Karen Kraushaar Might Be A Bit of a Complainey-Face

Filed a complaint (not sexual harassment) about alleged unfair treatment at the job following the one at the NRA.

And also complained of a sexually-charged email sent by a supervisor.

— A woman who settled a sexual harassment complaint against GOP presidential candidate Herman Cain in 1999 complained three years later at her next job about unfair treatment, saying she should be allowed to work from home after a serious car accident and accusing a manager of circulating a sexually charged email, The Associated Press has learned.

Karen Kraushaar, 55, filed the complaint while working as a spokeswoman at the Immigration and Naturalization Service in the Justice Department in late 2002 or early 2003, with the assistance of her lawyer, Joel Bennett, who also handled her earlier sexual harassment complaint against Cain in 1999. Three former supervisors familiar with Kraushaar’s complaint, which did not include a claim of sexual harassment, described it for the AP under condition of anonymity because the matter was handled internally by the agency and was not public.

To settle the complaint at the immigration service, Kraushaar initially demanded thousands of dollars in payment, a reinstatement of leave she used after the accident earlier in 2002, promotion on the federal pay scale and a one-year fellowship to Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, according to a former supervisor familiar with the complaint. The promotion itself would have increased her annual salary between $12,000 and $16,000, according to salary tables in 2002 from the U.S. Office of Personnel Management.

Kraushaar told the AP she considered her employment complaint “relatively minor” and she later dropped it.

Well, okay, so she's a bit of a complainer, something of a drama queen who thinks everything's unfair and isn't shy about filing a complaint to get "justice."

But at least she's being forthright, forthcoming, and candid about this whole episode.

Kraushaar said Tuesday she did not remember details about the complaint and did not remember asking for a payment, a promotion or a Harvard fellowship. Bennett, her lawyer, declined to discuss the case with the AP, saying he considered it confidential.

Wait, what? She doesn't remember and her lawyer, who handled it, won't discuss it?

Well, okay, I'm sure it's embarrassing for her to talk about this. At least I'm sure that that sexually-charged email she complained of was a serious matter, and not the sort of thing that hypersensitive thin-skinned feminists complain about just to prove their mouths work.

I mean, I'm sure the email was really sexually charged, and none of this will play into the stereotype of a dour, vindictive mouse of a woman who takes offense at jokes you might see on Tim Allen's kid's show Home Improvement.

The complaint also cited as objectionable an email that a manager had circulated comparing computers to women and men, a former supervisor said. The complaint claimed that the email, based on humor widely circulated on the Internet, was sexually explicit, according to the supervisor, who did not have a copy of the email. The joke circulated online lists reasons men and women were like computers, including that men were like computers because “in order to get their attention, you have to turn them on.” Women were like computers because “even your smallest mistakes are stored in long-term memory for later retrieval.”

Wh-- But she likes horses still, right?

Yeah, I'm going to need that press conference at this point.

posted by Ace at 11:14 AM

| Access Comments