Al Franken stepped up and took it like a man.

[pat_k]

7. As Ms. Tweeden appears to acknowledge,

... the general atmosphere of a USO tour probably didn't help matters ("the skits were full of sexual innuendo geared toward a young, male audience..." )

The photo puts a black spot on Franken's image. There is nothing he can say to erase that. He is clearly disgusted with himself, and said so. All he can do is continue to live his life with integrity and demonstrate that he is reformed and acquired a real understanding of how destructive such conduct is.

We've had plenty of people in office who have "reformed" themselves on one front or another -- the many reformed racists (or supposedly reformed) are the first that come to mind.

If anyone who was a complete ass about something at some point in their lives were barred from Congress, I think we would have an awful lot of empty seats in the House and Senate.