# Now it's Al Franken Accused of Sexual Harassment **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [November 16, 2017, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-its-al-franken-accused-of-sexual-harassment/801781 "2017-11-16T17:01:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![ivylass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9de053/32.png) [@ivylass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivylass)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2017, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-its-al-franken-accused-of-sexual-harassment/801781/41 "2017-11-20T16:33:49Z")
Another[woman has come forward](http://www.cnn.com/2017/11/20/politics/al-franken-inappropriate-touch-2010/index.html), this one from an incident in 2010. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2017, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-its-al-franken-accused-of-sexual-harassment/801781/42 "2017-11-20T16:42:32Z")
> [@ivylass](#): > > Another[woman has come forward](http://www.cnn.com/2017/11/20/politics/al-franken-inappropriate-touch-2010/index.html), this one from an incident in 2010. Uh-oh. I’m beginning to see resignation in his future. ---
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2017, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-its-al-franken-accused-of-sexual-harassment/801781/43 "2017-11-20T16:45:34Z")
> [@ivylass](#): > > Another[woman has come forward](http://www.cnn.com/2017/11/20/politics/al-franken-inappropriate-touch-2010/index.html), this one from an incident in 2010. Jeee Suzzz!:eek: If thats inappropriate touching, then I have been " inappropriately" touched dozens of times. A year. We have gone from a guy who made dozens of women performs sexual favours (and also physically assaulted another person), i.e Weinstein, to, whatever the hell that link claims. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2017, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-its-al-franken-accused-of-sexual-harassment/801781/44 "2017-11-20T16:59:50Z")
You get your ass grabbed on a monthly basis? ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2017, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-its-al-franken-accused-of-sexual-harassment/801781/45 "2017-11-20T17:48:13Z")
> [@Pantastic](#): > > Then why is that EXACTLY what you’re doing? Stop defending his atrocious actions if that’s not what you’re here to do. I’m not defending him, I’m pointing out that you have no sense of proportion, and you are giving the deniers reason to never admit to their actions and never apologize for them. Would you rather have Franken deny the accusations like Moore and Trump and Weinstein and Cosby and all the rest are doing? It sounds like that would be part of your concept that they are all the same anyway, that we shouldn’t distinguish between rape and inappropriate behavior. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2017, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-its-al-franken-accused-of-sexual-harassment/801781/46 "2017-11-20T18:35:07Z")
> [@AK84](#): > > Jeee Suzzz!:eek: > If thats inappropriate touching, then I have been " inappropriately" touched dozens of times. A year. > > We have gone from a guy who made dozens of women performs sexual favours (and also physically assaulted another person), i.e Weinstein, to, whatever the hell that link claims. The link claims that a US Senator grabbed a woman’s ass when she posed for a picture with him. Maybe he thought that since he’s a celebrity, he can just walk up and grab women’s asses. They let you do it!! All that’s missing is Billy Bush giggling in the background. ---
**Author:** ![Finagle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/b19c9b/32.png) [@Finagle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Finagle)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2017, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-its-al-franken-accused-of-sexual-harassment/801781/47 "2017-11-20T18:36:48Z")
> [@ivylass](#): > > Another[woman has come forward](http://www.cnn.com/2017/11/20/politics/al-franken-inappropriate-touch-2010/index.html), this one from an incident in 2010. Yeah, this one seems like pretty weak tea unless a pattern emerges. The woman’s sister said something in a Facebook post about there not being “two bibles space” between them. If you were raised in a culture where it’s considered improper for males and females to have just about any kind of contact until maybe a couple of years after marriage, then the standard automatic politician/celebrity hug and squeeze for the camera is going to feel intimidating. There’s no way of telling without having been there, but this looks like a case of misinterpretation to me. ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2017, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-its-al-franken-accused-of-sexual-harassment/801781/48 "2017-11-20T18:41:26Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > Even PBS is piling on. Editors hard at work. > > I certainly feel safer now that any controversy won’t reach my tv. > > [Al Franken Cut from David Letterman Mark Twain Prize PBS Special](http://tvline.com/2017/11/19/al-franken-cut-david-letterman-mark-twain-prize-pbs-special/) So just to clarify – according to PBS, David Letterman’s mistreatment of his female employees is okay, but Al Franken’s mistreatment of women crosses the line? ---
