Franken urged to reverse his resignation

[calimary]

99. I was surprised to see this, too.

I don’t ordinarily expect much from a senator like Joe Manchin. But I agree with him here.

Al Franken was a COMEDIAN when that photo was taken. Taken at the end of a freakin’ USO tour full of traveling minstrels, wise-crackers, and a pretty girl or two (or more) when everybody’s sleep-deprived, jet-lagged, and slap-happy forcryingoutloud. His subsequent record both as a radio talker and then an elected official has been STERLING on women’s issues. He’s been given NO due process here, something for which he readily volunteered right away. Isn’t our system of justice supposedly all about “innocent-til-proven-guilty”? He was flatly denied this, ganged up on, and railroaded outta there. (And of course his Senate knife-in-the-back colleagues all gathered ‘round to hug him after that. My, how “sweet”.)

And I’m sorry - but at THIS point in the #MeToo movement when women are finally empowered to come forward with much less fear (and can reveal their identities without fear) to put a human face on this crisis - there are things about the Al Franken accusations that don’t pass the smell test. Including those still-anonymous accusers of his. As I write this, it makes me think of the bold, courageous “Say Her Name!” campaign within the Black Lives Matter movement as it applies to female victims of police brutality.

Add the name Roger Stone in here, too. One need say no more on THAT score.

Plus, Stone’s likely collaborator here, a CON herself, works at a CONservative little AM station with a lousy signal and worse penetration in the market that I’d bet would damn near kill to get attention by now. I’d further suspect that little station, KABC-AM, is one of many in hate radio that’s in the pipeline with fiends like Roger Stone. He gets around, don’t forget. Probably has friends in these low places. And I’m sure they all know each other anyway. I bet they all converge at the GOP state and national conventions, fundraisers and parties, and that they guest on each other’s radio, TV, cable, and internet shows.

And one more thing, too: I’m afraid I have very little sympathy for the complaint “he grabbed my waist” - during a frickin’ PHOTO OP, IN PUBLIC, AT A COUNTY FAIR. For Pete’s Sake, there are women who had the very skin of their vagina touched. Their clothes removed from them. Shoved up against the wall and manhandled AFTER the assailant made sure everyone else had left the room and nobody’d see. Locked into some big-cheese’s office and raped. Walked in on while in various stages of undress. Deliberately fingered and fondled when it was NOT some stupid juvenile comedy bit, and later suffering further public degradation when the offender BRAGS about it to Howard Stern or Billy Bush and pals. Placing “he grabbed my waist” (during a photo op in the open at a county fair) in the same level or magnitude of offense just diminishes and cheapens the serious legitimate complaints of women who really were violated. Violated by ANYONE’S definition.

Sorry for the long rant. I’ve spent a lot of time processing this whole mess, awash in mixed feelings. I’ve come to conclude that I’m unable to disregard the rather overwhelming context here.