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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsThey were talking about Franken on MSNBC and I'm getting mad all over again.
They are all saying "Well, sure Al is angry, but he choose to resign...and hey if he was still there Kamala Harris wouldn't have been there to ask the hard questions of Kavanaugh....and there WAS A PHOTO!...."
Jesus, they are trying to say it "was the time" blah, blah, blah....
All the lame excuses to try to justify treatment of Al Franken that they all know was not fair.
Why can't people be capable of saying "It was a mistake. People acted rashly and it was not the way to handle the situation." Or something like that.
BigmanPigman
(51,430 posts)I had to change the channel to ANYTHING else!
DFW
(54,050 posts)I am SO glad I am not subjected to that garbage in Germany.
As others have noted, there are three people who come on DU solely to seek out threads about Al Franken and bash him. After all, he resigned and LINK??? so there!
marble falls
(56,358 posts)resign band wagon and now regret it weren't thinking so clearly back then:
A great article from this weeks New Yorker:
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/07/29/the-case-of-al-franken
The Case of Al Franken
A close look at the accusations against the former senator.
By Jane Mayer
5:00 A.M.
When Franken was asked if he regretted his decision to resign from the Senate, he said, Oh, yeah. Absolutely.
Photograph by Geordie Wood for The New Yorker
<snip>
Only two years ago, Franken was being talked up as a possible challenger to President Donald Trump in 2020. In Senate hearings, Franken had proved himself to be one of the most effective critics of the Trump Administration. His tough questioning of Jeff Sessions, Trumps nominee for Attorney General, had led Sessions to recuse himself from the investigation into Russian influence in the 2016 election, and prompted the appointment of Robert Mueller as special counsel.
As it turns out, Frankens only role in the 2020 Presidential campaign has been as a figure of controversy. On June 4th, Pete Buttigieg was widely criticized on social media for saying that he would not have pressured Franken to resignas had virtually all his Democratic rivals who were then in the Senatewithout first learning more about the alleged incidents. At the same time, the Presidential candidacy of Senator Kirsten Gillibrand has been plagued by questions about her role as the first of three dozen Democratic senators to demand Frankens resignation. Gillibrand has cast herself as a feminist champion of zero tolerance toward sexual impropriety, but Democratic donors sympathetic to Franken have stunted her fund-raising and, Gillibrand says, tried to intimidate her into silence.
<snip>
A remarkable number of Frankens Senate colleagues have regrets about their own roles in his fall. Seven current and former U.S. senators who demanded Frankens resignation in 2017 told me that theyd been wrong to do so. Such admissions are unusual in an institution whose members rarely concede mistakes. Patrick Leahy, the veteran Democrat from Vermont, said that his decision to seek Frankens resignation without first getting all the facts was one of the biggest mistakes Ive made in forty-five years in the Senate. Heidi Heitkamp, the former senator from North Dakota, told me, If theres one decision Ive made that I would take back, its the decision to call for his resignation. It was made in the heat of the moment, without concern for exactly what this was. Tammy Duckworth, the junior Democratic senator from Illinois, told me that the Senate Ethics Committee should have been allowed to move forward. She said it was important to acknowledge the trauma that Frankens accusers had gone through, but added, We needed more facts. That due process didnt happen is not good for our democracy. Angus King, the Independent senator from Maine, said that hed regretted it ever since he joined the call for Frankens resignation. Theres no excuse for sexual assault, he said. But Al deserved more of a process. I dont denigrate the allegations, but this was the political equivalent of capital punishment. Senator Jeff Merkley, of Oregon, told me, This was a rush to judgment that didnt allow any of us to fully explore what this was about. I took the judgment of my peers rather than independently examining the circumstances. In my heart, Ive not felt right about it. Bill Nelson, the former Florida senator, said, I realized almost right away Id made a mistake. I felt terrible. I should have stood up for due process to render what its supposed tothe truth. Tom Udall, the senior Democratic senator from New Mexico, said, I made a mistake. I started having second thoughts shortly after he stepped down. He had the right to be heard by an independent investigative body. Ive heard from people around my state, and around the country, saying that they think he got railroaded. It doesnt seem fair. Im a lawyer. I really believe in due process.
Former Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, who watched the drama unfold from retirement, told me, Its terrible what happened to him. It was unfair. It took the legs out from under him. He was a very fine senator. Many voters have also protested Frankens decision. A Change.org petition urging Franken to retract his resignation received more than seventy-five thousand signatures. It declared, Theres a difference between abuse and a mistake.
<snip>
LakeArenal
(28,713 posts)Al is/was a threat to their political ambitions.
They hoped Al would be a forgotten man by election time.
Ego made them succumb to a rw plot. Now ego prevents them from owning it.
monmouth4
(9,664 posts)again and would not be surprised if he won.
rawhideal
(51 posts)Me too