纽约时报 弗吉尼亚领导人将民主党人拖入噩梦(4)

Even before Ms. Watson made her accusation¹ Friday, Mr. Fairfax was in grave jeopardy².

甚至在沃森上周五提出指控之前，费尔法克斯就已经处于严重的危险之中了。

He infuriated Virginia’s three freshman³ Democratic women in the congressional delegation⁴

他对凡妮莎·C·泰森最初提出的人身攻击指控不屑一顾的态度

with his dismissive treatment of the initial assault claim made by Vanessa C. Tyson,

激怒了国会代表团中弗吉尼亚州三名民主党新晋女议员。

and then compounded his difficulty by not calling any of them.

更糟的是，他一个电话也没打给她们。

Similarly, he had not called Mr. McEachin, one of two African-Americans in the delegation, before Ms. Watson spoke⁵ out.

同样，在沃森发声之前，他也没有给麦克伊钦——代表团的两名非裔代表之一——打电话。

“You don’t need to be a woman to be upset about the way Justin has handled this,” Mr. McEachin said.

“不管是不是女性，你都会对贾斯汀处理这件事的方式感到失望，”麦克伊钦说。

It came to no surprise to Virginia Democrats⁶, then,

这样一来，对弗吉尼亚民主党人而言，

when Mr. McEachin and the three female lawmakers —

麦克伊钦和三位女议员——

Representatives Elaine Luria, Abigail Spanberger and Jennifer Wexton —

分别是众议员伊莱恩·卢里亚、阿比盖尔·斯潘伯格和詹妮弗·韦克斯顿——

were some of the earliest on Friday night to demand Mr. Fairfax resign.

周五晚上率先提出让费尔法克斯辞职也就不奇怪了。

As for Mr. Northam, the governor, he told his cabinet on Friday that he would not resign.

至于州长诺瑟姆，他在周五告诉内阁他不会辞职。

In an email to state employees acknowledging that the state is in “uncharted waters,”

在一封发给州政府雇员的电子邮件中，他承认该州正处于“未知水域”，

he said: “You have placed your trust in me to lead Virginia forward — and I plan to do that.”

他说：“你们信任我，相信我能带领弗吉尼亚前进——我也决定照你们的意思办。”

But some black Democrats are unhappy about the prospect⁷ of him remaining in office,

然而，一些黑人民主党人对他可能继续执政这一点感到不满，

after he acknowledged he wore shoe polish to go in blackface as part of a Michael Jackson costume for a dance contest in 1984.

因为此前他承认自己曾在1984年参加一场舞蹈比赛时为了模仿迈克尔·杰克逊画黑人妆，往脸上抹鞋油。

Yet Ms. Bass⁸, the Congressional Black Caucus⁹ leader, and other Democrats offered some measure of praise for Mr. Herring,

但国会黑人核心小组领袖巴斯和其他民主党人对赫林给予了一定程度的赞扬，

who revealed that he wore blackface to imitate a rapper as a University of Virginia undergraduate

因为后者虽然也透露了，在弗吉尼亚大学读本科时，他为了模仿一名说唱歌手化了黑人妆，

but has pleaded for forgiveness from the state’s black lawmakers.

但他一直在请求该州黑人议员的原谅。

“At least he came forward and seemed to be sincere and apologized,” Ms. Bass said.

“至少他勇敢地承认了，而且表现得很诚恳，还道了歉，”巴斯女士说。

Other national Democrats also praised Mr. Herring, who methodically reached out to nearly every prominent African-American lawmaker in Virginia,

其他民主党人也对赫林表示了赞许，因为他按顺序联系了弗吉尼亚州几乎所有杰出的非裔议员，

and said it was time the party reconsider its demands for instant accountability for the transgressors in its ranks.

表示民主党是时候重新考虑对党内违反纪律者立即追究责任的需求了。

“It’s unrealistic to expect politicians to have lived perfect lives —

“指望政客们的生活一点儿瑕疵也没有是不现实的——

the general public doesn’t expect that, and they are much more forgiving than the Twitter outrage¹⁰ mob,”

普通民众并没有抱这种幻想，他们比推特上那些愤怒的暴民宽容多了，”

said Elisabeth Smith, a Democratic strategist, singling out Mr. Herring.

民主党策略师伊丽莎白·史密斯说到，她还特别提到了赫林。

“If anything, we’ve learned the importance of taking a step back and taking a deep breath before demanding these guys’ heads on a plate.”

“如果非要说有什么不同的话，不同就是，我们已经懂得了后退一步，在把这些家伙的头放到断头台上之前深呼吸的重要性。”

1 accusation   

n.控告，指责，谴责

参考例句：

• I was furious at his making such an accusation.我对他的这种责备非常气愤。
• She knew that no one would believe her accusation.她知道没人会相信她的指控。

2 jeopardy   

n.危险；危难

参考例句：

• His foolish behaviour may put his whole future in jeopardy.他愚蠢的行为可能毁了他一生的前程。
• It is precisely at this juncture that the boss finds himself in double jeopardy.恰恰在这个关键时刻，上司发现自己处于进退两难的境地。

3 freshman   

n.大学一年级学生(可兼指男女)

参考例句：

• Jack decided to live in during his freshman year at college.杰克决定大一时住校。
• He is a freshman in the show business.他在演艺界是一名新手。

4 delegation   

n.代表团；派遣

参考例句：

• The statement of our delegation was singularly appropriate to the occasion.我们代表团的声明非常适合时宜。
• We shall inform you of the date of the delegation's arrival.我们将把代表团到达的日期通知你。

5 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

6 democrats   

n.民主主义者，民主人士( democrat的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The Democrats held a pep rally on Capitol Hill yesterday. 民主党昨天在国会山召开了竞选誓师大会。
• The democrats organize a filibuster in the senate. 民主党党员组织了阻挠议事。 来自《简明英汉词典》

7 prospect   

n.前景，前途；景色，视野

参考例句：

• This state of things holds out a cheerful prospect.事态呈现出可喜的前景。
• The prospect became more evident.前景变得更加明朗了。

8 bass   

n.男低音(歌手)；低音乐器；低音大提琴

参考例句：

• He answered my question in a surprisingly deep bass.他用一种低得出奇的声音回答我的问题。
• The bass was to give a concert in the park.那位男低音歌唱家将在公园中举行音乐会。

9 caucus   

n.秘密会议；干部会议；v.（参加）干部开会议

参考例句：

• This multi-staged caucus takes several months.这个多级会议常常历时好几个月。
• It kept the Democratic caucus from fragmenting.它也使得民主党的核心小组避免了土崩瓦解的危险。

10 outrage   

n.暴行，侮辱，愤怒；vt.凌辱，激怒

参考例句：

• When he heard the news he reacted with a sense of outrage.他得悉此事时义愤填膺。
• We should never forget the outrage committed by the Japanese invaders.我们永远都不应该忘记日本侵略者犯下的暴行。