When Is a Congressman Fully Cooked?

 

Yesterday the U.S. House Committee on Ethics, with equal numbers of both Republicans and Democrats, recommended unanimously that North Carolina Rep. Chuck Edwards (11th CD) be censured by the full House for sexual harassment. In its report, the committee said that Edwards “may have created or fostered a hostile work environment and engaged in sexual harassment in violation of House Rules, laws, or other standards of conduct.” The report and Edwards' response to it are linked here. The full House still has to vote. If Edwards is censured, he would be required to stand in the well of the House while the Speaker reads the resolution of censure aloud.

The report describes a pattern of conduct rather than a single incident. According to the committee, Edwards gave two female staffers unusually expensive and personal gifts; invited them to dinners, vacations, and other one-on-one social activities outside the normal employer-employee relationship; sent highly personal notes, messages, and expressions of affection; paid extraordinary personal attention to them in ways that other staff members viewed as inappropriate; and created an atmosphere in which the women felt uncomfortable because he was their employer and held substantial power over their careers.

The committee found no evidence that Edwards engaged in a sexual relationship with either employee or that he explicitly propositioned them for sex. 

Two North Carolinians sit on the Ethics Committee: Rep. Brad Knott on the Republican side and Rep. Deborah Ross on the Democratic.