Katie Hill’s Former Staffers: She’s As Much a Villain As She Is a Victim
[guest post by JVW]
When we last checked-in with our friend ex-Congresswoman Katie Hill (D-CA) just about one year ago, she was ignobly leaving Congress after evidence of a sexual affair with a campaign staffer and highly-believable allegations of a sexual affair with a member of her Congressional office staff had come to light. The story was sordid and gross, involving polyamory, nude pictures, possible blackmail, substance abuse, and other aspects that are better left unmentioned. Though Ms. Hill had taken advantage of the MeToo movement to rise to federal office at the tender age of 31, her poor judgement in her own romantic life led to House Democrat leadership prevailing upon her to resign.
And of course, in a totally 2020 sort of way, the young bisexual Ms. Hill became a martyr to a certain brand of feminist who assumes that women are always the victim in any sexual relationship gone wrong. They worked to switch the narrative from Katie Hill as a hypocrite who made poor decisions to Katie Hill as a victim of Puritanical expectations for LBGTQ female politicians and a nasty smear campaign orchestrated by her jilted abusive cis-normative white male husband. It became standard on the lifestyle left to claim that the former Congresswoman had resigned office due to a revenge porn scandal, rather than her own bad decisions and credible ethics violations. A self-serving memoir written by Ms. Hill has recently been optioned by Hollywood producer Michael Seitzman with Elisabeth Moss of Mad Men and The Handmaid’s Tale set to portray the heroine. Ms. Hill exulted that the film version would further her goal of “tak[ing] back my story from those who have exploited and twisted it.”
But today yesterday her ex-staffers registered their objection to Ms. Hill’s image rehabilitation. Writing on her former Congressional Twitter account, they begin to push back on preferred narrative promoted by Ms. Hill, and portray her as being an abusive and manipulative boss. The full set of tweets can be found at the link in the previous sentence, but I’ll add some screenshots of them here, for those of you who don’t want to sully yourselves by visiting Twitter and in case the tweets mysteriously disappear (note: I am not showing all the tweets in the thread, so to see the full stream in proper order you should visit the link).
I suppose it will be interesting to see if Mr. Seitzman and Ms. Moss proceed with the hagiography. One of the dumber aspects of our modern times is our insistence upon seeing various public figures as either entirely blameless victims or else as utterly incorrigible perpetrators. In a perfect world, Ms. Hill would have disappeared into the background, perhaps even taking a useful job in a healthcare-related field or otherwise doing good works for society. Instead, she seems bound and determined to keep her name in the public eye, so I’m not going to waste any sympathy on her should her reputation continue to get dragged down by the people whom she has apparently wronged. Her former seat is now held by a Republican who appears to be a halfway decent guy, so between that and these new allegations perhaps the Democrats will sensibly close the door on any future political aspirations that Katie Hill may harbor.
– JVW
I am greatly amused that these tweets were issued on Ms. Hill’s own former Congressional account. We all know that very few politicians write their own social media postings (though we all know one who unfortunately does his own thing), so for her to be betrayed in this manner is absolutely perfect.
JVW (ee64e4) — 10/7/2020 @ 3:17 pmCorrected the date that the Hill Congressional account released the tweets. It was last night, not earlier today.
JVW (ee64e4) — 10/7/2020 @ 3:19 pmJVW! Come on, man!
nk (1d9030) — 10/7/2020 @ 4:20 pmHahaha. If you think this story will get any traction now, I have a bridge to sell you. The media will completely ignore this story. And it will be easy for them to do so because everyone wants another story about Trump.
I think the media will be bored off its butt after Biden is elected. The only thing that will keep them busy is not covering Biden doing stuff that would have been front page articles for Trump.
Hoi Polloi (acf0e3) — 10/7/2020 @ 4:36 pmThe lady already upstaged herself with the photos. Everything from that point on is … anti-climactic.
nk (1d9030) — 10/7/2020 @ 4:44 pmThe media is completely ignoring the story that JVH is posting from the media, that’s on every news site.
There’s also a VP debate tonight, Trump has the Covid and was just in the hospital and is ignoring all medical protocols, admin officials are dropping like…flying bugs. There’s a presidential election today, and through the next 27 days.
So call me surprised that a lady that was bounced from congress a year ago for having an affair with a staffer, might not have been the best boss. Shocking…not so much.
Colonel Klink (Ret) (1367c0) — 10/7/2020 @ 4:48 pmIf you think this story will get any traction now, I have a bridge to sell you. The media will completely ignore this story.
