The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

Department of Unfortunate Quotations

Posted on | October 17, 2012 | 6 Comments

Suppose that a father wished to advise his son against taking liberties with young ladies, lest the boy be unfairly accused of a crime. Now, suppose that the boy grew up to be a Republican state legislator in Wisconsin, and decided that his dear old Dad’s advice would be worth sharing with the press. Prepare to be horrified and embarrassed, dear friends:

When a Chetek Alert reporter asked state Rep. Roger Rivard in December to comment on the case in which a 14-year-old girl accused a 17-year-old boy of sexually assaulting her, the Rice Lake lawmaker said his father told him: “Some girls, they rape so easy.” Rivard said last week the comment was his father’s way of warning him that a woman could agree to sex but then later claim the act wasn’t consensual.
He said later that same day that his comments could be misconstrued and that he viewed rape as a horrible crime.

Dear old Dad might have added, along with his words of wisdom, “You probably never want to have to explain this to the media.”

Perhaps the Republican Party should send out a memo to its officials and candidates: The minute a reporter says the word “rape,” terminate the interview immediately.

Comments

6 Responses to “Department of Unfortunate Quotations”

  1. Bob Belvedere
    October 17th, 2012 @ 11:08 am

    Good advice, Stacy. Jeez…

  2. 1389AD
    October 17th, 2012 @ 1:23 pm

    For every actual rape, there’s at least one false accusation of rape. DNA evidence has freed a great many innocent men.

  3. McGehee
    October 17th, 2012 @ 1:59 pm

    The correct comment in Rivard’s case, I think, is, “I’m not on the jury nor on either side’s legal team, so why are you asking me for comment?”

  4. Polichinello
    October 17th, 2012 @ 2:04 pm

    180 this.

  5. K-Bob
    October 17th, 2012 @ 3:00 pm

    Sounds like the name of a thug rap tune.

  6. alwaysfiredup
    October 17th, 2012 @ 4:35 pm

    The latter sentence is absolutely correct, but I challenge you to show any source for the first statistic. Really.