Franken urged to reverse his resignation

[karynnj]

59. I disagree - She has made harrasment on issue for years and it IS an important issue

You can disagree whether Franken was ambushed mostly by his past as a comdien in an era where much of the humor seemed to be more appropriate for 13 year old boys than adults. It was a reason I have found lots of stand up comedy to be not funny and disgusting. The fact is thought - that was accepted by the majority of people in our culture.

I think that photograph - even though no groping was involved at all - was a powerful image for the right to argue that we would selectly protect Democrats, Franken and yes, they brought back Clinton. The accusations that powerful people in entertainment and media were immediately punished (ignoring that most accustations against them were not new - just newly published and, given most involved settlements, they almost certainly were investigated), but in government - nothing happened.

I would have prefered if they immediately could have had an investigation - as Franken asked for. However, before that happened, more complaints came out. The scary thing about the "photo" accusations is that there was no proof and ANY politician takes thousands of those photos. (That become prize possetions of the people with the politician, but likely a rather boring chore for the politician who poses with them .. and then hundreds of other people.) In addition to an investigation, one thing that might have occured based on it is some new standard of what is NOT acceptable.

I am not even sure that we on DU could agree to an objective standard. Obviously, going forward, there should be zero tolerance of any sexually harrasing behaviour in the office and in any official function AND it likely should be spelled out what is not acceptable. The question is what about things that happened in the past. Certainly Ray Moore's behavior was unaccptable. What should have happened if those accounts came out ONLY after he won - even with all his others obvious flaws?

My guess is that what happened with Franken is that unfortunately for him became a distraction. His support in his state fell - meaning he might become extremely vulnerable in 2020 when he ran again -- and ineffective while he continued to deal with repeated stories dropping.