Political Quotes

“The DOD inspector general reports that, during his investigation, many naval officers systematically lied to hide the truth. He called it collective stonewalling. It ``increased the difficulty of the investigation,'' says the DOD IG, ``and adversely affected [the DOD IG's] ability to identify many of those officers who had committed assaults.'' That is in the record. This is not a group of women in the Congress saying this may have happened. This is not a group of victims saying we think this happened. This is the Department of Defense inspector general who said it did happen and that the Navy people lied systematically, to use his words. In other words, the Navy coverup worked. And under whose watch? Admiral Kelso's. So, how were the women treated who came forward to tell what happened? Let us talk about Lieutenant Paula Coughlin. She told her immediate supervisor, a vice-admiral, of her experience in the gauntlet. Do you know what he said? ``That's what you get when you go to a hotel party with a bunch of drunk aviators.'' Blame the victim. It should not surprise anyone that just 2 months ago Lieutenant Coughlin resigned her commission, citing continuing harassment as the reason for cutting short her promising career. Those on the other side say Admiral Kelso was wonderful at changing the military, at changing the way they think about things. Then why did Lieutenant Coughlin have to quit? She felt herself run out of the Navy.…”