Posted on 08/20/2018 7:50:33 AM PDT by Kaslin
Rep. Alcee Hastings (D-FL) joked over the weekend that it would be a "catastrophe" if anybody jumped in after President Trump if he fell into the Potomac River, which goes through Washington, D.C. Hastings said he was borrowing the joke from Ari Silver, the son of former Florida state lawmaker Barry Silver.
The Daily Caller has the video.
I will tell you one joke, Hastings said at a rally in Sunshine, FL. Do you know the difference between a crisis and a catastrophe?
A crisis is if Donald Trump falls into the Potomac River and cant swim,' Hastings said, retelling the joke. And a catastrophe is anybody saves his ass."
Dem. Rep. Alcee Hastings Jokes: Its A Catastrophe If Someone Saves A Drowning President Trump
Hastings's cruel comedic routine, which got cheers from the audience, follows a few other Democrats' who have joked about wishing harm on Republicans. Last week, Rep. Steve Cohen (D-TN) joked at a community prayer breakfast - yes, a prayer breakfast - that he wishes Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) would jump off a bridge. He said she would do it if asked by Trump.
Hes going to come down here and he is going to endorse Marsha Blackburn, because Marsha Blackburn, if he says, Jump off the Harahan Bridge, shell jump off the Harahan Bridge, Cohen said. I wish hed say that.
Asked for a response, Cohen told the Huffington Post it was "obviously humor."
Other Democrats, like Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) have dared people to "harass" Trump supporters and Trump administration members anywhere they can find them.
Many have bullied White House employees, like the time Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders could not even enjoy a peaceful meal.
Stereotype RAT.
Alcee knows all about impeachment . . . how about he learn all about a recall now.
I wonder what happened to something called “class”. It seems to be missing among those individuals citizens elected to represent them.
If this half-wit SOB said the same thing about the clintons, he would soon have an “accident”.
the distinguished judge hastings
He’s a racist pig. Too bad teddy kennedy is not here to comment on the joke about jumping in a river to save someone.
This is an old joke that goes back to the days of Lloyd George(early 1900’s).
The jokes get recycled each election, with just the names changed.
They see nothing but Hate
Alcee Hastings: ANOTHER one of Florida’s embarrassments. We have many, I’m sad to say.
“ANOTHER one of Floridas embarrassments”
bill nelson being another......but not for much longer I hope.
Here’s a joke.
Alcee hastings.
Class and the corrupt impeached judge Alcee Hastings dont belong in the same statement.
Ooops I just did it.
Why so many 80+ year old haters in congress ?
Anyone got any jokes about impeached Federal judges? One would be appropriate right now.
ALCEE HASTINGS ASKED A STAFFER WHAT KIND OF PANTIES SHE WAS WEARING
Hastings Record sexual harassment settlement exposes byzantine congressional process
by LEIGH ANN CALDWELL / NBC NEWS
WASHINGTON With new harassment accusations being revealed on a nearly daily basis in Congress, documents obtained by NBC News from the Hastings case shed light on how taxpayer money ends up being used to essentially sweep such incidents under a bureaucratic rug with little accountability.
On Capitol Hill, a sexual harassment complaint is a long process. The documents include drafts of a letter approving the settlement and a confidentiality agreement as well as an internal lessons learned memo written by a House employment lawyer. And while many of the accusations and details of the case remain in dispute, the eventual settlement is a case study of a process shrouded in secrecy despite being funded by taxpayers.
In 2011, Winsome Packer, a congressional staffer who worked for the United States Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe (known as the Helsinki Commission) filed a complaint against the commission, alleging that its chairman at the time, Rep. Alcee Hastings, D-Fla., made unwanted sexual advances toward her and that she was threatened with retaliation.
The details of Packers specific allegations are recorded in the complaint she also brought in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. Publicly filed court documents in that lawsuit show that Packer alleged that she was forced to endure repeated unwelcome sexual advances, crude sexual comments and unwelcome touching by Hastings Including Hastings asking her hat kind of panties she wore).
In describing the incidents, Packer alleged that Hastings had hugged her multiple times, sometimes in front of witnesses at public events, pressing his whole body against her, and his face to her face. Packer also claimed that after she complained to the commissions staff director, she was subject to threats of retaliation by both the director and Hastings himself, including threats of termination.
Hastings, who has been in Congress since 1993, has denied Packers allegations. He called them malicious and absolutely false in a letter obtained by NBC News.
The Office of Congressional Ethics referred the matter to the House Ethics Committee in 2010. After reviewing more than one thousand pages of documents and interviewing eight witnesses, the committee closed the case after finding that while the congressman admitted to having made some unprofessional comments, it had found no additional evidence supporting [Packers ] allegations.
The federal court also dismissed the case, with prejudice, in June 2014. Both sides maintain they were wronged. But this case, which took four years to settle, shows the system is so flawed that even Hastings House-provided attorney issued a retrospective critical of the process. In an internal congressional document obtained by NBC News this week, Gloria Lett, an attorney for the Office of House Employment Counsel, offered some lessons learned from Packers case that recommended the adoption of new policies to handle such claims.
