First and foremost if someone offends you, you deal with it one on one, you don’t sit and stew about your anger for ten years and then when the media opportunity strikes, cut em off at the knees. It’s petty, whiny and totally worthy of an eyeball roll… I, as a woman, find that far more offensive than some comedian having a photographer take a goof photo. He deserved a tongue lashing from her…one on one. She looks really, really vindictive or worse playing political hyjinks. Which is stupid because he’s one man in Congress who actually advocates for women. People who really want to put some teeth into real sexual harassment, abuse, pedophilia, assault and rape can certainly put a line in the sand and admit that sometimes some of these things are just…well…petty pouting.
If more women come forward and claim that they were actually sexually assaulted by Al Franken and don’t what is clearly a stunt shock shot…I’ll formally apologize in a post. Maybe it’s because I’ve spent my whole adult life surrounded by men at home and in the workplace that I can dish as good as I receive, but really this thread just gets me wound up. My husband, when it came on the nightly news, peered over the top of his newspaper and reading specs and said “She’s a piece of work” and he’s pretty opened minded about everything that’s been in the media lately.
I wasn’t talking about catcalling or whistling. I was catcalled/whistled multiple times a day for much of my childhood and young adulthood and I know I’m one of many in that respect.
I don’t know what his punishment should be, or any of these other guys who are resigning, getting fired, apologizing…or denying and carrying on.
I do think it should be less than making a sexual advance on a young teen, yes.
What does a piece of work mean? Is she tough? Do you think she has had to put up with a lot of boors in her line of work and has had to develop a demeanor? Is she currently in a situation that might be stressful? Are you at your best when highly stressed?
I am not comfortable with judging a woman’s personality as part of the package for how much support we give her.
I saw something on what I think is a right wing website saying there was another accusation against him, but it turned out to be a woman he had a financial dispute with at work who got a call from him at home and felt pestered by him. Nothing sexual about it. Of course, the headline made it sound like it was. But it didn’t strike me as related or relevant.
He might get censured by the Senate, which is a form of punishment and a particularly good one in this case because it will open the door for any and all sexual misconduct in the house and senate to be addressed. Unbelievably, they had been somehow immune from laws against sexual harassment. That needs to change.
Urban Dictionary “Piece of Work”: Someone who – although often interesting – is difficult to get along with on an every day basis. They often make simple things overly complex, or argue points ad infinitum
Must be a midwest term. I hear it all the time when people are being flaky. .It is applicable to both sexes or any age.
I have only heard it used as a way of denigrating a woman. That is why I wanted to get a better definition from you so that we are understanding each other.
There is a reason why we don’t let victims decide the punishment. This woman says she doesn’t want Franklin to step down, but it’s not her decision. She’s nota voter in Minn. What if she not only wanted him to resign but wanted him to go to prison, forfeit all his belongings, be required to do many hours of community services? No, the victim doesn’t get to decide.
And there is a statute of limitation on most of these offenses.
Franklin was 50+when he committed this offense and I really doubt it was his first. Maybe the other times the women weren’t insulted or thought it was fun. Spacey was much younger (for the first one anyway) and closer in age to his victim. I think they are all paying a penalty and few of them will ever work again. I never paid much attention to who produced certain movies but I was watching Netflix the other day and did notice it was a Weinstein Company production. I still watched it. There are shows I don’t watch anymore because they have actors I don’t want to support for ‘religious’ (and I used that term but I mean ‘cult’) or political reasons, and I don’t want any money going to them even if it only a few cents for residuals.
The hypocracy in this thread is frightening. I clicked on it to see how many would minimize his actions because of reasons such as the support he’s given women. Sadly, I was correct.
Once the Democrats and the establishment Republicans unleashed this S-storm against Roy Moore, there was bound to be blowback. Now we will see how hypocritical they are. My prediction: they will excuse it away like they did with Clinton, Menendez, Foley, Ted Kennedy, etc. etc. All sorts of creepy photos are bound to appear, and not just allegations from 40 years ago. I agree 100% with @Sportsman88.
So far there is no evidence he has done this more than once – we will see if others come forward. There ARE degrees of being a crappy guy. Moore, Spacey, Weinstein, and Bill Cosby are serial predators who probably should be in jail for their offenses. So far the reported Franken behavior is probably a misdemeanor.
Regarding that phone call issue, that is not a physical or sexual assault. He may have been an ass, but it wasn’t criminal behavior. I noticed that the site you click through to on the link is “Rare”, which is a right wing site with a political agenda.
I gotta say – did anyone EVER condone Mark Foley’s behavior? Although I know we are trying to keep this thread to the title topic, I’d like to see the post out here or even a national news story in a reputable publication that said what he did was okay.
“Once the Democrats and the establishment Republicans unleashed this S-storm against Roy Moore, there was bound to be blowback. Now we will see how hypocritical they are. My prediction: they will excuse it away like they did with Clinton, Menendez, Foley, Ted Kennedy, etc. etc. All sorts of creepy photos are bound to appear, and not just allegations from 40 years ago.”
I think the greater issue is women now speaking out about a variety of problematic behaviors. That’s the real point, after generations of enduring and suppressing so much of this.
Sorry, but I think some here need to see how you’re now minimizing. “Oh, she could’ve kept quiet.” Or, qualifying, “but it’s not serial” or “but X isn’t as bad as Y.” Etc. I’m surprised.
I haven’t read the whole thread but has anyone brought up the 1995 incident that was raised during his '07 Senate campaign?
Franken was brainstorming with other SNL writers for a skit about 60 Minutes host Andy Rooney allegedly finding pills in his desk drawer. Franken’s suggestion for the sketch was that the pills be used by Rooney to drug his co-host Lesley Stahl and then he would take her into a closet and rape her. He was called upon to account for that during his campaign and he dodged it by having his campaign spokesman issue a statement on his behalf.
I have never paid all that much attention to him as a Senator – his TV persona left me thinking he was a bit of an “odd duck.” Recently I watched a news clip of him interrogating a senior executive at Facebook about the Russian advertisements during the election and he was very inarticulate and overly emotional. I just find him unimpressive and to be honest a bit crass. So when I saw the photo that is the subject of this thread, it didn’t really surprise me. That’s who he always was to me.