“This has been an open secret for eight years.”

That’s the kicker quote in Lola Duffort’s excellent story for Vermont Public, cataloguing the various ways that former state representative Bob Hooper was a serial creep toward women since at least 2018, including his entire seven-year career in the Vermont House. As I read it, the same thought kept barging to the front of my mind: How in the Hell did it go on for so long?

This is, after all, a chamber whose leadership promises “zero tolerance for sexual harassment, discrimination, or any hostile behavior.” This is a chamber that ranks near the top in terms of female representation. The Speaker of the House has been a woman (Mitzi Johnson, Jill Krowinski) since 2017. In the current biennium, House Democratic caucus leadership consists of seven women and no men.

And yet Bob Hooper’s creeptastic ways were allowed to continue year after year.

I’ve written before, time after time, that the primary goals of the Legislature’s internal policing mechanisms are not punishing the guilty or ensuring a safe work environment, but rather avoiding embarrassment and protecting offenders as much as possible.

It ain’t right, and leadership ought to be ashamed of itself for repeatedly enabling Hooper’s inappropriate, touchy-feely ways.

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