The Case of Al Franken
Last month, in Minneapolis, I climbed the stairs of a row house to find Al Franken, Minnesotas disgraced former senator, wandering around in jeans and stocking feet. It was a sunny day, but the shades were mostly drawn. Takeout containers of hummus and carrot sticks were set out on the kitchen table. His wife, Franni Bryson, was stuck in their apartment in Washington, D.C., with a cold, and he had evidently done the best he could to be hospitable. But the place felt like the kind of man cave where someone hides out from the world, which is more or less what Franken has been doing since he resigned, in December, 2017, amid accusations of sexual impropriety.
There had been occasional sightings of him: in Washington, people mentioned having glimpsed him riding the Metro or browsing alone in a bookstore; there was gossip that he had fallen into a depression, and had been seen in a fetal position on a friends couch. But Franken had experienced one of the most abrupt downfalls in recent political memory. He had been perhaps the most recognizable figure in the Senate, in part because hed entered it as a celebrity: a best-selling author and a former writer and performer on Saturday Night Live. Now Franken was just one more face in a gallery of previously powerful men who had been brought down by the #MeToo movement, and whom no one wanted to hear from again. America had ghosted him.
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.
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/07/29/the-case-of-al-franken
wasupaloopa
(4,516 posts)Gillibrand. He is better at grilling the Repubs.
Also I cant stand to listen or look at her.
Dennis Donovan
(18,770 posts)...she wasn't the only one, unfortunately.
question everything
(47,471 posts)joined her.
And none of them "regret it"
From the article
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.
Also, could not believe it:
The next day, Franken gave a short resignation speech. Gillibrand and other Senate colleagues flocked to hug him afterward.
BootinUp
(47,141 posts)His own fellow Dem Senators. Fuck.