Buffalo News: Gillibrand won’t quit on sexual assault bill
Senator Kirsten Gillibrand is featured in this opinion piece from the Buffalo News:
Last week, a panel under Miller’s command dismissed all charges against one of the future officers, but advanced sexual assault charges against two other midshipmen, Josh Tate and Eric Graham. The accuser’s attorney, Susan Burke, said Miller has been “hostile to my client” because “he’s angry at her for speaking out.” Under Gillibrand’s bill, all cases involving the military would be referred to an independent Pentagon panel for evaluation. Under pressure from the brass’s old boy system, Senate Armed Services Chairman Carl Levin, D-Mich., trashed the measure, with a couple of machine Democrats like Sen. Claire McCaskill of Missouri backing him up.
Gillibrand hasn’t yielded, recruiting flag officers and members of the judge advocate general corps to her side. She now has 46 senators, including Sen. Charles E. Schumer, the chamber’s No. 3 Democrat, publicly endorsing the amendment to the Defense Authorization Act containing the reforms. Sen. John McCain of Arizona, a 1958 Annapolis graduate, is not among seven Republicans supporting Gillibrand.
