Slama, Herbster and Ricketts

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In politics, seedy gossip is common but rarely comes to surface until election time. With such gossip, we never get the real facts but the perceptions of what took place. When the media have a slow news day on the campaign trails, the gossip comes to the top, such as sexual harassment. These types of scandals accomplish nothing good so I find it best to ignore them. However, there are matters the local news media is leaving out or not understanding regarding Slama and Herbster as well as Ricketts.

Let me be blunt about bad behavior. Victims need to speak up when the offense occurs and do so with great speed. Delay only encourages people to question your motives later. By staying silent, the perpetrator goes on to create more victims. Delays only make it more difficult to corroborate and gather evidence in your defense. Maybe you fear going to authorities but go to someone and report it. By not saying anything for years, you basically let the offender think their behavior is just fine and dandy.

I do not want to take sides in this pointless scandal, but facts need to be outlined. In this case, Slama has worked for Pete Ricketts as his press secretary for his re-election campaign for Governor. Also, she was initially appointed to the Unicameral in early 2019 by Ricketts and later was elected. Her presumed interaction with Herbster occurred before being elected. Was she seeking funds from Herbster?

Ricketts has been pushing for Pillen and attacking Herbster relentlessly. From the start, there has been dark money attacking Herbster such as this site:

https://cancelherbster.com/

The cancel Herbster site appears to be a counter to this other site which is positive about Herbster: http://www.charleswherbster.com/

Ricketts and Herbster have the means to finance such things. Is Ricketts feeding these negative stories about Herbster which has led the media to make Slama come forward? Hard to tell.

Also, Slama received a $10,000 campaign contribution from Herbster, after her election. If there is any truth to her story, why did she accept the money when the campaign was over? Was it hush money? Seems prudent to reject it if the man is a sleazy cad. If her claims are true, she should donate this money to a charity but her allegations sounds like she is returning a favor to Ricketts by attacking Herbster. 

Herbster had Theresa Thibodeau as Lieutenant Governor candidate. Well, she was once a Nebraska State senator because Governor Ricketts appointed her to fill out the vacancy of another Senator. She left the Herbster campaign to run for office on her own. Her explanation is still a bit murky to this day. Did her decisions have to do with Ricketts per chance or does she know or heard of these women making allegations against Herbster?

Lots of women take offense when men mention clothes when the topic is sexual harassment. They think men are wrong to even bring up the topic. Sorry, but if you live in a family with brothers and sisters, you know the situations. There are many-a-boys with sisters, when asked by a guy “do you have a sister?”,  will respond with the word “no”.  These boys know, if they say “yes”, they will only be talking to the guy about said sister for hours: “is she cute?”, “is she single?”, ”does she have nice breasts?”, “can I meet her?”.

Of course, clothes are not consent, but they can be interpreted as an invitation and can reveal what motivation a person has. The World Herald Editorial (April 16) took a pot shot at Hal Daub on this but Daub knew more questions needed to be asked.

There was much talk about Senator Mike Groene and improper pictures, so it is only fair to take issue with what State Senator Slama posted. She posted on Twitter the dress she wore at Elephants Remember 2019. A woman can wear whatever she wants, most particularly when accompanied by husband, boyfriend or relative, but clothing is communication, a form of media, most particularly to the male visual mind. Here is the picture, and keep in mind, she was a Senator when wearing this dress. I was reluctant to post it but she is an elected official posting it on her Twitter account.

Let me provide some brotherly and honest advice to her. Slama is a very attractive woman. The picture of her dress looks dang close to the only porn a teenage boy needs for the day. In some social media, it would be flagged or be required to be labelled NSFW, that is Not Safe for Work. May I suggest this dress may have been more appropriate?