‘Seriously, You’re Going THERE?’: One Woman Weighs In On John Kelly’s ‘Sacred’ Remarks

By way of introduction, recall what we said in our plea to John Kelly from Thursday evening:

By definition, defending the indefensible leads to mistakes. And so it was with Kelly’s Thursday press conference. Kelly decried what he claimed was a nationwide lack of respect for women. Specifically, he said this:

• When I was a kid growing up, a lot of things were sacred in our country. Women were sacred and looked upon with great honor. That’s not the case anymore as we see from recent cases.

Part of that was probably sincere. But again, it seems highly unlikely that a man with Kelly’s predisposition to Spartan discipline would walk up to a lectern and start making off-the-cuff references to Harvey Weinstein. Furthermore, the man who put him up to the press conference in the first place was caught on tape bragging about “grabbin’ ’em by the pussy.”

So Kelly is right, it’s “not the case anymore” that men respect women in America and “recent cases” do indeed confirm it. Just this week, in fact, we learned that Trump’s campaign was subpoenaed for all documents related to a woman who claims Trump sexually assaulted her.

He also appeared to reference Trump’s ridiculous claim that there’s a “war on Christmas.”

Now enjoy the following excerpts from a piece by Ruth Marcus for WaPo (and you should read the whole thing, because there’s a larger point too)…

By Ruth Marcus 

I was mesmerized and, to be honest, a bit teary-eyed as the retired four-star general spoke of what it is like to be on the early-morning receiving end of the news that would break any parent’s heart.

And I was not prepared, or disposed, to be taken aback by some of what came next – in particular, Kelly’s disquisition on the loss of the sacred.

[…]

“You know when I was a kid growing up, a lot of things were sacred in our country. Women were sacred, looked upon with great honor. That’s obviously not the case anymore, as we’ve seen from recent cases. Life – the dignity of life – is sacred. That’s gone. Religion, that seems to be gone as well. Gold Star families, I think that left in the convention over the summer.”

My first reaction, and I doubt I was alone here, was along the lines of: Seriously, you’re going THERE? Leave aside the references to “dignity of life.” If Kelly was talking about abortion rights, he can talk to the Supreme Court. Leave aside Kelly’s lament for religion, which “seems to be gone as well.” How’s that, except maybe if you’re a Muslim refugee? I doubt Kelly had that in mind.

[…]

But about those women. Um, Gen. Kelly, assuming you were referring to the report on Harvey Weinstein – where were you, exactly, during the presidential campaign? The president you serve – and I respect all the reasons for that service – was shown on videotape bragging about using his star power to get away with grabbing women by their private parts. And he didn’t phrase that in a way that showed the respect you think women deserve.

Even if you accept the president’s claim that this was mere locker-room talk, even if there weren’t a bounty of other similarly disgusting and objectifying remarks, even if you discount the dozen or so women who came forward in 2016 to claim that Trump assaulted them – why raise this subject? This conduct is unacceptable regardless of party affiliation, whether the alleged perpetrator is Weinstein or Trump or, yes, Bill Clinton. Selective outrage is unbecoming.