Thursday, May 13, 2004

I guess being a hard working "man of the people" has its rewards

From the New York Post - How Pols Bag Sex Interns:
ALBANY - The latest Assembly sex scandal is just the "tip of the iceberg" of a far wider system of aggressive exploitation of young women in the state Legislature's intern program, a former official has told The Post.

"The Assembly intern program is like a 'canned hunt' for these young women," said the ex-Assembly official.

"Office assignments for these interns isn't done at random, with interns just being sent to different offices by chance," added the former official, who has firsthand knowledge of the intern program.

"Assembly members make calls prior to the arrival of the interns in January, or send out scouts to look them over, and then they put in their 'orders' with the staff for the type that they want."

The source spoke in the wake of the claim by a 19-year-old college intern that Harlem Democratic Assemblyman Adam Clayton Powell IV plied her with booze and, possibly, raped her last week.

"These young women, and in some cases young men, don't realize that they are nothing but fresh meat to these charismatic politicians, who bag them and then brag about it after the interns leave town in May," the source said.

"What you've been hearing about is only the tip of the iceberg."

The former official described an annual January ritual of sizing up the interns when they first arrive.

"Either the [Assembly] members or their aides do that annually, go on a scouting expedition," he said.

Another source said lawmakers regularly bet with one another on whether they can "bed" individual interns.
The New York State Assembly, controlled for eons by the Democrat party, is always a class act.