In an October 28, 2009 letter reader Kim Clagg suggests that I am essentially pro-rape because I joined the Obama administration’s Department of Defense in opposing an amendment by Sen. Al Franken that would cancel existing defense contracts with companies that use arbitration agreements.

Klagg mentions the tragic case of a young woman who was raped by employees of a contractor working for the Halliburton company in Iraq. The woman had difficulty advancing her legal case because her employer asserted that the dispute should be handled under the arbitration agreement that was in her contract.

The problem with the Franken amendment was that it had nothing to do with this young woman’s case and everything to do with helping trial lawyers – as well as staging a cheap political attack. Franken had an opportunity to limit his amendment to victims of sexual assault but wanted to keep it broad and attack every American defense contractor that uses arbitration, even if cancelling existing contracts comprised our missions in Iraq and Afghanistan. Franken doesn’t like arbitration because arbitration solves disputes outside of court, and court is where trial lawyers make their money.

As a practicing physician, I have seen the devastating consequences of rape and am not terribly interested in Franken’s claims of moral superiority, nor am impressed by his political campaign that uses rape victims to advance the cause of trial lawyers. Clagg’s conclusion that readers should keep my alleged hypocrisy and insensitivity to rape in mind during the next election shows that this effort was nothing more than crass partisanship disguised as compassion.

U.S Senator Tom Coburn