Van Orden’s verbal abuse of aides won’t go away

WASHINGTON – A Wisconsin member of Congress, Mark Pocan, renewed his call for fellow Congressman Derrick Van Orden to at least apologize for balling out young Congressional aides in an unpleasant encounter in the Capitol Rotunda. Pocan, a Democrat from Madison, said he had just reviewed security tape of what happened. The encounter was in July, but Capitol Police didn’t release the tape before. Said Pocan:

“This video was bad and unbecoming s. There is no way to prove Derrick was drunk, but this is not behavior a sober or sane person would do. He looked unbalanced and had belligerent hand gestures when he was threatening these teenagers. He towered over many of them and then followed them when they got up to leave. This was abusive behavior intended to frighten these pages.

“It’s odd enough to have a raging party in your office until midnight. But even more concerning is taking a large group of people to tour the Capitol at midnight and pushing others around to show off, including a bow to his guests afterward. Representative Van Orden’s behavior does not reflect Wisconsin values and he owes each of the pages and his constituents an apology.”

Pocan said the video of the fusillade would not be released to the public to protect privacy and safety concerns for the pages most of them teenagers. Meanwhile, iut remains a ticking time bomb against Van Orden if he chooses to seek a second term.

Verbatim

Van Orden aide, responding to Pocan’s criticism: “Derrick Van Orden came to Congress to work for the people of Wisconsin’s Third Congressional District. Right now, he is laser-focused on making sure the government doesn’t shut down.”