About that second accuser . . .

[markpkessinger]

15. The photo in the case of 'Victim 1" does not show Franken groping the woman at all...

... It shows him pretending to grope her. The woman herself has said she has no memory of him groping her, but "realized" it after she saw the photo. But if you look closely at that photo, you can see he wasn't actually touching her. There are shadows cast by his fingers onto her flak jacket that indicate there was space between his hands and the flak jacket. (I asked a friend of mine who is a very accomplished professional photographer what he saw when he looked at the photo; he said he is absolutely certain Franken's hands were not touching her. My photographer friend and I are both gay, btw, so it's not like we're out to protect hetero male privilege!)

Franken's actions in the photo were juvenile, crude, in extremely poor taste and utterly inappropriate, but it was not an assault of any kind. So what we're left with is the alleged kiss, which may or may not have happened and I don't defend it if it did. But the photo, which was presented as a sort of corroboration of the woman's primary allegation, is evidence of nothing other than a case of really poor judgment on Franken's part. tt has no bearing on whether her other allegation is true or not.

Also, my point in noting that Franken was a U.S. Senator was not intended to suggest that a U.S. Senator could never do such a thing; I pointed it out to suggest that as such a high profile person, Franken had a lot to lose were he to be so reckless in his public behavior. I find it difficult to believe he would have wanted to take that risk even if he were inclined to the alleged behavior