Sexual assault and rape are awful.

Every time I saw a fresh story break, be it about Bill Cosby, Bill Clinton, Harvey Weinstein, Roman Polanski, and more, I was angry at the perpetrators and heartbroken for the victims.

When it comes to these kinds of attacks, I find myself on the side of the those who have a legitimate righteous anger toward the men who take advantage of their positions of power by being a perverted gatekeeper to women who are just on the cusp of having their every dream fulfilled.

But the problem with modern feminists, the mob, and the resulting narrative that spawns from their media driven activities is that when the iron is hot, they see the opportunity to strike not only the problem and the guilty party at hand, but everything else as well.

They take it too far in an effort to drive that narrative, or be included with the group of victims currently receiving a bit of spotlight for their suffering. Both are selfish, and take attention off the problem at hand.

That’s what actress Heather Lind did recently when she decided to point her finger at 41st President George H.W. Bush.

In a now-deleted Instagram post, Lind posted a picture of former President Barack Obama shaking Bush’s hand. This apparently was too much for Lind, who decided that with the #MeToo movement in full swing, she would get a slice of the pie.

Lind decided now was a good time to strike at an iron, and tell the story of how during a photo shoot, 41 “sexually assaulted” her.

“But when I got the chance to meet George H. W. Bush four years ago to promote a historical television show I was working on, he sexually assaulted me while I was posing for a similar photo,” wrote Lind. “He didn’t shake my hand. He touched me from behind from his wheelchair with his wife Barbara Bush by his side. He told me a dirty joke. And then, all the while being photographed, touched me again. Barbara rolled her eyes as if to say “not again.””

Her story was later backed up by actress Jordana Grolnick via Deadspin, who said her story is “entirely similar,” and describe Bush telling a joke about his favorite magician being “David Cop-a-feel” before she felt his hand “dig into her flesh.”

Bush, being the guy he is, went on to apologize for the incident, and a statement was released Bush spokesman Jim McGrath:

At age 93, President Bush has been confined to a wheelchair for roughly five years, so his arm falls on the lower waist of people with whom he takes pictures. To try to put people at ease, the president routinely tells the same joke — and on occasion, he has patted women’s rears in what he intended to be a good-natured manner. Some have seen it as innocent; others clearly view it as inappropriate. To anyone he has offended, President Bush apologizes most sincerely.

So here we have a man with a touch of dementia, Parkinson’s, wheelchair bound, and from an era that seems like a different planet ago. Accusing him of sexual assault is a little known actress who is known to call Hillary Clinton “kween” and is an openly registered volunteer at Planned Parenthood.

Odd is Lind’s timing, who she’s targeting, and who she’s NOT targeting.

I’m not saying Bush’s “David cop-a-feel” joke ranks high on the wholesome scale, but lumping a man whose brain condition hampers his ability to accurately gauge where “too far” is in a joke with apex sexual predators like Weinstein cheapens the fight against actual sexual predation. A bad joke made by a man whose age and dementia have blurred propriety does not equal being forced to watch a man ejaculate into a plant, or rape.

Even MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell, a supporter of the #MeToo hashtag, saw this as a step too far on Lind’s part.

Mrs Bush was at his side. He is in a wheelchair with Parkinson's syndrome. Really? Someone should be ashamed and it isn't '41. https://t.co/CGhy8yNX5i

— Andrea Mitchell (@mitchellreports) October 26, 2017

Lind’s attack on 41 feels more like a partisan hit than it does a brave woman coming forward about her assault, and her #MeToo looks more like a bid for the spotlight than a hurt woman looking for justice.

Lind may have known that too, because she deleted the Instagram post where she made the claim.

I’m all for fighting the good fight against sexual predators, but attempting to generate a mob to scalp the nearly century old man for a butt pat really takes our eye off the ball. In no universe should this be put in the same room as forced sex. Rape victims walk away with deep, deep emotional scars that last them a lifetime.

It is not okay to water down such a monumental crime by throwing in an very old man’s poorly executed attempt at defusing tension with the horror we’ve seen revealed by the victims of actual predators.