Thanksgiving is the best holiday. No gifts required. Just family and friends around a table enjoying each other’s company, expressing gratitude for the good things in their lives.

Some good things arrived recently in the form of the Epstein emails. They revealed names of individuals who engaged in a variety of communications with child sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, although news media celebrity Megyn Kelly questions whether 14- and 15-year-old girls are really children. Giving thanks will occur if her bewilderment finally ends her career as an opinion leader.

Former United States Treasury Secretary and former president of Harvard University Lawrence Summers was exposed in the Epstein emails as a low-life, womanizing cheater. One would think he would have learned from his previous boss and Epstein acquaintance President Bill Clinton to keep his eyes off young women.

Summers resigned as Harvard’s president in 2006 when he made snide comments about the brain power of women. “There is a different availability of aptitude at the high end between men and women.” After he resigned as Harvard’s president, he admitted his comments were “ill-judged.” That experience didn’t stop him in his pursuit of low-IQ attractions. It was smart work on the part of one of his female mentees, however, to use her limited IQ to put as much distance as possible between herself and the eye-wandering oaf.

As to Summers’ years-long relationship with Epstein, Summers stated, “I am deeply ashamed of my actions and recognize the pain they have caused. I take full responsibility for my misguided decision to continue communicating with Mr. Epstein.”

How does a person take full responsibility for such odious behavior once it’s been revealed? If it hadn’t been revealed, would there be “full responsibility” taken? Summers accepted his job as a New York Times columnist knowing he had these creepy exchanges with his dating guide, Epstein. He continued to put out academic publications: “Comparing Past and Present Inflation” and “Rethinking How We Score Capital Gains Tax Reform.” Epstein was well known for how he scored girls, so it’s easy to imagine a male-on-male chat between Summers and his girl counselor about econometric algorithms related to the female sex

In some sort of shame, Summers has taken himself off the public stage, reluctantly, it seems, as he tried to explain himself to his students at Harvard before he resigned from his teaching job. His students can be thankful. They won’t have to listen to lectures from a 70-year-old male stuck in a middle school mentality who should have been given the hook years ago.

Noam Chomsky is a game-changing linguist from MIT who moved on to left-wing politics. He engaged with Epstein, a well-known capitalist investor as well as pedophile, on his investments. He said, “I knew what everybody else knew — that he had been convicted of a crime. That’s all. I met with lots of people, including those with bad reputations.” Chomsky was impressed by Epstein’s network. The pederast hooked the linguist up with a Norwegian diplomat working on the Oslo accords related to Israel and Palestine. They had a “lively interchange.”

In an undated recommendation letter, Chomsky wrote, “The impact of Jeffrey’s limitless curiosity, extensive knowledge, penetrating insights and thoughtful appraisals is only heightened by his easy informality, without a trace of pretentiousness.” Chomsky as a theoretical linguist revolutionized the study of language and its deep grammar structures, but he didn’t grasp the wily chicanery of a smooth-talking, bad-spelling grifter. He is now unable to comment, disabled by a stroke.

Epstein’s 2006 to 2008 legal team was a who’s who of prominent attorneys, including Ken Starr! The man who pilloried Bill Clinton for his nefarious behavior with Monica Lewinsky defended Epstein for his odious treatment of hundreds of girls. Every defendant deserves a lawyer, but the irony of this defendant-to-defender combination reaches unparalleled heights. Starr, now deceased, became Epstein’s pal, signing off in one email with a “Hugs, Ken.”

Alan Dershowitz, well known Harvard Law School professor, also worked on the negotiation of Epstein’s 2008 Florida prostitution plea deal. In 2019 the Harvard professor said, “I did nothing more than what any lawyer should do: represent a client zealously within the bounds of the law.” In 2020, he did a 180: “If I had known then what I know now, I would never have taken him on as a client.” His client was convicted of “procuring a person for prostitution under 18.” What more did he need to know about the child molester?

In a recent New York Times column, pundit David Brooks asserted he has had enough of the Epstein story. He suggested the media, and the rest of us, should get on with more pressing business of the nation. What’s unsettling about his perspective is how for so many years, the men who have been most involved in the pressing business of the nation were also involved with Epstein, including our current president.

Let’s be thankful this involvement is now evident. Let’s be hopeful that important, arrogant, elite men of every political persuasion learn a lesson, however unlikely that may be.

Paula Noonan owns Colorado Capitol Watch, the state’s premier legislature tracking platform.