So how did Winsome Packer end up getting a $220,000 taxpayer-funded settlement in May 2014? And why was that payment, settling sexual harassment claims against a member of the House of Representatives, not included in a disclosure to the House Administration Committee of all such settlement payments in the last five years, provided by Congress Office of Compliance, the congressional office that approved the payment?
The puzzle of a byzantine process starts with what Packer says happened when she first made the complaint. Packer claims that from the outset she faced a system that was onerous and intimidating. In an interview, she told NBC News that the process is designed to totally demolish you and convince you to drop it. At the beginning, like any accuser who files a complaint with the Office of Compliance (OOC), Packer paid for her own legal representation while its the taxpayers who provide free legal counsel for the member of Congress or the office involved in the complaint.
Packer completed an initial requirement of a 30-days-or-less, mandatory counseling period for accusers, and then proceeded to a second requirement of a 30-day mediation period. She called that process worse than the harassment. She and one of her lawyers describe an attempt to undermine her credibility and intimidate her. George Chuzi, who represented Packer in her first meeting regarding the complaint, said the House lawyers were unbelievably aggressive.
Two government-paid lawyers representing Hastings sat across the table, as did her immediate supervisor. According to Packer and Chuzi, among the first things the House counsel said is that Packer is a liar and an extortionist. Packer added that the House attorneys also made an initial demand: Packer had to quit. Chuzi said he was in shock about the treatment of the accuser. Packer continued to press her case in federal court for three years.
How Congress is trying to expose sexual harassment payouts
Packer eventually received a settlement payment of $220,000, an amount confirmed by documents reviewed by NBC News and the largest known about since the Congressional Accountability Act was passed in 1995. One document obtained by NBC News details early draft terms of Packers settlement, and it is one of few such documents that have become public.
The others have not been released because confidentiality requirements, established by Congress and signed into federal law as the Congressional Accountability Act, bind accuser, accused and other legal entities from disclosing any terms or details.
Despite these confidentiality requirements, Packer said she had decided to speak out because the environment has changed for accusers and she has little to lose. Packer, 60, who worked for the commission from 2007 until 2014, said she has not worked since the settlement was reached nearly four years ago, and is now living with her sister in Florida.
Prior to her work as a policy adviser to the Helsinki Commission, Packer worked as a GOP staff member on the House Homeland Security Committee from 2003 through 2006.
But when NBC News directed questions about the settlement and the payment to the two congressional entities the documents showed were involved in establishing and approving them the Office of Compliance and the Senate Office of the Chief Counsel for Employment neither provided answers.
In an email, the Office of Compliances media representative wrote that the Congressional Accountability Act requires that the OOC maintain the confidentially of contacts made with the office. The OOC cannot comment on whether matters have or have not been filed with the office.
The Senate legal office did not respond to questions including why it reached a settlement in this case even though Hastings is a member of the House.
In the lessons memo written by Lett, the counsel representing Hastings side, she argued that the manner in which the case was resolved was not ideal, and, going forward, we strongly recommend that the commission consider adopting regulations or policies to avoid this type of situation. According to Letts memo, Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., who succeeded Hastings as chairman of the Helsinki Commission in 2011, did not favor moving forward with the settlement. Hastings sent letters to Smith and Sen. Ben Cardin, D-Md., who was the ranking member of the commission at the time, in 2012, saying, I strongly oppose any settlement with Ms. Packer that would involve her receiving any money or things of value, calling her allegations absolutely false.
According to the lessons memo, Packer contacted the Senate Chief Counsel for Employments office and indicated her interest in settling the case. A draft confidentiality agreement between Packer and the commission, obtained by NBC News, forced Packer to resign in order to accept the settlement. She also had to agree to never seek employment with the commission again.
The agreement was also made with the commission, not Hastings, and required commission employees to attend a sexual harassment training session. Hastings was not required to attend. According to the settlement, the commissions harassment politics also had to be redrafted and distributed them at the seminar.
The Senate office didnt communicate with the House office that first opened the case on the terms and details of the settlement, according to Letts lessons memo. Other than a conversation between Hastings and Cardin in 2014 that a settlement had been reached, Hastings was never provided any details of the settlement until it was reported in the press last week. Until (last Friday) evening, I had not seen the settlement agreement between the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE) and Ms. Packer, Hastings said. At no time was I consulted, nor did I know until after the fact that such a settlement was made.
<><> tax-paid hush money disguised as bonuses
<><> tax-paid severances
<><> no-show jobs to silence victims
<><> tax-paid legal assistance
<><> payouts from the Office of Compliance
<><> payouts from tax-paid office budgets
<><> all other forms of tax-paid bribery
<><> all other forms of tax-paid hush money.
CONTACT CONGRESS: Capitol Switchboard 1-866-220-0044
U.S. Department of Justice
Comment Line: 202-353-1555
Switchboard: 202-514-2000
I wished I had one.
Never mind, he does have class. It's the lowest class.
Why do they call demoncraps “studentless”?????
Cuz dey gots NO CLASS.
Well, at least he's not a member of the House Committee on Ethics.
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