**Author:** ![Pantastic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3bc359/32.png) [@Pantastic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pantastic)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2017, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-its-al-franken-accused-of-sexual-harassment/801781/49 "2017-11-20T19:25:16Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > I’m not defending him, I’m pointing out that you have no sense of proportion, You are defending him, it’s here in black and white in this thread. The problem is actually that your sense of proportion is horribly broken, and you’re trying to minimize some pretty awful actions, apparently because the person who’s alleged to have done them is a Democrat. Following a smaller person into a private area and getting in their personal space while yelling at them is most definitely a physical threat. It absolutely boggles my mind that someone would make an argument that says it would be cool for Bill O Reilly to follow Hillary Clinton backstage and get in her personal space if he disagreed with something she said, then to keep calling her on her private number to harangue her about it until she threatened to call that cops, but there we go. > [@](#): > > and you are giving the deniers reason to never admit to their actions and never apologize for them. Would you rather have Franken deny the accusations like Moore and Trump and Weinstein and Cosby and all the rest are doing? Franken is one of the deniers; he hasn’t actually admitted to any of the actions other than the picture, which he can’t really deny since there’s photographic evidence (I would not expect Cosby or Weinstein to deny something that there was a direct picture of).For the tongue insertion he’s issued a soft denial (saying ‘he doesn’t remember it like that’) and for the butt-grab he apologized for her feelings but not any action of his “I feel badly that Ms. Menz came away from our interaction feeling disrespected.” If he has admitted to anything other than the undeniable photo, please quote it for me as I haven’t seen it yet. > [@](#): > > It sounds like that would be part of your concept that they are all the same anyway, that we shouldn’t distinguish between rape and inappropriate behavior. I never made a claim remotely like that, you’re attacking a straw man. The concept you’ve come up with in your head is simply not something I think or have argued for. ---
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2017, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-its-al-franken-accused-of-sexual-harassment/801781/50 "2017-11-20T19:25:37Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > The link claims that a US Senator grabbed a woman’s ass when she posed for a picture with him. Maybe he thought that since he’s a celebrity, he can just walk up and grab women’s asses. They let you do it!! All that’s missing is Billy Bush giggling in the background. No we don’t. All we have is one person’s interpretation of his actions. He posed for a picture with her; as he has no doubt done thousands of times and probably dozens of times that day. Lets take the women’s statements at face value and taken at its highest. Even when you do that, hard to make a case for, anything really. Its not Weinsteins bukkake with the poor innocent, blameless potted plant. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2017, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-its-al-franken-accused-of-sexual-harassment/801781/51 "2017-11-20T20:08:23Z")
> [@hogarth](#): > > So just to clarify – according to PBS, David Letterman’s mistreatment of his female employees is okay, but Al Franken’s mistreatment of women crosses the line? Yeah. Letterman has his own baggage with the treatment of women. It’s a bit ironic to scrub Stuart Smalley out of a tribute to Dave. They still are honoring a guy that has a few skeletons in the closet. Including a few minutes of Al in the video wouldn’t make much difference. A lot of comics will be in the show. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2017, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-its-al-franken-accused-of-sexual-harassment/801781/52 "2017-11-20T20:19:44Z")
> [@AK84](#): > > No we don’t. All we have is one person’s interpretation of his actions. He posed for a picture with her; as he has no doubt done thousands of times and probably dozens of times that day. > > Lets take the women’s statements at face value and taken at its highest. Even when you do that, hard to make a case for, anything really. Its not Weinsteins bukkake with the poor innocent, blameless potted plant. First it was “I can’t even tell what the link is claiming”, now it’s “We don’t know if the woman is credible or not”. I’ll get back to you when you’ve got the goal posts planted in their final position. Until then, I’ll just say that her story sounds credible, and when you show a pattern of this type of behavior, you’re going to suffer consequences. ---
**Author:** ![Pantastic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3bc359/32.png) [@Pantastic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pantastic)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2017, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-its-al-franken-accused-of-sexual-harassment/801781/53 "2017-11-20T21:07:12Z")
> [@AK84](#): > > Lets take the women’s statements at face value and taken at its highest. Even when you do that, hard to make a case for, anything really. Its not Weinsteins bukkake with the poor innocent, blameless potted plant. For anyone who hasn’t read the article, this is the woman’s statements that AK84 claims are hard to make a case from if you take them at face value. I’m not sure how you can hear/read the words “put his hand full-fledged on my rear”, “It was wrapped tightly around my butt cheek,” “It was definitely on my butt” and think it’s anything but easy to make a case that he grabbed her butt. Again, she literally says the words “he put his hand full-fledged on my rear”, but for AK84 something is not clear in what she said and he feels that it’s unreasonable to conclude that her allegation is that Franken put his hand full-fledged on her rear. > [@](#): > > Then, as her husband held up her phone and got ready to snap a photo of the two of them, Franken “pulled me in really close, like awkward close, and as my husband took the picture, he put his hand full-fledged on my rear,” Menz said. “It was wrapped tightly around my butt cheek.” “It wasn’t around my waist. It wasn’t around my hip or side. It was definitely on my butt,” she said, recalling that the brazen act lasted three or four seconds. “I was like, oh my God, what’s happening.” ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2017, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-its-al-franken-accused-of-sexual-harassment/801781/54 "2017-11-20T21:31:59Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > Al was a professional comic. Infantile jokes and pranks are part of the job description. No they are not. If the only way to be funny was being infantile and making fun of sexual agression there would be no such adjective. Benny Hill and the Pythons were all from the same country, but humor-wise not even on the same planet. > [@](#): > > He was clearly using the lady as a prop. Without her consent. ---
