Posted on 01/23/2003 9:31:02 AM PST by rooster1
State legislators who refused to automatically approve the second term of a Virginia circuit court judge accused of sexual harassment are racist, sexist lynch-mobbers for it, reports the Washington Post.
Newport News Judge Verbena M. Askew, the first black female circuit court judge in the state, had her re-nomination blocked by Republican committees in the state house. The GOPers latched onto the fact that a city was forced to pay $64,000 to settle a sexual harassment claim by a woman who said the judge hit on her then blocked her career advancement when she was rebuffed.
GOP leaders said her case was identical to that of former speaker S. Vance Wilkins Jr., the Republican leader forced from office last summer after he acknowledged paying a $100,000 settlement to a woman who accused him of improper sexual advances.
But black lawmakers said there were other motivations. They accused their colleagues of acting like a "lynch mob" and said the GOP majority had conducted an "execution" of Askew.
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