Mary Katharine Ham’s review of the multiple counts of sexual assault to which Donny Ray Williams Jr., a former Democratic staffer, plead guilty on Tuesday is required reading.

She observed that the 10 counts to which Williams confessed to range from spiking a woman’s drink with Ambien in order to have sex with her to getting another woman intoxicated at his home to a point where she could not give consent to their sexual activity.

“Prepare for think pieces on the toxic environment that led to this type of behavior,” she warned. “Prepare for many questions of his former bosses about what blinded them to the abuse happening under their noses.”

Well, we haven’t seen much in the way of garment rending on the left about the “rape culture” pervasive within the Democratic Party or even Washington D.C. more neutrally. One would think that kind of analysis is deserved considering that it seems that local prosecutors are going to let Williams off easy.

“Williams had been indicted on 10 counts, but prosecutors agreed to dismiss the remaining charges,” The Washington Post reported. “As part of the plea agreement, prosecutors said they would seek a suspended prison term and five years of supervised probation. Williams also would have to register as a sex offender for 10 years.”

In an 2012 interview, Williams said the allegations were “absolutely and completely false.”
Williams began his Capitol Hill career in 1999.

He worked for panels chaired by Sens. Joseph I. Lieberman (Conn.) and Mary Landrieu (D-La.). He also said he worked for Sen. Herb Kohl (D-Wis.), Rep. Elijah E. Cummings (D-Md.) and Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.).

It is hard to imagine the level of apoplexy that would overtake the perpetually aggrieved, many of whom remind their readers with metronomic regularity that sexual assault is both rampant and too often overlooked, had the accused been a Republican. Hell, we just endured a week of saturation coverage of an obscure GOP staffer who lost her job after issuing a mild critique of Barack Obama’s daughters’ behavior at a public event on her personal Facebook page. It’s hard to imagine the scale of the emotional meltdown in which the media would indulge had Williams at one point worked for Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN).

In defense of the political press, it’s not as if Williams performed these gruesome acts on a pile of broken glass at a university frat house. It is entirely possible that there may not be many “larger truths” that could be exposed by condemning this disgraced staffer’s acts.

An exasperated Mollie Hemingway over at The Federalist noted that the media’s silence on this, as well as a story involving a prominent Obama bundler who has been charged with sexual assault on a minor, should dispel the notion that there is no pro-Democratic bias in the press.

So we know that the national media is deeply concerned about stray insults directed toward the Obama family from Congressional staffers. Is raping people worse than that? Or not? I’m confused. Because a few years ago Congressional staffer Donny Ray Williams, Jr., was indicted for a series of alleged sexual assaults and it got only one “local crime” story in the Washington Post. Yesterday he pled guilty and that also generated one story in the Washington Post. If there’s network coverage of this congressional staffer raping people, I’m not seeing it. Did I mention he was a staff director for Democrats on a Senate panel?

Or what about child rape? We’re still opposed to that, right? I only ask because Terry Bean, a major campaign donor to President Obama — and a co-founder of the Human Rights Campaign — was just charged with sexual assault of a minor. And the Washington Post hasn’t covered it, according to a search of their archives. I mean, there are pictures of him on Air Force One and he was at the White House seven times including for a state dinner. He’s a member of the DNC. I know, I know, he’s certainly not as important as Lauten, but maybe a single story would be in order? Maybe that Terrence McCoy reporter could dig around and see if Bean wrote anything interesting in high school or something?

I’d like to add that there has been a damning lack of coverage of the revelation that a close associate of the President of the United States has been accused by the Justice Department of protecting someone charged with defrauding taxpayers. This individual was caught up in a variety of similar scandals though he was never charged directly in association with any. Despite his self-evident political toxicity, he regularly joins Barack Obama for birthday celebrations and golf outings. I have been in political media since 2010, and I’ve never heard any of the details of this man’s associations. In fact, it seems that only local Chicago press has been avidly covering his story.

And, of course, there is the scandal involving Jonathan Gruber – an architect of the Affordable Care Act – who both confessed to and bragged about misleading the American public in order to pass that massive overhaul of the nation’s health insurance system. His confession promoted figures like the House Democratic minority leader to make misleading statements about her past association with him, and it has merited barely a peep out of the major network news programs.

Corruption, rape, malfeasance, justice denied, and all of it swirling around the highest office in the land. These are the ingredients of a sensational news cycle. The press would gladly give the public the goods, too, if they could be trusted not to draw inconvenient conclusions about Democratic governance.

The fact that these developments have not been covered extensively is evidence of corruption – not a casual bias or selectivity for the sake of maximum audience satisfaction and ratings – but bona fide, immoral venality.