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Congress can’t be trusted to police itself on sexual harassment, Rep. Jackie Speier suggested on Tuesday. The California Democrat called on members of Congress already outed as harassers to step down—as Rep. John Conyers did Tuesday morning—but called for a broader change to how Congress addresses the issue:
“As we are contemplating a new system, I think we need to look at creating a third-party function that will be outside of Congress,” Speier said at the Women Rule Summit on a panel about sexual harassment. [...]
“We need to act,” Speier said. “We cannot allow this to fester while two years go by until the next election takes place.” She pointed to corporations, saying the board of a company whose CEO was the subject of serious harassment allegations wouldn’t wait until the next shareholder meeting to act.
But while Republicans might be happy to pile on any Democrats guilty of sexual harassment, don’t look for them to be willing to police their own—unless they face overwhelming pressure to change.