I watched the press conference by North Carolina Democratic Party chairman David Parker yesterday and thought it was surreal. I’ve read all the speculation swirling around the claims of alleged sexual harrassment by former executive director Jay Parmley and was quite shocked by it. I’ve tried to keep an open mind about it all but Parker’s defense of it just didn’t add up.

How can Parker say he “didn’t supervise” the staff and also claim that he witnessed the alleged incidents and deemed them completely innocent? Which is it? Parker has a point about the sworn EEOC statement being different than the December letter, but at some point the excuses he has to make to justify the alleged incidents become a bit too heavy to stand up to scrutiny. Grown men do not pretend to hit each other in the crotch.

I don’t know exactly what may or may not have happened between staffer Adriadn Ortega and Jay Parmley, but I do know that to believe Parker’s explanation of them requires a huge leap of faith. Also, Parker’s claim that he doesn’t know where the settlement money came from either shows he is an aloof, out-of-touch leader at best or a liar at worst. Either way, yesterday’s press conference did little to convince me he should stay.

Parker should resign immediately for the sake of the party.