Before I Put Polanski on My List of

They Who Must Not Be Named, like he cares about whether or not I write about him, let me repeat what Atrios Said:

I really was going to try to avoid Polanski blogging, but then Richard Cohen referred to drugging and raping a 13 year old over clear objections as her being 'seduced.'

What is wrong with these people?"

This was never seduction.

You can argue that he is a talented artist, and he is, Chinatown is brilliant.

You can argue that his trial was ineluctably tainted, by virtue of prosecutorial and judicial misconduct, and the trial was ineluctably tainted by those actions..

You can argue that the time has passed for this, as the victim has.

But the coercion, drugging, and penetration of a 13-year old girl is not a "seduction," it's a rape, and the only reason that moral pygmies like Richard Cohen call it seduction is because they profoundly believe that there should be no consequences for people that they deem consequential.

I do now know whether Roman Polanski is a monster, or a sick victim, but I do know that Richard Cohen is a monster.