Then there was Eric Schneiderman.
After using his office as a bully pulpit to ride the #MeToo wave, the now-former New York state attorney general is yet another boldface male name to succumb to charges of extreme misogyny. Four of his exes say he subjected them to physical abuse, including choking and slapping their faces. Schneiderman claims the violence was BDSM-related fun for all concerned, just "role-playing and other consensual sexual activity."
Students of political crisis management will see something less than an uncategorical denial of guilt in Schneiderman's "serious allegations, which I strongly contest." "Strongly contest" resides far on the denial-o-meter from "it absolutely did not happen" and closer to nolo contendere — which, considering that he resigned rather than stuck around to fight, it effectively is.