My closest friends have always been men. They’re not all pigs.
I’m disappointed in Franken but this, IMO, doesn’t rise to the level of many of the other accusations. I actually do believe most people are redeemable. Rapists and pedophiles aren’t in my book but something like this might be.
I want a change. No one should or is excused from their past actions but I also recognize that people can change.
I don’t know whether Franken should step down. I do know I don’t want him to run for president like I did 24 hours ago.
@intparent that is awful. I’m sick to my stomach over the first fake report. I’m afraid it will discredit all the others and people will stop coming forward.
People who make false allegations should be imprisoned. I’ve always said that and it goes for wherever you are on the political spectrum. You don’t get to ruin someone’s life on a lie and walk away.
With the Al Franken news I have really been thinking of what it was like to grow up in the 70s and 80’s and facing sexual harrassment at school, socially and then at work. I can remember being harassed by a guitar teacher in elementary school. I can remember middle school and high school boys commenting on my early development and trying to grope me at the local pool in the summer and in the hallways at school. It was a different era and the cat calls and trying to “catch a feel” were “boys being boys” and they would say they were just joking or trying to be funny. I experienced and saw others harrassed in the workplace. I did not find it funny. It was sickening. Boys were allowed to treat women and girls like this. Look back at comic sketches. magazine stories, TV shows. Does anyone remember Connie Francis and Yvette Mimieux in Where the Boys Are??? I believe there must be accountability but how/when/where is the question.
Another Minnesotan - This is really too bad because he has been smart and effective as a Senator. I wouldn’t vote for him again. I think Dayton should appoint a woman.
I’m confused. She has accused Franken of groping her, and while that pic was in poor taste and not funny, he was not groping her. Am I missing something?
Personal feeling: at this point I don’t think we question the woman’s complicity or truthfulness. Time for individual reviews will come. Right now, for me, the importance is the number of women speaking up, from all sorts of corners, various ages an situations.
Imo, jmho, this is a long time coming. We’ve known about it, little was done, women were intimidated, for lots of reasons, or didn’t know if they could do anything. I’m seriously hoping this leads to a shift in thinking. We can’t get there if we revert to questions of how she contributed. Just saying.
@fractalmstr I read that but she said he groped her, and I don’t see that anywhere. Now I don’t know how actors rehearse. If they were rehearsing a kiss, perhaps that’s how he rehearsed. After she said she didn’t want to rehearse the kiss that way as long as he didn’t do it again I still don’t see this as the same as other cases. Mind you I have no opinion on Franken, one way or the other, unlike George Takei which really sent me for a loop.
It’s a tough thing to decide how severely to punish somebody who issues a decent apology right out of the box, as opposed to people who deny everything until it becomes impossible to do so. In this case, I think it probably matters that the allegations, even if completely true, probably do not constitute criminal behavior on Franken’s part. Gross behavior, yes. Indeed, Louis C.K.'s actions are (as I understand them) probably not crimes, even though they are extremely gross. Perhaps it’s easier to apologize when you know that you’re not likely to go to jail for what you did. (So, you can understand why Bill Cosby had to deny, for example.)
I knew this guy when we were young. Knowing him then, I imagine he’s not all that different now and I can easily forgive. Different time. Different place. I think his response was appropriate and heartfelt. Great guy, make no mistake about it. .
Reading it carefully, he didn’t apologize for French kissing her in the rehearsal. I believe her and the women who accused Roy Moore because the stories seem believable. With no witnesses in any of the instances, they could have gone over the top with the accusations and put in more lurid details than they did to make the story more sensational. If these were just politically motivated then the motivation to include such details would have been there. (The allege rape on a pile of broken glass in the UVa case made that story fishy to me from the start for instance). I may be naive but I believe them.
Why are some folks insisting on comparing the Franken and Moore events with opinions like ‘I believe both women?’ Franken admitted his frat boy conduct and has apologized. Who knows if it will end there but we’ve seen no such mea culpa from Judge Roy Moore, for allegations much more grave than the complaint lodged against Franken. Let’s focus on predators and other people who seek to exploit women by holding their careers and reputations over their heads in exchange for sex…or whom outright physically attack them.
^ It’s arguable whether Franken was genuine with his apology, or if it was just a “sorry for getting caught” statement. Part of me thinks if he were truly sorry, he would have owned up to it on his own shortly after the incident had occurred, rather than waiting 11 years for the woman to call him out on it.
All that matters at this point though, IMO, is that the victim accepted the apology, and she did.
I think its inevitable that Moore will be compared to Weinstein, Spacey, the other Hollywood guys, the Silicon Valley guys, (now) Franken etc. They all harassed or raped or groped women or men (or girls or boys).
Only one of these men is currently running for political office, however.