Senator Claire McCaskill (D-MO) criticized The Wall Street Journal editorial board member James Taranto's “bizarre and deeply out of touch understanding of sexual assault,” following Taranto's claim that efforts to address the epidemic of sexual assault in the military constitutes a “war on men.”

In a June 17 WSJ column, Taranto dismissed the epidemic of sexual assault in the military, claiming that Sen. McCaskill's efforts to address  the growing problem contributed to a “war on men.” McCaskill has blocked the promotion of Lt. Gen. Susan J. Helms, who ignored her legal advisors to overturn the ruling of an Air Force jury that found an officer guilty of sexual assault. Taranto blamed the victim of the assault for “recklessness” and claimed that McCaskill's work was an “effort to criminalize male sexuality.”

McCaskill responded to Taranto on June 27 in an op-ed at the Daily Beast, writing that he has a “disregard for the severity of sexual assault” and highlighting his “bizarre and deeply out of touch understanding of sexual assault”:

Mr. Taranto says that I'm involved in a crusade to “criminalize male sexuality.” For decades, from my time as a courtroom prosecutor and throughout my career in public service, I have indeed done my best to criminalize violence. And I have never subscribed to Mr. Taranto's bizarre and deeply out of touch understanding of sexual assault as somehow being a two-way street between a victim and an assailant.

Mr. Taranto's arguments contribute to an environment that purposely places blame in all the wrong places, and has made the current culture and status quo an obstruction to sorely needed change.

My colleagues and I are fighting not to criminalize men, but to bring the cowards who commit sexual assault to justice. And our fight won't stop until we give the brave men and women of our military the resources and justice they deserve.