I get that. But I wonder if Elisabeth Moss and Michael Seitzman push through with bringing her story to the world of dramatic interpretation via film, or if this scares them off. Maybe they will carry on, but the story will now not showcase Ms. Hill in the role as a plucky, put-upon heronie, but more of a scheming out-of-control egotist who meets her match in a wicked and vengeful husband. That I might bother to watch.
JVW (ee64e4) — 10/7/2020 @ 4:49 pm“I suppose it will be interesting to see if Mr. Seitzman and Ms. Moss proceed with the hagiography.”
__ _
Hollywood made a movie about Mary Mapes and Dan Rather and called it Truth.
harkin (7fb4c9) — 10/7/2020 @ 5:00 pm_
I liked the fact that Katie Hill was forced to resign. Seemed appropriate to me. I don’t think she should have to spend the rest of her life living in shame under a bridge. But I also don’t think she should be the sympathetic star of the story. I guess this what the post-shame world is like. If you have a sensational story to tell you can make a buck no matter how sleazy you are.
For the record I think having a 3 some with a young staffer and your spouse is disqualifying for federal office.
Time123 (66d88c) — 10/7/2020 @ 5:08 pmHaving a 3 some with a willing person who doesn’t work for you and your spouse is your business.
@5 Another classic, nk!
norcal (a5428a) — 10/7/2020 @ 5:11 pmOne of the dumber aspects of our modern times is our insistence upon seeing various public figures as either entirely blameless victims or else as utterly incorrigible perpetrators.
It’s an extension of our comic book movie culture.
norcal (a5428a) — 10/7/2020 @ 5:15 pmMethinks that if this were happening to a disgraced Republican, the media would find a time and place to squeeze it in.
Hoi Polloi (acf0e3) — 10/7/2020 @ 5:31 pmNot a chance. They either ditch the movie or write it a bit differently, ignoring the latest from her staff. Or maybe make them secret Putin agents planted by Trump to make JVH look bad…
Hoi Polloi (acf0e3) — 10/7/2020 @ 5:32 pmAgain, where do you think JVH found this from?
Fox News: Yup
Colonel Klink (Ret) (1367c0) — 10/7/2020 @ 5:41 pmLA Times: Yup
Daily Beast: Yup
CNN: Yup
Politico: Yup
…
Who is JVH, and is anybody watching the debate?
nk (1d9030) — 10/7/2020 @ 5:51 pmI now kind of want to write the screenplay for this biopic of Ms. Hill’s Congressional career. It would begin with Ms. Hill and her husband, both working as lobbyists for various progressive causes, scheming to win the Congressional seat. They start their campaign and run it heavily around MeToo issues and garden-variety center-left stuff, and in the meantime they start having their three-way fling with the female campaign worker, which both of them greatly enjoy. We move on to election day and Ms. Hill wins the race, and then her campaign staff in the midst of the transition to becoming her Congressional office staff begins to fissure between the hard-core partiers, including the Congresswoman-elect and her husband, who like to booze it up, smoke weed, and have various sexual groupings, versus the blue-nose progressives who just want to enact policy. Meanwhile, Ms. Hill quietly starts a fling with her campaign treasure/Congressional chief of staff. Her husband, who is busy trying to figure out ways to make money off of his suddenly famous wife, is oblivious to all of this at first but eventually is pushed out of the picture as Ms. Hill first breaks it off with the female staffer and then informs the husband that he’s history too. And that’s when he starts leaking the nudes and all of this comes to light. But it would be a lot of fun to make both of them look very immature, self-centered, hedonistic, cynical, and dimwitted, and then have it end on such an ugly note.
JVW (ee64e4) — 10/7/2020 @ 5:52 pmUh, W and H aren’t even near the same place on the keyboard, not same hand or same finger on other hand. No excuse.
Colonel Klink (Ret) (1367c0) — 10/7/2020 @ 5:54 pmWho is JVH, and is anybody watching the debate?
Jimmy Van Heusen, one of our finest composers and a guy that even Frank Sinatra was said to want to be like, and no.
JVW (ee64e4) — 10/7/2020 @ 5:55 pm@15. Yes.Kamal doesn’t own a dress, missed 9/11 and hasn’t read the Penatgon Papers. Race Bannon is as smooth as Chivas Regal.
And he mentions—- Plagiarism! God Bless him!
DCSCA (797bc0) — 10/7/2020 @ 6:12 pmI thought of you when Pence mentioned plagiarism. I’ll bet everybody who comments here did the same.
norcal (a5428a) — 10/7/2020 @ 9:04 pm