I believe that Senator Franken, unlike some other accused politicians, is being fundamentally honest with respect to these allegations. I’ve been a fan of his since the “Franken and Davis” days and his downfall saddens me.
@sherpa I tend to agree with you. I think on a scale of mild to horrible what he is accused of doing is on the lighter side. Still not proper but it does make me wonder how the yard stick is being used. Where is the line being drawn for ruining a career? One butt grab? two? How many did Franken grab? I know it is not right but to me this behavior happens all day long on a NYC subway. Does not make it right but man is it going to be hard to find Saints to fill positions once all the butt grabbers and kissers are fired.
of course he’s being scapegoated. He never would have been forced out if it weren’t for the specter of Moore.
He has taken zero responsibility for his actions. http://www.cnn.com/2017/12/07/politics/al-franken-resigns-analysis/index.html
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Does not make it right but man is it going to be hard to find Saints to fill positions once all the butt grabbers and kissers are fired. <<
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It wouldn’t be hard, just elect more women.
@Wien2NC Hahaha. Yes. That would be a very good solution. 
sschickens you are assuming he is the one not telling the truth. That’s an interesting angle albeit naive to assume that every anonymous thing you hear is true. You don’t “take responsibility” for the good of mankind for something you didn’t do. But we’ll never know because he got railroaded by a bunch of idiots so no ethics investigation…
I don’t like Franken or his political methods (I think he’s mean), but I don’t agree with asking him to resign over things he may or may not have done in a prior life, under different circumstances. It’s up to the voters as to whether they want him to represent them. There are many people who have actually been convicted of crimes who go on to be politicians or teachers or lawyers and we take a ‘well, they’ve paid their debt to society’ view. If you don’t want those people to represent you, don’t vote for them or hire them but don’t expect them to have been saints when they were working in an industry that is all about telling jokes, acting like idiots, trying to get to the next role at the expense of all others on the set (male or female).
I am not surprised at anything that’s come out about him because it was all part of the business he was in. It is ridiculous for anyone to expect John Belushi to act one way on the SNL set and Franken to be expected to act in a different way because he might decide to run for office in 20 year (Of course the answer would be for all of them to act like grown ups, but that often isn’t an option).
I wish he wouldn’t have resigned
@momofthreeboys Do you support Roy Moore as well? http://theweek.com/articles/741994/al-franken-isnt-sorry
It’s hard to feel sorry for him when he groped women, not once, not twice, but 8 times. It’s the same pattern we see in most people with bad behavior – the thrill of doing something they shouldn’t be doing feeds their desire to keep doing it. Inside their heads I think they think the reward is worth the risk… until they get put on public display, at which point they switch into damage control mode.
Franken knew what he was doing, and kept doing it, which makes it next to impossible to feel bad for the guy. Justice has been served.
He was good enough, smart enough, and doggone it, people liked him.
note the past tense, Stuart Smalley
The WaPo is rumored to be working on a story with accusations against 20-30 Washington politicians – no surprise that women have decided to tell their stories. This is going to get more interesting (and exhausting) going forward.
I wonder what Al will do in retirement – could he go back to comedy in some capacity?
Did as many as 8 women came out against Franken?
Dylan Farrow,
From The Boston Globe:
“Al Franken’s graceless exit”
“Here’s to the Democratic women of the US Senate. They stood up this week and gave their colleague Al Franken the bum’s rush.
And so, on Thursday, the Gopher State Groper announced he would soon resign.
He did not go gracefully. Despite eight women making accusations that he groped or forcibly kissed them, Franken essentially waved it all away, portraying his previous apologies as something he had done to respect the “broader conversation” about sexual harassment.”
I am glad to seem him go. He never should have been elected to begin with. Hopefully his replacement whoever he or she is has more integrity.
At first I said Franken shouldn’t go, then as more women came forward I thought he should go, now I don’t think he should resign. He should at least be allowed due process from the ethics committee. Conyers is a different story, yes he should resign.
Gillibrand is getting skewered in the comments in NYT by Democratic New Yorkers and Dems all over the country (including those in MN.) I’ll be calling her office tomorrow and telling her exactly what I think about her call for his resignation without waiting for the investigation by the Ethics Committee to run it course. Schumer will also be getting a call from me for getting on the band wagon.
Agree partyof5 on Conoyers. And no I don’t “support Ray Moore” but I do think that in general, and I don’t know Ray Moore personally so this is not about him specifically, people deserve to mature and grow and thrive even if they have youthful issues. If we did not believe in restorative justice or did not believe that people do in fact “grow up” our country would be more jail cells than subdivisions. I also think it’s marginally idiotic to hold people accountable for behaviors that were commonplace and not considered “bad” thirty years ago. Times change and people change thank heavens. It’s why I can’t support lifetime sex registry.
fractalmstr - Aaah that would be “allegedly” groped please. There was never an investigation of those claims and the first claim was thoroughly debunked.
@momofthreeboys My entire family on both sides is from a small town in Alabama. I don’t doubt that it was commonplace or common knowledge to date young girls. Heck everyone got married young which is why I grew up knowing all four of my great grandmothers. So it doesn’t wig me out that moore dated 16 year olds.
However I do have a problem with him assaulting the 14 year old. I also deem him unfit because he has been tossed off the court twice, and everyone seems to skip over that little nugget. He has some VERY bigoted and antiquated views which should disqualify him from any elected office.