**Author:** ![Typo\_Negative](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/typo_negative/32/484_2.png) [@Typo\_Negative](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Typo_Negative)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2017, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-its-al-franken-accused-of-sexual-harassment/801781/55 "2017-11-21T00:31:26Z")
[Not sure if this muddies the waters, but Jeremy Piven takes polygraph and passes](https://www.msn.com/en-us/tv/news/jeremy-piven-takes-and-passes-polygraph-amid-sex-assault-allegations/ar-BBFnBGQ?li=BBnb7Kz) 3 women have accused him. > [@](#): > > “After a careful evaluation of all test questions, including relevant, irrelevant and control questions, it is the examiner’s analysis and professional opinion that Mr. Piven showed no reactions indicative of deception to any of the relevant questions,” the report claimed, adding that Jeremy passed all his questions. > > After Arianne, two other women said Jeremy sexually assaulted them, too. The Blast says he took polygraph tests about those claims and passed those test, as well. Possibilites: 1. One or more of these women are lying 2. Piven is such a good liar that he can beat a polygraph 3. Piven bribed the guy giving the polygraph 4. The guy giving the polygraph is incompetent 5. Some combination? ---
**Author:** ![ivylass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9de053/32.png) [@ivylass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivylass)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2017, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-its-al-franken-accused-of-sexual-harassment/801781/56 "2017-11-21T14:35:10Z")
1. Polygraphs are unreliable which is why they’re not used in court. ---
**Author:** ![StrTrkr777](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/fbc32d/32.png) [@StrTrkr777](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StrTrkr777)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2017, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-its-al-franken-accused-of-sexual-harassment/801781/57 "2017-11-21T17:29:11Z")
This is one of those areas that I do not personally have knowledge of, but based on things I have heard on TV that make an amount of sense is that as stated above, the polygraph is not the most reliable, so they do not use in court. Also, when someone takes it privately knowing that if the results turn out poorly then they do not release the results, the subject is not so nervous and is more able to defeat it. Additionally, Piven being an actor, he might have practiced techniques to control his breathing, and heart rate and such for roles, so he might be more able to render the test invalid (similar to point 2). ---
**Author:** ![Pantastic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3bc359/32.png) [@Pantastic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pantastic)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2017, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-its-al-franken-accused-of-sexual-harassment/801781/58 "2017-11-21T18:59:50Z")
> [@Typo\_Negative](#): > > Possibilites: > > 1. One or more of these women are lying > 2. Piven is such a good liar that he can beat a polygraph > 3. Piven bribed the guy giving the polygraph > 4. The guy giving the polygraph is incompetent > 5. Some combination? Polygraphs are primarily useful for getting someone who doesn’t know about them to confess to a crime by threatening to use a lie detector, they don’t really mean much other than that. There are many ways to ‘defeat’ a polygraph test, and one of the simplest ones is to have one of the mental conditions where you actually feel good about lying (which means you don’t get nervous at all). But don’t take my word for what they’re worth, take Cecil’s: [How accurate are lie-detector tests? - The Straight Dope](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2935/how-accurate-are-lie-detector-tests) ---
**Author:** ![aldiboronti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9fc348/32.png) [@aldiboronti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aldiboronti)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2017, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-its-al-franken-accused-of-sexual-harassment/801781/59 "2017-11-23T01:46:08Z")
[Two more women accuse Franken of groping them.](http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/al-franken-two-more-women-groping_us_5a15a455e4b09650540ec295) > [@](#): > > That makes it four women who have accused Sen. Al Franken of groping them. > > Two more women have told HuffPost that Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) touched their butts in separate incidents. These are the third and fourth such allegations against Franken in the past week. Leeann Tweeden, a radio host, wrote last week that Franken had kissed and groped her without her consent during a 2006 USO tour. On Monday, Lindsay Menz accused Franken of groping her at the Minnesota State Fair in 2010. > > The two additional women, who said they were not familiar with each others’ stories, both spoke on condition of anonymity. But their stories, which describe events during Franken’s first campaign for the Senate, are remarkably similar — and both women have been telling them privately for years. The man is starting to look indefensible. ---
**Author:** ![Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ccd318/32.png) [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_in_Qatar)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2017, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-its-al-franken-accused-of-sexual-harassment/801781/60 "2017-11-23T01:55:49Z")
We need to make a list. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-its-al-franken-accused-of-sexual-harassment/801781.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/now-its-al-franken-accused-of-sexual-harassment/801781.md?page=4)