Potty Pirate, Bathroom Bandit, Restroom Raider, whatever you call him, Democratic state Senator Daniel Kagan has drawn a workplace harassment complaint for allegedly busting into the women’s bathroom on more than one occasion. Republican state Sen. Beth Martinez Humenik recounted the time she caught Kagan in the women’s bathroom to Bente Birkeland from KUNC:
“I confronted him in the bathroom itself and said, ‘What are you doing in here?’” Martinez Humenik said of Kagan. “Then, as we were walking out, I said, ‘It’s not OK for you to be here. I don’t want to see you here again.’”
Martinez Humenik also conveyed that she knew of two additional staffers who had stumbled across Kagan in the ladies room. Stumbled being the key word. Rumor has it that Kagan was most likely to raid the restroom after a night of tippling, which makes it potentially even more frightening for the women in the bathroom with Kagan.
It wasn’t just women of the state Senate and their staffers who experienced Kagan’s “intrusion.” State Sen. Owen Hill said that his young daughters have experienced Kagan’s bathroom banditry and, now, refuses to allow his daughters to use that bathroom.
While Democrats took this opportunity to marginalize the victims of Kagan’s bad behavior, Republicans, like Hill, claimed they came forward because of the sheer hypocrisy exhibited by Kagan as he took to the well last week to rail against sexual harassment, going so far as to read from a section of state law that defines intrusion. Get it, intrusion. Like in the bathroom? Yeah. Hypocrisy abounds here. Here is Kagan’s attempt to marginalize his victims:
“‘I think it’s rather beneath the dignity of the members of the Senate to try to make something of nothing to try to deflect attention from a serious matter,’ said Kagan.”
Call us crazy, but we think it’s rather beneath the dignity of the members of the Senate to victim shame. Kagan’s victim shaming is dangerously close to now-expelled former state Rep. Steve Lebsock, whose “retribution” was the tipping point that many believed sent his career careening off a cliff. Then again, Kagan has never had to be accountable to anyone in his privileged life. Why start now, right, Senator?