Al Franken accused of sexual harassment

[Mr. Morden]

Kirsten Gillibrand reacts:

Seung Min Kim @seungminkim
NEW: Gillibrand tells reporters the allegations against Franken are “deeply concerning,” says she believes the woman who accused him

https://twitter.com/seungminkim/status/931204194605895680

Now this is a stock fake reaction if ive ever seen. He already admitted to doing it lol

He admitted to what he was caught doing in the picture, but has he admitted to anything more than that?  The allegations go beyond the picture.

[Mr. Morden]

Mitch McConnell calls for Ethics Committee probe of Franken

Believe it or not, this effectively acts as a Lifeline for him. The fact that the Republican leader is calling for an Ethics investigation rather than resignation, twitch most, though probably not all, of his caucus will follow suit, it actually gives Franken and out as opposed to resignation. Frankly, he could probably be censured in the next several months in Survive election in three years.

Maybe McConnell is hoping to negotiate a "both sides do it" compromise expulsion of both Franken and Moore, a la the banning of Evergreen and Klartext:

https://uselectionatlas.org/FORUM/index.php?topic=173972.msg5696773#msg5696773

[Mr. Morden]

Klobuchar's statement:

https://www.facebook.com/amyklobuchar/posts/10154741169666191

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[Mr. Morden]

Klobuchar's statement:

https://www.facebook.com/amyklobuchar/posts/10154741169666191

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Hang on. If he's admitted to it, then what exactly is an ethics investigation gonna do? Lol.

I don't think he's admitted to everything that he's accused of.  Just that it was him in that picture, and that's it, as far as I can tell.

That said, I agree that an investigation doesn't accomplish much.  I guess they'll want a statement from Franken on what he remembers of these events, but is there really much more evidence out there beyond what the two parties say happened?

[Mr. Morden]

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Yeah, it is disingenuous to get up and arms about Franken, when Donald Trump is president and Bill Clinton is arguably the most popular ex-president.

The uncomfortable truth is that most Americans really don't care about this sort thing. This sexual harassment thing reminds me of the fallout from the Ray Rice domestic abuse stuff. The country was upset for a little bit and then moved on to be outraged about something else.

We are a country that likes to get mad, but never channel that anger into making changes.

I think Megan McArdle was on the right track in this column:

https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2017-10-18/scandals-like-weinstein-s-won-t-end-sexual-harassment

There's a general consensus about sexual harassment being bad, but way too many people think it's only slightly bad, and not worth raising a big fuss over:

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[Mr. Morden]

^^^ honestly at this point throwing out half of congress is a good thing.

Special elections give us something to talk about here, so I'd be all for one member of Congress resigning every week.

[Mr. Morden]

Doesn't Franken realize that if he doesn't resign, he's probably going to lose in either the primary or the general?

Who says he's planning to run again?  He might just serve out the rest of his term, which ends in 2020.

[Mr. Morden]

Doesn't Franken realize that if he doesn't resign, he's probably going to lose in either the primary or the general?

Who says he's planning to run again?  He might just serve out the rest of his term, which ends in 2020.

A plum job like that with an easy peezy win.........why wouldn't he run again?

He wouldn't run again if he thinks the sexual harassment accusations are going to complicate his reelection.  Whether that is indeed a concern depends on what happens next.

[Mr. Morden]

I don't get how in every other industry anyone accused of this same type of misconduct either gets fired or loses all of the projects they're working on.

I don't think that's true.  If you're not in a position of high visibility, then a company isn't necessarily going to can you on the basis of sexual harassment accusations from private citizens who aren't themselves employees of the company.  The people who *do* get fired for such things are people who are public figures, because the company wants to save face.  Now, Franken *is* a public figure, but he has no direct superior, other than Minnesota voters, who can't fire him until 2020.  Of course, he could get "fired" by his fellow Senators, but that's a political decision rather than an HR decision.

[Mr. Morden]

But after his latest lame statement it's clear he's digging in his heels and not going without being literally dragged out of the building.

I don't think that's clear at all.  I think Franken is testing the waters to see if he can survive this.  If the rest of the party really starts turning the screws on him to leave though, then he may very well quit.  But he's not going to start signalling right now that he's open to quitting, because that would just invite more people to start pushing him out the door.

That's just the way these things work.  Even if you're 50/50 on whether to quit or not, you have to pretend like you're committed to staying, or else you're going to find yourself pushed out the door for sure.

[Mr. Morden]

The Senate could expel him, but for various reasons I'm not sure Democrats want to do that

They should want to. Aside from being, you know, the right thing to do, it would also put Republicans on the spot if Moore wins so that they have to expel him as well.

Don't be naive. Republicans have nothing to lose by not following political norms. If that was true, we wouldn't have Neil Gorsuch on the Supreme Court right now. I could come up with a few more examples if you'd like to debate this point further.

Having a pedophile as a member of their Senate caucus is something a little different PR-wise than breaking procedural norms that no person outside of the Beltway ever cared about to begin with.

I'd also add that unlike with Gorsuch, expelling Moore also costs them nothing in terms of policy, since he'd just be replaced by another Republican.  For that matter, I'm assuming McConnell and probably the entirety of the rest of the Senate GOP caucus would rather have some other Ivey-appointed Republican in that Senate seat over Moore.

[Mr. Morden]

The Senate could expel him, but for various reasons I'm not sure Democrats want to do that

They should want to. Aside from being, you know, the right thing to do, it would also put Republicans on the spot if Moore wins so that they have to expel him as well.

Don't be naive. Republicans have nothing to lose by not following political norms. If that was true, we wouldn't have Neil Gorsuch on the Supreme Court right now. I could come up with a few more examples if you'd like to debate this point further.

Having a pedophile as a member of their Senate caucus is something a little different PR-wise than breaking procedural norms that no person outside of the Beltway ever cared about to begin with.

I'd also add that unlike with Gorsuch, expelling Moore also costs them nothing in terms of policy, since he'd just be replaced by another Republican.  For that matter, I'm assuming McConnell and probably the entirety of the rest of the Senate GOP caucus would rather have some other Ivey-appointed Republican in that Senate seat over Moore.

Bannon goes scorched Earth on the Republicans if they expel Moore. His name will be used as a rallying cry throughout primary season if he is removed because of liberal media smears and establishment backroom calculations.

It depends on what Trump does.  If Trump is going to criticize GOP Senators for dumping Moore, then yeah, they're probably not going to do it.  If they somehow managed to get Trump on board with ousting Moore though, then I think they'd go ahead with it.  Bannon isn't going to be able to whip up any extra outrage against the GOP establishment over this issue.  If they get rid of Moore in January, no one outside of Alabama is going to care about it anymore by the summer.  Roy Blunt or John Thune or whoever is not going to get a primary challenger just because they voted to expel Roy Moore, lol.

[Mr. Morden]

Rubio says the r-word:

http://thehill.com/homenews/senate/361944-rubio-al-franken-should-consider-resigning

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Also:

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