Did Me Too get wrong guy? Former staffers say resignation will do more harm than good for women. [View all]

[Amaryllis]

By Alex Thompson Dec 8, 2017

Eight women accused Al Franken of inappropriately touching, groping, or kissing them. For the Democratic leadership in the Senate, it was an open-and-shut case: Franken must go.

But for former Franken staffers — the ones who worked most closely with the Minnesota senator over eight years and two statewide campaigns — he was the wrong target, and his resignation “in the coming weeks” will do more harm than good for the cause of women on Capitol Hill and workplaces across the country.

In interviews with eight former Franken staffers and top campaign aides — most of them women — all of them felt that it was unfair for Franken to become to poster boy for sexual misconduct in Congress and some felt that he shouldn’t have resigned at all. They also applauded his defiant speech on the Senate floor Thursday, for which Franken has been criticized for not directly apologizing to his accusers.

“Many, if not most, offices in Congress are hostile environments for young women, and Franken’s office was not one of them,” said one former female staffer, who declined to be named because she still works in Democratic politics. I am desperate to see change, but this is not the solution.”

She added that she worried Franken’s resignation would make lawmakers feel satisfied that they took action instead of addressing the more systemic problems facing women in Congress. “If that is the case, the end result will be harmful for women, not helpful,” she said.

snip

Franken aides are adamant that their boss was part of the solution in Congress and not the problem, and several described him as among the best bosses to have in Washington as a young woman. “A lot of politicians could learn from the way he treated women in his office,” Emily Mellencamp Smith, Franken’s finance director in his 2014 reelection campaign, told VICE News. “So it’s a really sad day,” she added.

Read the entire article. It's excellent and reflects the thoughts many have expressed here but comes directly from those who know him well.

MOre:
https://news.vice.com/story/frankens-staff-thinks-the-me-too-movement-got-the-wrong-guy?utm_source=vicenewstwitter