Just breaking, Al Franken’s office has announced that his previously announced resignation will be effective January 2, 2018.
The snowball started rolling downhill for Franken when he was accused of groping and non-consensually tongue-kissing a woman on USO tour, as detailed in our post News Anchor accuses Al Franken of non-consensual kissing, groping in 2006.
The photo of the grope went viral, and will be the lasting image of Franken.
With the accusations against Roy Moore in the Alabama special election, and the old allegations against Donald Trump, this was really inconvenient timing for Democrats. That it came on the heels of the evidence of pervasive sexual harassment and assault in the liberal entertainment industry, Democrat politicians were caught between loyalty to a fellow progressive and their War on Women attacks on Republicans.
The initial reactions from Democrats and the media was to try to excuse Franken’s conduct, Democrats, Media: Franken Made a “Mistake,” We Need Him in the Senate. Women who worked with Franken at Saturday Night Live defended him.
Female Democrat like Elizabeth Warren and Kirsten Gillibrand were evasive as to whether he should resign.
But then additional accusers stepped forward
When John Conyers in the House was pressured to resign because of sexual harassment allegation, Democrats were accused by Congressional Black Caucus members of a double standard for demanding that the black Conyers resign, but not the white Franken.
Franken initially refused to resign.
Female Democrat Senators, led by Gillibrand, finally decided that Franken needed to be thrown overboard for the more pressing need of trying to defeat Roy Moore and ultimately going after Trump. Once Gillibrand broke the dam, the demands for Franken to resign flowed so quickly that in a day over 30 Democrat Senators joined the call for Franken to resign. There was no principle there, many of the resignation demands came only after word got out that Franken was going to resign anyway.
Then the deed was done. In a speech on the Senate floor on December 7, 2016, that was bitter in its tone, and non-apologetic, Franken announced that he would resign at some unspecified future date. Progressive supporters of Franken were furious at how he was treated.
When Roy Moore lost in Alabama, the regrets at how Franken was treated grew. But when the Governor of Minnesota named a female replacement for Franken just after the Moore election, there was no turning back for Franken. If he had thought he might unresign, it became impossible.
Nonetheless, the regrets have grown in recent days, as as Four Democrat Senators Ask Franken to Reconsider Resignation.
But it was too little too late. Franken is leaving. The bitterness in the Democrat Party lingers. They sacrificed a progressive leader for a greater goal, getting Donald Trump.
We’ll see how that works out.
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