I want the INVESTIGATION TO START NOW so that the facts come out in the wash, complete with the EXIF data in the camera, just for starters, because that metadata has already revealed two very interesting issues:
1. Photo taken in 2006 but MODIFIED in 2009, on the very EVENING that Norm Coleman FINALLY conceded (after seven months of legal fighting) to allow Franken to take his Senate seat.
2. The picture was PHOTOSHOPPED....by WHOM??
Don't know, because the serial number and owner info of the software was ERASED, how very interesting!
The fact that Ms. Tweeden suddenly remembered how horrifying an experience working with Al Franken was – the fact that the already-disgraced Roger Stone tweeted that it was “Franken’s turn in the barrel” BEFORE Ms. Tweeden came forward with her accusations, the fact that whataboutism is the ONLY defense Republicans can come up with to dispute Roy Moore’s pedophilia is as obvious as it is despicable.
Senator Franken’s actions in terms of women’s rights speak for themselves.
Democrats are buying into that false equivalence being played by the Republicans – and they really should know better.
In the meantime, the Republicans are laughing their asses off at Democrats who think (wrongfully so) that if we “sacrifice” one of our own on the altar of tit-for-tat, we come across as “fair and balanced”.
I stand with Senator Franken on the basis of what he has done, and continues to do, to further the rights of American women, and his willingness to stand with us when it counts.
But you know what? I don't even harbor much ill will toward Leanne Tweeden.
Sure, she just got picked up by Sinclair, sure she contributes on Hannity, yeah yeah yeah I get it.
Sure, I believe she had misgivings about Al Franken, maybe she's even genuine about her beef.
But I actually think she just wanted to pipe up and say "me too" because she felt she had a story. THEN, Roger Stone and Bannon got wind of it and it's almost as if it's out of her hands now and she's not quite sure if she thinks it was a good idea after all, because a lot of it doesn't quite match up.
All I am saying is, although Al Franken is guilty of having acted a bit like a pig dog on one occasion, maybe two, he's not a serial abuser or predator, and we must retain the ability to judge unlike things and underscore the difference between a clumsy man move and outright sexual harassment.
Every grown man on Earth is probably guilty of making a move on a girl that might have been over the top. Most of us get a drink tossed in our face, or an elbow, or we get a kick in the balls or something, or at the very least, we get told "NO WAY" and we lick our wounds and move on.
Once in a while we can't comprehend the notion that we misjudged, or we're careless, but on the whole we're not intending to hurt anyone and we'd be sorry if that was the case.
Al is guilty of behaving like a pig that day? Yeah most likely.
That's not the same as being a serial predator any more than a single unpaid parking ticket would be the same as a DUI enhanced multiple vehicular homicide with felony police evasion during a high speed pursuit.
I can almost compare Ms. Tweeden's situation with the current slaughter taking place on the tax issue in Congress. Sure, Americans wanted their taxes reduced, and Republicans are only too happy to oblige and so Americans awoke this morning to find that the House passed their tax bill, so yippee, hooray...only a moment later Americans also found out that the same bill also eliminates the deductions for medical expenses and student loan interest.
Suddenly those same Americans feel like they've been duped, okey-doked by some weasels who silently inserted a knife in their gut when they weren't looking.
If we assume that Ms. Tweeden felt odd during the skit, and then later thought about it and was angry, that's fine, and I have no problem believing her complaint was valid. Suddenly the next morning she finds out that the entire Republican party, along with Mssrs. Stone and Bannon, are running with this as a full tilt political gambit to unseat a member of the Senate and she is their heroine and martyr, and the phone is ringing off the hook. She has to get an agent to handle the flood of calls and interview requests. She is being asked to press the issue and appear alongside people who want everything from the destruction of Al Franken to the exoneration of Roy Moore and everything in between.
Has Ms. Tweeden been asked for her opinion of Roy Moore yet?
Fair question, because I do not recall her offering one as yet, has she?
Is it possible that Ms. Tweeden, while harboring her own rather normal political ambitions, might just feel like she's been dragged head first into something she did not sign up for and something which she doesn't know how to extricate herself from without damaging her own career irrevocably?
And in the end, if there ARE any improprieties or false circumstances involved, I can guarantee you that they will all come out during an investigation.
That's both good and bad because more than likely Al Franken might just come out of it not only smelling like a rose, but the Republicans will have been made first class fools of by him in the process.
They can forget any future attempts to topple him via sexual innuendo if he ever decides to seek higher office, they will have shot their proverbial wad on this power play, and instead of getting the money shot, the door has swung open and it is THEY who are seated, prick in hand, firing salvos at the naked light bulb overhead (with thanks to Philip Roth)
But in the end that doesn't change the possibility that Ms. Tweeden's complaint might still have had some validity but none of that will matter anymore because in the scuffle, Ms. Tweeden will have become just another Republican casualty, a mere bit of collateral damage, another victim of standing too close to the rotational air output device while Roger Stone's fecal matter was being heaved ho.
And we will have made little or no progress in the most important issue of this whole messy affair, that of emphasizing the importance of respecting women's possession of their own body and their own dignity.
Because I guarantee you, for Republicans, that doesn't mean shee-it.
The only thing that matters to them is destroying Al Franken, and they will gladly sacrifice Leanne Tweeden in the process if they have to.
By the way, when did we start equating angrily pursuing a radio host on an argument that occurred on Bill Maher with "sexual harassment". Send me some more women who are accusing Al Franken of SEXUAL HARASSMENT and stop muddying the waters and changing the subject.
Melanie Morgan is not a sexual harassment victim of Al Franken.
Where are the legions of Franken acccusers?
Well? Where are they? Methinks the SELL BY DATE on that has passed, and Ms. Tweeden has already forgiven the man and does not wish to see him unseated.
Meanwhile way too many people feel that they have the right and the invitation to feel more offended than the actual victim.
You don't.
PS: You watch, in six months, a Rightie won't be able to GET VOTES unless he has a sexual harassment story in his past.
They will actually manage to FLIP the whole thing, bet me any amount of money:
"Why sure he sexually harassed some girls!"
"He's a real man"
"Not one of them LIBERAL faggots!"
You watch and see, I give it six months.
Having a sexual harassment history will become an actual Republican SELLING POINT for a candidate in the very near future...like 2018.