Jim Geraghty:
Yesterday I wrote that long-delayed reckonings about the harassment and potential crimes of Bill Clinton and Ted Kennedy are welcome, but they are arriving at a distinctly convenient time for the Democratic party.
Today we’ll see whether Democrats and various voices on the left are willing to confront inappropriate behavior on the part of a Democratic lawmaker in office. As our Theodore Kupfer writes below, KABC radio host Leeann Tweeden says that Senator Al Franken groped and forcibly kissed her on a USO tour in 2006. While most people are likely to respond to the photo, the described behavior deserves its own focus:
He repeated that actors really need to rehearse everything and that we must practice the kiss. I said “OK” so he would stop badgering me.
We did the line leading up to the kiss and then he came at me, put his hand on the back of my head, mashed his lips against mine and aggressively stuck his tongue in my mouth.
I immediately pushed him away with both of my hands against his chest and told him if he ever did that to me again I wouldn’t be so nice about it the next time. I walked away. All I could think about was getting to a bathroom as fast as possible to rinse the taste of him out of my mouth. I felt disgusted and violated.
The statement from the senator is not really much of a denial: “I certainly don’t remember the rehearsal for the skit in the same way, but I send my sincerest apologies to Leeann. As to the photo, it was clearly intended to be funny but wasn’t. I shouldn’t have done it.”
What is the appropriate response or consequence of this kind of gross behavior? Franken can hardly ask that it be dismissed as a youthful indiscretion; he was 55 at the time.
Had all the voters in Minn known he did this, how many votes would it have cost him?
He’s run twice without our knowing this.
So, after years of marriage, Al expects to be forgotten and forgiven by all just because he asks? And stay on in the Senate?
I don’t think so.
Not unless others get the SAME treatment.
Ultimately it’s up to the voters, both in Minn and in Alabama.
But I bet it shuts up the calls for not seating the Judge, if he gets elected.
I don’t believe an instance of unacceptable sexual humor on the part of a former professional comedian during the course of a USO tour is going to weigh in the balance quite as heavily as the repeated predatory behavior of Roy Moore. The incidents won’t be treated the same because they really aren’t the same.
Leeann Tweeden has the posed photograph in question because it was given to her on a photo CD by the person who took it with the knowledge of the clown who posed for it. He might have been behaving like an adolescent jackass, but he wasn’t stalking teenage girls in the local mall. Additionally, he publicly acknowledged the inappropriateness of the stunt and apologized for it the moment it came to light.
On a side note, the groping in question involved an intervening Kevlar flak jacket. Unless Al Franken has a Kevlar flak jacket fetish, we’re not really looking at an incident involving inappropriate sexual gratification. You’d probably have to ask his wife to be certain.
@Greg: I have to agree if he had actually grabbed her she would have woke up and stompped a mudhole into his crude unfunny butt.
@Greg:
Except for this one minor detail: you have photographic evidence of Franken groping the lady while she was asleep while Moore’s accusations are STILL unsubstantiated and falling apart rapidly. Maybe if Moore was reported to be grinning while he committed his alleged actions, laughed and played it as a joke, there would be no response.
No, Greg, here’s the real difference… the ONLY difference. Franken is a Democrat and loud-mouth liberal. So, excuses will be made and, “LOOK! OVER THERE!!! Trump is colluding!!” The left lacks credibility, principle and character.
@Bill… Deplorable Me, #4:
Have you ever worn a Kevlar flak vest? They’re not exactly lingerie. But do go on ahead with the Roy Moore comparisons.
Leeann Tweeden has certainly been known to wear less provocative attire. Which, I suppose, would be the intended humor of Franken’s posed photograph.
Are you actually saying that with a completely straight face? Roy Moore seems to have been stalking post-pubescent girls at the local shopping mall on a regular enough basis that mall security was on the lookout for him.
@Greg:
Have you ever grabbed a woman’s tits while she was asleep and had someone take a picture of it while you were laughing about it? Well, I haven’t.
Ah. So, she deserved it. I get it.
For almost 40 years those poor victims of Moore’s cruelty kept silent… until a couple of weeks before a pivotal election. Of course, there is nothing suspicious about the timing and the Democrat backing. Nothing suspicious about what appears to be forgeries, impossible locations and WaPo instigation. Nothing suspicious about the party that traffics in lies and false accusations screaming to the rafters that, upon the first accusation, Moore should just disappear.
Not everyone is as naive as you would like them to be or the Democrat electorate HAS to be, Greg.
With every single MSM following all this sex stuff this it seems a huge intentional distraction.
@Bill… Deplorable Me, #6:
You somehow seem to be missing the point that it’s impossible to grab anything through a Kevlar flak vest. Tweeden herself acknowledges that this was meant to be a joke. She just didn’t find it at all funny. She has a right to be angry. I don’t find it funny, either. But behaving like an unfunny jackass isn’t the equivalent of Roy Moore’s alleged behavior. People should stop claiming that it is.
@Greg:
You yourself are missing the point; she was a sleeping woman and Franken was groping her. I guess he was doing his Cosby impersonation.
His only defense: claim it wasn’t him, it was Stuart Smalley.
No, you are right; REAL sexual harassment is in no way the equivalent of pretend, fabricated for political purposes, alleged sexual harassment. But you’d like it to be, wouldn’t you?
Franken publicly admitted his inappropriate behavior, apologized to Tweeden for it, and agreed to fully cooperate with an ethics investigation, should the Senate deem it necessary.
Roy Moore claims his accusers are liars, witnesses corroborating their claims are liars, and that the whole thing is a liberal media conspiracy against him—besides which, Mary was an underage woman and Joseph an adult male carpenter, and they produced Jesus. So there. (That last argument being courtesy of Alabama State Auditor Jim Zeigler.)
Trump is right: People will have to make up their own minds.
@Greg:
OMG Hell has frozen over!
@Greg: Well, Franken DID IT.
I think when you have a picture of you grabbing a sleeping woman’s tits, probably the best thing to do is admit it. Even the Democrat media can make THAT go away.
Let me know when you get a picture that actually shows such a thing, because the one of Franken doesn’t.
So, the Alabama Republican party is now the party of child sex abuse:
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/roy-moore-digs-in-boosted-by-top-alabama-republicans/article/2641010
@Greg: Well, yes, it does. YES, it does.
@PhillipMarlowe: You need to understand the difference between real actions and politically motivated false accusations. Ask someone if you need help.