As much as I’m delighted by the current upheaval on sexual assault, we’re stuck with an open question: how much is too much?  Where do we really want to put moral and ethical threshold for removal from office?

So far, we’re pretending that we already know when sexual crimes are damning.  Today, with one more accusation of inappropriate kissing, dozens of Senators and Congresspeople abruptly decided that Sen. Al Franken simply must resign for his sins.  Rep. John Conyers Jr. already resigned for his actions.  We’re already acting as if there is a defined line we mostly agree on.

At the same time, the GOP has resumed funding Roy Moore’s election, and GOP politicians now say they won’t condemn a man they’ve publicly admitted is likely an unrepentant serial child molester.  Donald Trump, an admitted sexual predator with more than a dozen public accusers, is still in office.  And Clarence Thomas, clearly a sexual harasser, remains a Supreme Court Justice.

Wait.  Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas?  You betcha.

Remember Anita Hill and her accusations?  She made plausible accusations against Thomas, in writing and in public.  She had contemporaneous evidence, and testimony by people about how she’d spoken to them about the harassment at the time.  The Senate scheduled her testimony during working hours, ignored her evidence, attacked her testimony and her character, and buried the corroborating testimony.  It was mostly a Republican action led by Arlen Specter, but Democrats played along.  They they scheduled Clarence Thomas for prime time, and let him talk, never deeply questioning him.  He accused the world of a high-tech lynching.  The Democratic-controlled Senate promptly confirmed Thomas to his lifetime appointment on the Supreme Court.

I’m not saying that Al Franken shouldn’t resign.  If half the accusations are true, he’s kind of a creep.  I haven’t heard anything criminal, but, yeah, he acted like a creep.

Is that the line we want to draw?  Is that the threshold for removal?  Remember: some of the accusations are plausible, some are vague, but none have been evaluated or verified.  Al Franken, to his credit, admitted his culpability and apologized for the main accusations, which speaks well for him.  He denies the most recent accusation, he’s dealing with the others, and will probably have to resign.

Buzzfeed reported that Rep. Conyers settled a wrongful dismissal complaint by one of his staffers who he’d fired because she wouldn’t ‘accept his sexual advances’.  That’s pretty bad.  Conyers — barely — didn’t rape the woman, then used public money to buy her off.  Conyers resisted, more women began to surface, and he decided to resign.

Is that the threshold?  If you have sworn testimony and affidavits against you?

Anita Hill accused Thomas under oath, along with corroborating evidence, sworn testimony, and affidavits.  Many of the women accusing Moore have their own evidence and testimony.  The women accusing Trump also include sworn testimony included in several lawsuits.

And yet the Democratic party decided to start killing their own.  They’ve drawn the line simply: any accusation of any sexual misconduct is enough to condemn someone.

Unless they’re Republicans.  Then they mostly shut up.  They say the obligatory stuff, but I think Democrats are taking the most cowardly way out possible.  It’s a corollary to the Moral Amnesia they’re so famous for.  They’re still acting like they’re afraid of the bullies around them.

Look, the American rape-based culture is live, and strong, and really goddamn horrific.  The #MeToo movement promises to make us better as a culture, and as individuals.  Being open and honest about our failures, as hard as it is, promises to change our behavior, and will be good for all of us, and for our children.  I’ve been waiting for this to happen for decades.

But the politics — Jesus, the politics! — it’s just another demonstration of why I hate the Democratic party so much.  They’re so goddamn hapless!  If you’re going to stand for something, fucking stand for it!  Believe it, fight for it, and don’t cower the first time someone pushes back.

If our standard is zero tolerance, then yes, Bill Clinton fails that moral and ethical test, and if he were President today, I’d suggest he be removed from office.  (Maybe.  I hope I would.)  My personal standard is try to find which accusations seem plausible.  Several of Bill Clinton’s accusers were clearly compromised, propped up by Republican dirty tricks groups.  But not all of them.  Yes, Bill, as much as I miss him, would not pass the grade today.

Even if our threshold is moral turpitude, then we need to ask whether Trump should be impeached for his many, many moral, ethical, and legal failures.  Even if Ray Moore can get himself elected in Alabama, that doesn’t exonerate him. He’s still a criminal and moral degenerate man.  The Senate has to seat him, but the first action should be a Senate Ethics investigation.

And we should re-evaluate Anita Hill’s accusations against Clarence Thomas, and decide whether they have merit.  After that, it depends on where we put that threshold.  And if Thomas has crossed it, we should remove him from the Court.

But be careful.  Remember that the threshold we establish — no matter where it is — will seized by Republicans and Bannonites, and used to attack their political enemies.   The details we establish are important.  And if we leave the threshold vague, the enemies of democracy will use our gutlessness to ruin us.