation Friday, Mr. Fairfax was in grave jeopardy.

甚至在沃森上周五提出指控之前，费尔法克斯就已经处于严重的危险之中了。

He infuriated Virginia’s three freshman Democratic women in the congressional delegation

他对凡妮莎·C·泰森最初提出的人身攻击指控不屑一顾的态度

with his dismissive treatment of the initial assault claim made by Vanessa C. Tyson,

激怒了国会代表团中弗吉尼亚州三名民主党新晋女议员。

and then compounded his difficulty by not calling any of them.

更糟的是，他一个电话也没打给她们。

Similarly, he had not called Mr. McEachin, one of two African-Americans in the delegation, before Ms. Watson spoke out.

同样，在沃森发声之前，他也没有给麦克伊钦——代表团的两名非裔代表之一——打电话。

“You don’t need to be a woman to be upset about the way Justin has handled this,” Mr. McEachin said.

“不管是不是女性，你都会对贾斯汀处理这件事的方式感到失望，”麦克伊钦说。

It came to no surprise to Virginia Democrats, then,

这样一来，对弗吉尼亚民主党人而言，

when Mr. McEachin and the three female lawmakers —

麦克伊钦和三位女议员——

Representatives Elaine Luria, Abigail Spanberger and Jennifer Wexton —

分别是众议员伊莱恩·卢里亚、阿比盖尔·斯潘伯格和詹妮弗·韦克斯顿——

were some of the earliest on Friday night to demand Mr. Fairfax resign.

周五晚上率先提出让费尔法克斯辞职也就不奇怪了。

As for Mr. Northam, the governor, he told his cabinet on Friday that he would not resign.

至于州长诺瑟姆，他在周五告诉内阁他不会辞职。

In an email to state employees acknowledging that the state is in “uncharted waters,”

在一封发给州政府雇员的电子邮件中，他承认该州正处于“未知水域”，

he said: “You have placed your trust in me to lead Virginia forward — and I plan to do that.”

他说：“你们信任我，相信我能带领弗吉尼亚前进——我也决定照你们的意思办。”

But some black Democrats are unhappy about the prospect of him remaining in office,

然而，一些黑人民主党人对他可能继续执政这一点感到不满，

after he acknowledged he wore shoe polish to go in blackface as part of a Michael Jackson costume for a dance contest in 1984.

因为此前他承认自己曾在1984年参加一场舞蹈比赛时为了模仿迈克尔·杰克逊画黑人妆，往脸上抹鞋油。

Yet Ms. Bass, the Congressional Black Caucus leader, and other Democrats offered some measure of praise for Mr. Herring,

但国会黑人核心小组领袖巴斯和其他民主党人对赫林给予了一定程度的赞扬，

who revealed that he wore blackface to imitate a rapper as a University of Virginia undergraduate

因为后者虽然也透露了，在弗吉尼亚大学读本科时，他为了模仿一名说唱歌手化了黑人妆，

but has pleaded for forgiveness from the state’s black lawmakers.

但他一直在请求该州黑人议员的原谅。

“At least he came forward and seemed to be sincere and apologized,” Ms. Bass said.

“至少他勇敢地承认了，而且表现得很诚恳，还道了歉，”巴斯女士说。

Other national Democrats also praised Mr. Herring, who methodically reached out to nearly every prominent African-American lawmaker in Virginia,

其他民主党人也对赫林表示了赞许，因为他按顺序联系了弗吉尼亚州几乎所有杰出的非裔议员，

and said it was time the party reconsider its demands for instant accountability for the transgressors in its ranks.

表示民主党是时候重新考虑对党内违反纪律者立即追究责任的需求了。

“It’s unrealistic to expect politicians to have lived perfect lives —

“指望政客们的生活一点儿瑕疵也没有是不现实的——

the general public doesn’t expect that, and they are much more forgiving than the Twitter outrage mob,”

普通民众并没有抱这种幻想，他们比推特上那些愤怒的暴民宽容多了，”

said Elisabeth Smith, a Democratic strategist, singling out Mr. Herring.

民主党策略师伊丽莎白·史密斯说到，她还特别提到了赫林。

“If anything, we’ve learned the importance of taking a step back and taking a deep breath before demanding these guys’ heads on a plate.”

“如果非要说有什么不同的话，不同就是，我们已经懂得了后退一步，在把这些家伙的头放到断头台上之前深呼吸的重要性。”