The Deal Hudson Affair--Part

Jeff Sharlett and Kathryn Joyce of The Revealer posted some comments on my post about Deal Hudson the Crisis magazine editor who resigned as an advisor to the Bush campaign. They both made good points, and I should try and clarify my post.

The National Catholic Reporter article on Hudson included some graphic detail about Hudson's behavior. Not only did he allegedly have oral sex with a drunken 18 year old student, he reportedly was french-kissing two other students and slurping body shots off one of them.

I don't doubt that Hudson abused his position and took advantage of Poppas. I do wonder about all the bar details--since it took place in public, is there anyone around who can corroborate the accusations? That would make this a more damning story.

My post included this commnent:

this kind of sexual misconduct ranks pretty low on the outrage scale. If Hudson was a priest that had sex with preteen or teenaged boys, he'd be seen as a pervert and an abuser. A male college professor who has sex with a college student is seen as getting lucky. The young women involved was 18 at the time, and the alleged activities, while sordid, were not illegal or would not be considered unethical at some colleges.


I made the comment in disgust--one that there are colleges where professors having sex with students is acceptable behavior, and two, that many people would see an older man having sex with a younger woman as "getting lucky." It could be read that I was condoning Hudson in some way. Nothing could be farther from he truth. If he had acted this way towards my daughter, he'd have lost certain vital bits of his anatomy.