#TXSEN: People who live in Glass Houses shouldn't Throw Stones

"Hypocrite! First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye."
Matthew 7:5

Took less than 5 seconds on Google.

Shot, from Friday night:

“Dr. Ford’s allegations should be investigated by the FBI. Full stop,” O’Rourke said. “There is precedent for that,” he said, referring to Anita Hill, who accused Justice Clarence Thomas of sexually harassing her when he was her boss at a federal agency.

Chaser, from August:

In other words: The guy going after Brett Kavanaugh over sexual misconduct allegations is doing campaign events with...BORRIS friggin' MILES?!?

We weren't the only one to notice:

Interesting decision by Beto O'Rourke to appear in Houston alongside state Sen. Borris Miles, who drew calls for his resignation last year over sexual misconduct allegations #txlege https://t.co/H7gF2b7k45

— Aman Batheja (@amanbatheja) August 11, 2018

In case you forgot:

Lauren*, a Texas legislative intern, was standing underneath the bright blue-and-red neon sign of The Continental Club, a famed Austin bar frequented by schmoozing politicians, lobbyists, and reporters.

That week in May 2013 was filled to the brim with end-of-session (“sine die”) parties, and Lauren was with a group of other interns on South Congress when Democratic state Rep. Borris Miles pulled up.

According to Lauren, Miles leaned out of the carriage he was riding in and pulled out a large roll of money. He handed “maybe $500” to an intern and then looked at Lauren.

“You know how you have the roll of hundreds that you see on TV? It was like that,” Lauren told The Daily Beast.

“I said, ‘Hi Representative, how are you?’ Then he slowly looked me up and down, counted out more money, reached out his hand and said, ‘Bitch, you want to fuck with me tonight?’

“I said ‘No, thank you’ and physically stepped back,” Lauren recalled. “I didn’t want to be rude to him. I remember his intern pacifying him and saying, ‘It’s time to go.’

“Everyone was just shocked that he said that—that he cussed at me and that he was offering me money. It was outrageous,” she continued. “I just remember thinking, ‘I need to go, and I need to not be here anymore.’”

And this:

One time, Chris said, he “witnessed [Miles] catcalling women in Downtown Austin on the way back from a Spurs game, and there had to have been at least 15 or 16 other members that were there because it was a member event.”

The Spurs had played the Lakers that April, and the lawmakers went together to San Antonio to watch one of the games. “As we’re driving back towards the W, he’s hanging out of the open door of the bus and shouting at women,” said Chris.

Chris could not recall the catcalls specifically but said, “It was not something that I would want shouted at anyone.”

Chris’ chief of staff confirmed to The Daily Beast that he heard about the alleged catcalling the next morning.

And this:

Ben*, a former staffer who recently worked in the Capitol and “spent a lot of time with Miles,” said he witnessed the then-state representative “forcibly kiss” at least one woman at the W Hotel.

“He offered to buy her a drink, kept trying to kiss her, and she kept trying to push him away,” said Ben. “He kept laughing about it.

“It was so creepy, and he had this big smile,” said Ben. “Borris loves the W Hotel, and he has a tendency to force himself upon women at bars and kiss them or grope them. He’ll tell them that he is a higher elected official than he actually is.”

....

“He also has a tendency to call women out of their name when they turn him down,” he said. “‘Bitch,’ ‘ho,’ ‘whore.’ He doesn’t like being told ‘no.’

And this:

When Heather* first covered the Texas Legislature as a journalist in 2011, she was repeatedly targeted by Miles, she told The Daily Beast in a story published last month.

Late one night when the legislature was in session, Heather was reporting on HB 400, which would have scrapped Texas’ law mandating class size ratio. Miles famously used a point of order to defeat the bill, landing him the title of Star of the 2011 Legislative Session by the Texas Classroom Teachers Association.

Heather said she had been trying to get details about the bill negotiations, when that night, around midnight, Miles cornered her in a hallway and forcibly kissed her outside the House chamber.

“It happened quickly,” Heather said, noting that Miles laughed afterward. “I think he thought it was hilarious.”

“He’d said several times already, ‘If you go out to dinner with me, I’d be happy to give you the details,’ and I’d sort of laugh it off but it was weird and obviously gross.”

You can read the full Daily Beast report here.

There you have it.

Obviously, this is not to belittle the accusations against Brett Kavanaugh.  Those accusations are serious and should be investigated in the most judicious manner possible.  Unfortunately, we suspect that the atmosphere has been so poisoned that doing so might now be impossible.

That being said, however one feels about Kavanaugh, it's impossible to deny that the accusations against Miles have significantly better sourcing.

Anybody who knows this author knows there are few things we loathe more than when serious allegations of sexual misconduct are interpreted through the lens of mindless, rank, partisanship.  This website has called for politicians from across the political spectrum [Note: Including Borris Miles!!!] to resign over this garbage.  Thus, we have little patience for grandstanding U.S. Senate candidates who theatrically call for FBI investigations while they're holding campaign events with BORRIS friggin' MILES.

Finally, a political note: We wrote last week about how the Democrats' failure to do the right things with Carlos Uresti cost them his Senate seat.  It would be fitting for them to go through the same thing a second time.  What a STUPID, completely preventable, unforced error!!!

Bottom Line: There are two possibilities.  Bobby Francis didn't know.  Or he didn't care.  Neither one is good.