Heard a disgusting tale today on “the daily”, the NYT podcast. Apparently Weinstein’s many, many assistants had a book of all the tasks they had to do. One thing involved medication he took for erectile dysfunction. I’m assuming this was in pre-viagra days but I don’t know. Anyway, it needed to be directly injected into the penis and he wanted them to have it on hand for whenever he wanted to use it. And they had to discard the used syringes and packaging.
If you complain, take things to HR or otherwise rock the boat, you are fired. Racketeering seems an appropriate charge.
regarding Franken: As a MN voter it was a leap of faith for me to vote for him despite the crudeness of some of his comedy. I was ready to give him the benefit of the doubt because a lot of humor seems to be crude and I am a cranky old lady with no sense of humor. However, these multiple accounts of how he behaves when not onstage and when he was supposedly more enlightened have given me pause. I find them believable and do not want him representing me in Congress.
They must be worried that Franken would lose his next election because of being a groper. None of this was known and so the voters have not had a say. As I said many pages back, if voters know the sordid history of their candidate and still vote for him, well that’s the messy part of democracy.
Because the Franken stories aren’t believable…he touched my butt at a state fair photo op (with a gizillion people), he touched my butt at a public event, he put his arm around my waist, he gave me a wet sloppy kiss…all at public events or places where there would be someone near who would have noticed if not his own people would have noticed something inappropriate and these claims are all anonymous. Hundreds if not thousands of people want pics with well known people and they are generally hurry up, grab and go if they aren’t shake hands and go pictures. So no I don’t entirely believe the women in the Franken case. I have myself had a time in a crowd where I was with someone important and he was moving to put his arm around my shoulder as we were talking to someone and I turned to say something to someone coming up behind us and his hand ended up across my chest…awkward but accidental. I also have an actual picture of a politician and his hand is on my butt, I had bent over and was backing up and backed right into his hand and someone got a picture. I could easily produce that photo and claim I had been inappropriately touched but I wear my big girl pants and don’t run around telling stories that aren’t entirely truthful.
Yes one guy touched my boob and yes another touched my butt and neither was intentional or harassment…it just happened. I suspect that the true Franken stories are more like that than intentional groping. The kissing incident at the radio station he stated is categorically untrue and I tend to believe it because his public statement was not an apology like the others. He apologized to the agrieved butt touching claims and or waist grabbing claim I think. Lots of stories in the news I believe and generally there is a history or someone’s seen something that lends credibility but some appear not quite accurate or entirely truthful. Do I think Matt Lauer crossed the line…yes he had to have as there was history that was known so whatever the story it had to have credibility.
I am very concerned that like what happen on colleges where everything became a breach of conduct that we’ve reached this Puritanical keep the boys and girls far apart because they can’t seem to get along has moved into the public. We are treating every little thing as a high crime and every male as a potential criminal and presuming every woman is pure of mind with no ulterior motives. Alas I think it is not that black and white and the truth lies somewhere in the middle.
“I figure it’s a calculated political advantage that is driving it, including, of course, appealing to the base.”
If our base wants to hold elected officials to higher ethical standards, then I’m in the right party.
The Franken accusations are milder than many of the rest, and I thought that an ethics inquiry where we could get the whole truth was the right next step. That said, the party leadership is probably within its rights to press him to resign instead. This is the big leagues.
Franken’s state fair story is in a booth as they were closing it down for the day. I’ve spent literally hundreds of hours at the state fair. If she’d said it was in the DFL (Democrats) booth, which is the most common place to see a politician like Al, I wouldn’t have believed her. That booth is open on two sides to the public, full of people all the time (especially if a senator is there), and a lot of people rubbernecking as they walk by if there is a line to meet someone like that.
But there are booths that are more enclosed and could have no people as they are shutting down, and that is where she said it took place. I’m not saying he did it. But I am saying “the fair is crowded so it couldn’t have happened” is not a reasonable argument.
I think there are now 8 women who have accused Franken of inappropriate behavior. I actually find the allegations of the Minnesota women the most credible since they would have little motivation to make these things up. One reportedly posted about the incident on her Facebook page contemporaneously.
But as noted by others a part of this is no longer really about Franken.
I am not 100% sure that what we hear from him today will be a resignation though.
I was thinking this morning what I would say to Al Franken if I was his wife. I think I’d tell him to not resign. The original “accuser Tweeden” has been totally discredited and the others are so suspect and spurious it’s laughable. I’d tell him he’s being played by his party and the Republicalns and set up as a poster child…but then maybe as a wife I’d say resign and get the heck out of the cesspool and find a new position of advocacy. He’s a good man and although I’m not a Dem, he does good work in the Senate. It’s such a shame. Our country should be ashamed at the duplicity and hypocrisy of not ousting criminals and ousting a good person. Giving him an ethics hearing is fair, Gillibrand and ilk knifing him in the back is not. I’m just still as disgusted this morning as I was last night. If anything drives marginal Dems to the Republican camp, if he resigns this will be the .001% weight I predict.
Well, he said more about the dems and the republicans, and even commented that Newt Gingrigh was giving Franken a bit of a pass on some of the stuff he did while he was in comedy, not in congress/senate ( though to some congress/senate may be seen as a bit of a joke ) ;
Yup he did. Totally disgusted with our country right now. His speech is pure Al Franken. Heartful and truthful. We lost a good man in the Senate today. I am confused and disgusted by the female and male senators who did not support an ethics investigation and instead ramrodded this guy who cares deeply about things that embody human rights into resigning So disgusted. Well you know the old saying what goes around comes around.
Didn’t Franken say he would retire in “upcoming weeks”? That leaves him around for any end of year crazy votes and all.
I agree that the situation regarding him is sad, and I would have preferred waiting for the ethics investigation to play out, but we seem to have reached a critical mass of accusers in his case, just like we did in other cases. If it was just the original accuser, it would be a very different story. Men who do this sort of thing seem to do it habitually.
Will Moore be elected and seated in the Senate without protest by fellow republicans? I sure hope not, but if he is there will be repercussions.
He did not apologize. He said that some of the accusations were lies or that ‘he remembered things differently’. Basically the underlying message was that he felt he was being scapegoated for the party.
I think that is exactly what he’s saying. And people should not be truthful? What makes them be truthful and he not? Is it because he’s male? Think about it. NBC reported this:
They ate their own but this is the same group that supported Mattress Girl so no surprise to me. They obviously are man-hater are the highest order. They don’t “really” care about the truth or they would have let the ethics committee go through.
