These days it seems often that upstanding, well-known men are being accused of rape.  Following the accusation, these men watch their careers, friendships and reputations shatter in a vain attempt to repair the damage and clear their names.  And all this before they get a chance to clear their names in court. Meanwhile the accusers remain anonymous, comforted by friends and family.  Prosecutors, deathly afraid of appearing soft on sex crimes, pursue even the most baseless of accusations.  Look, we’ve all been in situations when the words ‘don’t’ and ‘stop’ became ‘don’t stop, don’t stop… PLEASE don’t stop…’ and the rest is history.  But what happens when the woman in the equation doesn’t say anything?  Or even physically acknowledges consent by responding with advances of her own?
 
Recently, three rape allegations have surfaced that are baffling if not completely ludicrous. First, we all know about Kobe Bryant and his now infamous liaison with an emotionally disturbed, ‘American Idol’ aspiring 19 year old in Colorado. This woman was so completely traumatized by the evening with Kobe, she attended a party a few days later, bragged about the event and gave a graphic, animated description of Kobe’s ‘manhood.’ This doesn’t sound like a distraught person to most thinking people.  Actually it sounds rather disturbing that this woman, shielded in anonymity by the mainstream media, can go to public gatherings and banter about the whole event.  Maybe it has something to do with a recent interview which left my ears ‘bleeding’ when noted women’s attorney Gloria Allred stated, “even if Kobe Bryant is acquitted, this woman has every right to pursue civil damages.”  Money?  This poor, violated woman would accept money for her alleged trauma and humiliation? Really?  GOSH… NEVER thought of that… And of course a lawyer like Ms. Allred would bring this issue to the front on a cable television program.  Is Gloria fishing for a client, knowing any potential financial settlement in Kobe’s civil litigation will be sizable?

In the second case, Air Force Cadet Doug Meester’s situation is farcical, but the accusation remains the same.  Meester is charged with rape, forcible sodomy, indecent assault, and providing alcohol to a minor. He faces two life sentences if convicted on the most serious charges.  Dave Cullen wrote, “This was not a gangbang or an ambush. There was no accusation of premeditation to get her drunk and take advantage. The "victim" testified in open court that she never recalls protesting in any way. Instead, she described flirting with Meester and his buddy Robert Rando, sitting in Rando's lap, "clinging" to Rando, and exchanging body shots with both. She initiated one body shot and chose to lick Rando's chest rather than his neck. When Meester began to kiss her, she said she kissed back.

After about six tequila shots and one mixed drink, she was "falling over like a rag doll." But by this time, Meester and Rando were both convinced she was interested, and Rando thought she would come back to his room. When Rando left to coax his roommate out, Meester seized the opportunity. He undressed her, drew her into bed, and engaged in oral, anal, and vaginal sex. She described drifting in and out of consciousness once things got going. Investigators estimated her blood alcohol content at 0.19 percent, his at 0.17 percent. When investigators questioned her a few days later, she said in a sworn statement, "I know for a fact that he probably thought what we were doing was consensual."

One thing Cadet Meester may not have been aware of is that nice, conservative girls (like the ones at the Air Force Academy) don’t like to admit they have an ‘itch’ that needs to be ‘scratched.’ There is an old saying: Republican boys date Democrat girls. Oh, they marry Republican girls, but they want to have some fun first… the difference is that getting a reputation of being ‘easy’ or ‘loose’ in conservative social circles is a brutal, career killing stigma, especially in the military.  So how does a wholesome, all-American girl possibly conceal her acquiescence to a drunken orgy? Yell ‘Rape’ before the truth gets out and watch the Air Force cave to a bunch of screaming, man-hating feminists.

Finally, our sad story brings us to the most ridiculous and derisory situation of them all, involving the affable Tucker Carlson.  Howard Kurtz of the Washington Post reported “When Tucker Carlson found himself being accused of rape by a Kentucky woman, he wondered if he was going insane. "For an hour I sat on the front steps thinking about my life, my wife and my three children, my job, and how it was all going to end because of something terrible I didn't even remember doing," the CNN commentator writes in a forthcoming book.

After Carlson passed a sweat-drenched lie detector test and spent $14,000 in legal fees, a private eye discovered that the accuser had a chronic mental disorder. She had claimed in 2001 that Carlson slipped narcotics into her drink in a Louisville restaurant; he had never been to Louisville. Carlson wanted to sue the woman's lawyer, but realized that would lead to news stories in which "my name would be joined in the same sentence as the word rape."
 
To no surprise, we men do bear some responsibility for this ongoing witch hunt.  Not because we’re busying ourselves raping every poor, defenseless female in sight. Our culpability is that every time a woman cries ‘rape’ or ‘victim’ we naïve, chivalrous American lads can’t wait to hop on our high horses and ride in to the rescue.  Hey, none of us want to be thought of as ‘insensitive’ or ‘chauvinists.’ We were all raised on stories and movies of how the Hero saves the Girl. How could anyone even think about challenging an accusation of rape? Well, after 30 years of feminism, many of us have probably been threatened with that nasty four lettered word at some point in our dating/married lives and realized how ridiculous it was.  But ridiculous or not, it was terrifying. Most of the time the ‘Rape Threat’ is used to keep a woman’s male pet ‘in line’ and remains only a threat.  But Kobe and Tucker?  They have two major problems -- Rich and Famous -- making them very tempting targets.  Maybe all of us need to follow the legendary Chuck Berry’s example and have our pictures taken with our potential liaisons.
 
In Doug Meester’s and Kobe Bryant’s situation, both of the alleged ‘victims’ waited until the next day before reporting anything.  Perhaps these ladies are living by Elizabeth Taylor’s axiom of “When the sun comes up, I have morals again.”  In Kobe’s case, this wonderful young lady most likely realized she could sue her way to success and I can’t imagine a man of Kobe Bryant’s fame having to rape any woman… most would be ‘willing victims.’ Anyone remember Wilt Chamberlain? In Meester’s case, the woman woke up with a bad hangover and didn’t want to be branded a slut. In either case, these men are definitely guilty of Bad Judgment but not Rape.
 
Ladies, we men have a modest, reasonable request: How about having morals the night before? How about thinking ahead previous to having sex and then you don’t have to feel guilty in the morning?  Contrary to popular myth, the overwhelming majority of men can, and do, take ‘no’ for an answer.  Kobe Bryant and Doug Meester have probably been falsely accused and we know that Tucker Carlson’s case was a complete fraud.  Yes Tucker, you should sue that ambulance chasing loser in Kentucky- we men will revere you as a hero. And for the rest of us, it is time we started to wise up to The Rape Witch Hunt.

Drew Taggart is the editor of VIODaily.