In his salad days at CNN's Crossfire, liberal talker Bill Press might have seemed suave with a point. Lately, his ability to make fine distinctions seems entirely absent. Last October, he insisted “I call NPR National Pentagon Radio. They’re no more left wing than Fox News as far as I’m concerned."
On Monday morning, poor Bill was even more embarrassing. He compared the unsubstantiated allegations of sexual harassment between non-consenting adults against Herman Cain to...the child-sex-abuse allegations against Penn State assistant coach Jerry Sandusky. He said "What's the difference, really? There's no difference." Say what?
Press was raging against Rush Limbaugh for mocking Cain accuser Sharon Bialek with the pronunciation "buy a lick." Then he turned on conservatives as a whole:
I wonder what Rush Limbaugh and Herman Cain's detra -- uh, supporters say about what's happening at Penn State? Hmmm. Are they blaming that on the media? Is the media wrong by pointing out that Sandusky guy apparently was molesting all these young boys, including a ten year old in the shower, and Joe Paterno doesn't call the cops? You gonna blame the media for that? Are they gonna defend Sandusky? Or not defending him, just defending Herman Cain, because he happens to be a conservative politician running for president. So you can't touch him, but the media can go after Sandusky.
What's the difference, really? There's no difference. I mean, okay, we have maybe sexual assault in the case of Sandusky, but let me tell you something, assuming, and if what Sharon Bialek says is correct, that's a lot more than sexual harassment on Herman Cain's part. That's sexual assault on his part. I think any lawyer would tell you that. So I just get sick of these right-wingers trying to defend this guy when five different women come forward. Five different women come forward! Same story. You're just gonna believe him?
This, unsurprisingly, was not the Press view during the Clinton impeachment process in 1998. On CNN's Crossfire, Press asserted on Bill Clinton's behalf, "there's never been another case in the history of this nation where someone has been indicted for lying about sex in a civil case." David Tell of the Weekly Standard easily went and found one Barbara Battalino, prosecuted by Clinton's own Justice Department for lying about sex in a civil case.
