I keep vacillating in my opinion about whether Al Franken should really have been forced to resign. My initial response was that of expediency; nothing must muddy the waters for the Progressive cause. If Al Franken was the sacrificial lamb so be it, false equivalence, be damned. Too quick? A Republican ex-governor may have said it best.
Minnesota Republican ex-governor Arne Carlson’s call for Al Franken rescinding his resignation makes sense and should be taken seriously. The ex-governor wrote the following on his blog.
I am deeply troubled by the resignation of Al Franken and the complete absence of anything resembling due process.
Now reports are surfacing that Leeann Tweeden, Franken’s prime accuser, may have been coached by Roger Stone, a major Trump operator. Since there was no vetting, we only heard her story. But there has been no explanation as to why she attended a USO event in 2009 honoring Franken and was captured on tape joking around with him. This is three years after she claimed to be traumatized by Franken.
She continued in 2011 with a tweet containing a photo of her and Franken together. This is all very troubling. A rush to judgment is, unfortunately, all too human. But a rush to punishment is totally unacceptable. Perhaps this is a time for reconsideration. We now know that the right wing attempted to plant a false accusation with the Washington Post. …
While I am not always in agreement with Senator Al Franken, I firmly believe in due process which is a cornerstone of our democratic way of living. Whenever in history we abandoned it, we severely damaged ourselves. Just think about the lynching of Blacks in the South, the internment of people of Japanese descent in World War II, or the era of McCarthyism when lives were destroyed based solely on allegations.
The simple fact is that Al Franken has been the Senate’s most effective challenge to Trump and his subordinates. The possibility of any rigging by Roger Stone and his associates should cause all of us to call for a rescinding of the Franken resignation and a prompt and thorough review of all allegations by the Senate Ethics Committee.
My bias is to side with women accusers because of the patriarchal society that has so harmed women. But what happens when one’s known bias is used to orchestrate an injustice to mitigate a real injustice (Roy Moore).
MSNBC rushed to judgment when they fired Sam Seder for an orchestrated Right Wing setup over a tweet. They should be commended for reassessing their decision and rehiring Seder. Politically, it may be difficult for Al Franken to rescind his resignation. An upswell, if a strong case is made that he his actions did not cross the threshold, could, however, do it. Women, the aggrieved class are not of one mind. Those of us with a heavy load of testosterone should make sure it is their call.
(h/t RawStory)