He didn’t touch her.
And if you think mere acts of “disrespect” for something/someone should qualify people for resignation, we’d have no gov’t.
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Dude…I seriously think you have some wires crossed in terms of reacting to completely obvious statements like his (i.e., the Dems are money grubbing whore-puppets just like the rest of the political elite) as if they were still somehow comments from the Berniebots about Clinton. You can’t seriously be so blinded by Dem-party loyalty/tribalism as to believe his comment is BS, can you?
Money in politics is a universal, ubiquitous problem. Period. It is NOT deniable. The Princeton study finding that we now live in a functional plutocracy owned and operated by and for the benefit of a few wealthy oligarchs showed that it’s a problem both parties contribute to, participate in and benefit from. They do what the wealthy donor class wants them to do even when there is alignment between the parties in the rest of the populace on what THEY want the gov’t to do.
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As much as I like Kornacki, he was remarkably obtuse in this interview. Painter was trying to focus on an issue, and Kornacki was just wasting time with “old news.”
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That wasn’t the original comment. It wasn’t about Dems being blinded by money. It was the same whiny bullshit about the DNC, DCCC, and any Dem organization and it’s born entirely of the Bernie Bro bullshit. I think Painter is probably being safe in the way any person would at a time after the #metoo movement finally bagged one of the biggest dirtbags of them all-Cosby. I don’t think you’ll find too many Democratic political hopefuls who want to be on record questioning women who come forward with #metoo stories. That has not a damn thing to do with money in politics.
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And she wasn’t unconscious.
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Could not agree more. It was embarrassing to watch Kornacki going for a weird Chris Matthews “Just like the OLD Days” WHY I REMEMBER… PLEASE. Painter is a hero.
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Exactly right.
Painter is also not one to mince words nor does he have the political instinct which would have cued him in to what Kornacki wanted him to do.
Plainly and simply, he said that no matter what happened, there should have been a process followed to address the issue.
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Ye, I really wish he had arbitrarily decided who he believes without having enough information to make an informed decision. How are we supposed to get anything done if we have to do it right?
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Then how do you explain the cornucopia of Sanders’ promises during the primary? He didn’t even have actual plans to implement any of them
Good grief. Listen to yourself.
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So glad that so many posting regarding the Kornacki interview of Painter support the concept of process. We are in dangerous waters when an accusation is taken as a fact. The #metoo movement is long overdue in that it creates a public space within which women can accuse someone (male or female - yes, women are guilty of sexual harassment, too) with the protection of the community against retaliation. However, we’d better be careful of what we’re asking for if we’re going to claim that “because I said so” is reason for finding someone guilty. Didn’t our country start out burning women at the stake because someone said she made them feel “uncomfortable”? How about the black men shot these days because they made a police officer feel “uncomfortable” or fearful?
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This totally pi**ed me off. Kornacki, who I generally like, was way too aggressive with Painter who kept on telling him that an investigation should have taken place. Whether he believed the women or not was irrelevant. He simply didn’t know.
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The clip after shown was better.
Okay, look. I’ll try one more time to explain this. It does not matter whether he “really” touched her or if she was “really” unconscious.
It’s the pictured JOKE ITSELF that is offensive. It’s a joke that diminishes the seriousness of the pretended act of groping.
Franken himself realized how appalling the JOKE was when he said he “didn’t know what he was thinking” when he set up that gag.
We use humor to tell ourselves who and what is important, and what actions or people are not important. It’s the reason we don’t make ethnic jokes anymore, because they were a way to reinforce ugly social opinions against certain people, to manipulate perceptions and to literally “put them down.”
Jokes about prison rape are no longer in fashion because we accept this idea that it is, in fact, no laughing matter. Now comes the time that we stand up and say sitcom skits that say it’s funny to grope people without their consent are not a laughing matter, either.
And the other 6-7 women who talked to (more of his colleagues than just) Gillibrand apparently made a credible case for the idea that even years later he still thought it was cute, lighthearted fun to grope or grab.
It’s all of a piece with the jerks who have asked us when we objected to the bodily invasions and put down humor, “Hey, sweetheart, cantcha take a joke?”
Uh…no. Not any more.
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Men lose their jobs on MULTIPLE accusations, certainly.
I don’t know where you’re coming from. And for that reason and others, I can’t get on your bandwagon.
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How about MULTIPLE similar acts of disrespect, not just for individual people but for the CONCEPT OF CONSENT?
Franken’s supposed hand on the butt could have been easily fixed if she had moved away. She was too in the moment with a celebrity?
Sorry, but any woman who’s uncomfortable can, unless forcibly attacked, can get out of any situation.
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I don’t understand. I’ve just told you where I’m coming from. We as Democrats need to support the principles brought to light by this incident. The principles of bodily autonomy and consent. Going along with the idea that Franken was “just fooling around a little, what’s the big deal” compromises our ability to maintain those principles.
It’s unfortunate that the backlash against the idea that groping is just hilarious fun hit Our Hero, but we shouldn’t pretend that when other men do it (GHWB, the old lech?) it’s reprehensible, yet when Franken does, it’s just cute.
Besides, Franken knew that drawing out the “process” of hearing all the testimony publicly and arguing over all the details and the purported conspiracy against him would only serve to cast a shadow over him if he stayed AND compromise the party. So I also maintain he WAS a hero in sucking it up and resigning.
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Groping? You need to go after the real gropers. The please stop, gropers.
It wasn’t Franken.
How in hell was he supposed to know if no woman said anything about the grope or touch, actually.
Sorry, julia. Do not agree at all.
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Whoa. So you’re fine if we continue the tradition that says it is the WOMAN’S responsibility to either (somehow) prevent or avoid unwanted contact from any man?
The whole POINT here is that we have to put a stop to this idea that any guy can just pinch a random bottom or give his coworker an unwanted “neck rub” because he feels putting his hands on a little woman flesh and enjoys seeing her reaction.
I put up with that shit for far too long in my younger days. It’s a dominance move, mostly, especially in the workplace.
No, sorry. New Rule: HANDS OFF.
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