He didn’t step down because of a crude picture. The result of the photo (and accompanying story) was that he would cooperate with an ethics investigation and everyone was moderately placated by that.
He’s resigning because of the multiple stories that came out since then of women getting groped during photo-ops which enough backing evidence (old Facebook posts about it, etc) to make their accounts sound credible. Whether or not that makes him “as bad as” as Moore, Weinstein, etc isn’t really relevant. The question is whether it makes him suitable for his senate seat. Feeling up 14 year olds shouldn’t be where we set the bar for suitability.
The crocodile tears and hand-wringing from the Right seems a little opportunist when they’re ignoring the full breadth of the allegations and pretending that it’s all about a stupid photo. One might almost suspect that their motivation isn’t really about poor senator Franken and more about keeping the story alive, trying to stoke resentment and building a firewall against claims regarding figures on the Right.
Count me among those who think the backlash against sexual harassment is overdone. Yes, most of us men have done little or no illict groping … but most of us men don’t have the huge ego, libido, confidence, and arrogance associated with power. Misbehavior is common at the top. Look at JFK, LBJ and Bill Clinton: three of the greatest Presidents of our lifetimes and all three guilty of sexual misbehavior that dwarfs anything Al Franken did.
Does anyone think Franken is the only sitting Senator guilty of this level of misbehavior? I’d guess that dozenS have done things at least as egregious as him; should they all resign?
I have no easy answers. Obviously there has been a sudden shift in moral sentiment recently — or at least so the liberal media would have us believe. Perhaps Franken’s resignation is necessary now to clear the slate.
Why not? I mean, if someone thinks that Franken should resign over his actions then it stands to reason that any other member of Congress who did the same (or equivalent) should resign as well. Saying “But that means that dozens of people would resign!” just means that the basement needs a thorough sweeping, not that you should just accept and live with all the spiders. Why on earth would you think “This person was terrible – but all those people are terrible too so let’s just live with the terrible”?
In any event, Franken’s favorability collapsed when this started. The people from his state wanted him to be accountable for it. He would have been toxic in the senate and ineffective as a senator if no one wanted to attach their name to his bills and platforms. It’s not as though, if he stuck around, everything was going to be hunky-dory – it would have just been Minnesota having an ineffective lame duck senator for the next couple years.
I wasn’t convinced he should resign before he said he would (there are different levels of sexual offense, and this is one of the milder ones), but I think he pretty much has to follow through with it now. Otherwise, it looks like a totally cynical ploy to win the Alabama election, which will hurt the party much more in the long run.
This episode reminds me of the case of Bob Packwood, who resigned for similar (but more extreme) reasons back in 1995. He was a Republican, although these days he’d be labeled a RINO.
The interesting part is the chairman of the Ethics Committee at the time, some guy from Kentucky named McConnell. I’m sure some people can find irony in
Due process is an important pillar of American political philosophy, as reflected in the Constitution.
Franken should receive due process–in this case, a thorough examination of all charges against him by the Senate Ethics Committee. Then, if the results of that investigation lean towards a conclusion that some or all of the charges have merit, he should resign.
“Accusation = guilt” is a foolish principle for any party to embrace–particularly a party whose opponents have shown themselves to be scruple-free.
As of right now, I wouldn’t vote for any of the Senators whom I believe led the way on asking Franken to resign without an ethics probe. Maybe the party can get by without people like me, maybe I don’t represent a decent percentage of Democrats at all, but the party is going to have some fault lines if it settles into this pattern.
If there are lots with your attitude, then a schism is pretty much guaranteed, since I (and lots of folks that I talk to) don’t want to be part of a party that tolerates groping or even pretend groping.
Pffft. Due process is for the courts. Franken chose to leave on the advice of the party leaders. Once again, no one forced him out. No one tried him without due process. He could have stayed if he wanted to. He got all the due process he was due, which was none. He got a talking to about his position, and he chose to agree.
It makes more sense if you think of it as a political decision, first and foremost, and not a legal or even an ethical decision. There weren’t just “accusations”. There were credible accusations + that damn picture. The picture that he never denied (how cold he?) even though he made excuses for all of the accusations. The picture that would have been in hundreds of campaign ads this fall. Add in the knowledge this replacement is 100% guaranteed to be a Democrat, and it’s no wonder they wanted him out of the picture (no pun intended). I’m not so sure they would have been so eager to dump him if the governor of MN were a Republican.
“Credible accusation of groping = don’t meet the standard for high office” seems like a pretty damn reasonable standard for the party to adopt to me. Why do we need to allow credibly-accused gropers as Senators?
The reason humans invented concepts such as ‘due process’ and ‘investigation’ is that “credibly-accused” is so subjective a notion as to be nearly useless for purposes of justice.
Motivated reasoning is a powerful force. We counter its power by means of rules of evidence, testimony under oath, and similar components of a fair trial.
Here is one of the accusations against Franken per MSNBC:
“Tina Dupuy writes in The Atlantic that Franken put his hand around her waist while the pair posed for a photo and squeezed “at least twice” during an event in 2009.”
Color me amazing underwhelmed.
My sister (a female by definition) is a beautiful woman, nobody’s fool by any measure and a sharp person. She told me said that when she was single, we’d call that “making a pass” nothing more, nothing less. I tend to agree with her.
The reason humans invented concepts such as “due process” was to ensure that legal action wasn’t taken capriciously. This is a political action, not a legal action. Do you understand that there is a political space and legal space, and the two don’t necessarily overlap?