How Awesome is Al Franken?

[Phoebe]

I'm watching him be interviewed right now and he is so incredibly awesome. Thank you Minnesota. Also his Minnesota accent, tempered by time living elsewhere, is perfect. You know how people listen to those odd videos of whisperers in order to get the shivers or whatever they're doing? We need an app that gives you 15 minutes of Al Franken talking in his low dulcet tones to put you to sleep.

[Ronster]

Not very awesome at all :

[Phoebe]

Jesus Lord I can't step away to work for half a day without some new one. Please God do not let him be a pedophile. I am bracing and now shall read your link.

[Phoebe]

Oh My God, Al. WTF?

So I experienced some minor relief that he's not a pedophile or rapist. I think people are wrong that he's groping her physically in that photo, but it's disgusting and offensive and it would piss me the hell off of somebody did that to me. So f*** him, I really thought he was one of the good ones.

[Mike]

[Phoebe]

Yeah now that I've seen a few other pieces, some people are trying to tag him falsely as a sexual assailant based on that photo. Well, no. The photo tags him as an a******, and that's bad enough. No need to exaggerate a crime where assholery already exists in plenty.

[Ronster]

Would that we had some statesmen worthy of the posts they're elected to.

The best thing that can come from this mess is that women hopefully will be empowered and find a voice and no longer fear their complaints might be ignored or swept under the carpet or even worse.

No sanctuary for these perverts! Get them all away from my daughters!

[Stan]

[Kyle]

I want them all to burn. Every one of them. Democrat, Republican, whatever. Burn them all to the ground.

[mimekiller]

[FlameBlade]

[Eliahad]

Just to clarify what Flame said. He means it's time for them to have their turn being in power. At least, I think that's what he's saying.

[mimekiller]

[Ronster]

2 of my daughters are in the work force and this makes me breathe a little easier as the winds are shifting so that these things will no longer be tolerated. I want them all to be found out for what they are. I had hope for Franken. Although I disagreed with his politics my hope was that he was a good man, That is all I can hope for in anyone, but the candidates (for being considered a good man) are few.

[Ronster]

[Phoebe]

[mimekiller]

in point of fact I said little BABY bird brain so that's a important part of this, yearning for a 100 percent female lead country is just that, sitting in a nest tweeting for your mammmmaaa to come spit up some chewed up worm in your mouth. its 100 percent accurate and I stand by it.

[Phoebe]

Lol, I don't just mean the country, I mean the whole damn world. It seems like a realistic and prudent plan. I'm ready!

[Phoebe]

Just so it's clear what I'm talking about, this headline from Politico this morning is representative of almost every article:
"Franken apologizes after woman says he groped her".
Maybe she did say that, so they can get away with the headline, but it's misleading. She's claiming that he rigged the situation where she had to kiss him in order to do her job on stage, falsely claimed they needed to practice it first, and then did it in a gross way. Then he took an offensive, disrespectful photograph. And again, just to be clear, I'm not saying this because I'm happy with him - I'm so pissed to find this out - but because when you've been actually groped by people, you don't much care for a conflation of stories between what that's like (which is a lesser degree assault of some sort) and what it's like when that doesn't happen. Also would like to point out that the picture is creepy precisely because she's not consenting to it, and the kiss is creepy precisely because it was part of her job situation that might have been difficult to say no to when he had more power over the job than she did. That is a different level of creepy from other things and it does matter.

[Mike]

Yup. I personally took a moment to come to grips with this, because I've always admired Al Franken, but ultimately, Fuck him. This was wrong, and the American machine will get along just fine without Al Franken.

And what is so heartening is that this seems to be the overwhelming majority opinion of the media AND of the Democrat party. I speculated in the feminist thread about whether or not Dems might turn out to be hypocrites when it finally came down to one of their own, and it turns out... no. And even better, it puts a HUGE spotlight on the Republicans and Roy Moore. Mitch McConnell can't gleefully call for a swift ethics investigation into Franken while turning a blind eye to Moore. So now the majority of Republicans are denouncing Moore and asking him to withdraw from the race.

The downside is... we haven't figured out what we'll actually DO about this. If the state of Alabama still elects Moore, will the GOP move immediately to have him withdrawn? Will they take action against a fellow sitting party member who is very likely a pedophile? The Dems are all hot and heavy to cooperate with an ethics investigation against Franken, but... to do what?

My hope is that Franken just steps down and sets the example for everyone else. Because as much as I thought an ethics investigation was a good idea originally, I can only see it getting ugly. Now Franken's in a position of defending himself publicly and having to try to deny this woman's version of what happened. Or explain why it's "not that bad." Assuming that this is the only woman who comes forward against Franken, the facts of this case seem to be such that he could be denounced and censured after a thorough investigation, but then he will remain in his seat, and every future abuser can point to his case and argue their right to continue in office regardless of their level of offense. Or we can leave it to the voters of Minnesota, and if they choose to keep Franken, then how do we argue when Alabama chooses to elect a pedophile? He should resign.