General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: There is only one argument in support of Franken [View all]karynnj
(59,503 posts)Even if every other Senator advised him publicly or privately to resign, he does not have to. If he stays, there will be an ethics investigation.
If all charges were totally fictitious - with no part true, then he should say so and ask his peers to suspend their calls until both he and the accusers could be heard. What if his behavior was in a grey area - where he did not think it unacceptable, but at least some women who were around him feel they were mistreated? That seemed to be the underlying meme of his apology after the first accuser.
Oddly, we end up in a lower level version of the"Is this high crimes and misdemeanors" - that could be "is this behavior that is dysfunctional enough that he should not be allowed to continue being in the Senate seat that Minnesota put him in?" This is NOT the first time the Senate has had to consider this -- Senator Packwood was forced to resign in 1995. (https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/why-politicians-got-away-with-sexual-misconduct-for-so-long/2017/11/10/4bb1ecc6-c4d8-11e7-aae0-cb18a8c29c65_story.html?utm_term=.e6da68e898d9) Note that the allegations against Packwood were far more serious.