There’s no real excuse for Al Franken and his behavior; despite what anyone would tell you. But there may be something good out of all of this.
There are Democrats defending Franken and his actions and it’s all met with a huge gleam of their hypocrisy. And We The People can see which Democrats are the worst ones to deal with — any that would defend an admitted harasser/groper.
As reported by AllahPundit for Hot Air:
If they won’t boot Franken and Conyers, we don’t need to boot Moore. If they didn’t take Juanita Broaddrick seriously, we don’t need to take Trump’s accusers seriously. It’s a race to the bottom, enabled by the insinuation that Republicans need only behave as scrupulously as Democrats will allow them to be. If Dems are looking the other way at their bad guys, there’s nothing that requires us to be any better.
Look at Weinstein; look at Bill Cosby. Juanita Broaddrick didn’t go public for years after she was allegedly raped by Bill Clinton. It’ll remain a mystery whether it was Moore’s Senate run that finally caused his accusers to talk to the media, fearing that he was on the verge of winning an unusual amount of power he didn’t deserve, or if it was the newfound credulity with which the public has greeted the accusations against Weinstein, Ailes, Brett Ratner, Bill O’Reilly, and so on, that made them think they’d finally be believed.
The point about how other “icons” are being dispatched in the private sector can’t be emphasized enough. Conyers, Franken, and Moore aren’t examples of public servants or would-be public servants being held to the same low standards as the cretins in Hollywood or the media. They’re being held to a lower standard.
Weinstein was fired from his company and will soon be facing indictment; Louis CK is momentarily unemployable and Kevin Spacey probably permanently so; John Lasseter in on leave from Pixar and might never return; Charlie Rose lost a 40-year career in less than 24 hours. Businesses are dealing with misconduct within their ranks, however belatedly. America’s legislature isn’t. And its voters seem to want it that way for tribal partisan reasons.