With respect, I never said I was in favor of the “joke” so that is you putting words (and positions) in my mouth.
I think it is fair to say Franken was forced to step down because he had requested a hearing before the Ethics Committee, before the rather undistinguished and former Big Tobacco lawyer who is the Junior Senator of New York made one of her few public stands about anything concerning the state of our Republic in the last few years. She was joined by my Congressman, who has been mostly a non entity as far as I am concerned, and I have lived in my current location for going on 30 years… He is a legacy politician and not particularly notable. I understand Franken had to step down, but he HAD requested a hearing. Again, I had not heard here on local TV or the radio I listen to, or read anything about who was pressuring Congressperson Esty. So I am assuming that my congressman, who is the head of the House Democratic caucus, and my Junior Senator must have been prominently involved in the pressure, given their role in pressuring and publicly calling for Franken to step down after he had requested the Ethics hearing.
Cook Report downgraded it from Solid D to Likely D after her announcement. Apparently they didn’t think she would have much trouble holding on to her seat.
I have no idea. I did not use the word payback and was not aware of Esty’s resignation being the result of any kind of payback, cross-gender or whatever. I merely assumed or attributed the sources of the otherwise vague and unattributed pressure on Esty to which the TPM article referred.
Whoa there. We’ve seen the video of the rehersal. She is wrapping herself around Franken, nothing like what she claimed. We’ve seen the video of her slapping a singer’s ass on stage…clearly without his consent or prior knowledge…and then rubbing up and down against him. We’ve seen the photos of her locking lips with a GI and pulling him in as he is trying to pull away.
The more we found out, the more this looked like a case of projection.
My comments were not about Franken’s accuser. It’s clear she was sent out on orders from elsewhere to do this stuff. I’m talking about run of the mill shit women run into and steel themselves against on a regular basis that people don’t hear about it, but women live with. That’s all.
You seem so proud in your virtue signalling yet you are simply a willing tool of Leann Tweeden’s political agenda. Both she and Franken were actors in a burlesque review for American troops. And as you put it yourself: “Humor can be… a propaganda tool.”
Get real. 3/4 of Democratic Senators prejudged his guilt before hearings. With “friends” like these, who needs enemies? Under these circumstances, why go through with what would have been a “show trial”? In this situation, any rational and sane person would find that discretion was the better part of valor.
Credible witnesses? I don’t think so. Four out of the eight chose to remain anonymous. No photographic evidence indicated that any offense occurred, actually quite the opposite. Are you stating it would be difficult to find 8 women, who for a variety of reasons (likely political) would be incapable of lying or exaggerating about their encounters with Franken? Are women as a group so above reproach that such behavior is out of the question?
I think Ms. Esty made the right decision. The crimes that she appears to have let continue for an inordinate amount of time went beyond sexual harassment and included physical violence and threats of physical violence. An order of magnitude greater than the unproven allegations against Senator Franken.
The comparison with Franken that’s canvassed in some of the comments is not apt. The misconduct to which Esty turned a blind eye is much graver, more current, and much more pertinent to the discharge of official duties. It’s simply malfeasance to side with the staffer who is the subject of serious and credible criminal allegations made by another staffer. This would be a disqualifying error in judgment/moral compass at any time.
Franken was simply swept away by a current of moral panic. There will never be another senator who resigns for the stuff he was accused of. It does however set a precedent that will make it very difficult for Joe Biden to run, since anyone who has watched him in action at a meet-and-greet can see that he is a very tactile person.
