Quote:
Originally Posted by ThurgreedMarshall
I feel like you like her, so, at best, you are refusing to listen to what I am saying and, at worst, are intentionally mischaracterizing it.
I am not blaming her. She is welcome to her opinion. She wasn't the only one pushing. I think there was a better way to handle it than to say, "There are multiple accusations of something that falls into the sexual harassment category, off with his head!" Take a fucking breath. Conduct a hearing/investigation, let him defend himself and then make a collective determination on whether he should keep his head.
If you don't think Gillibrand seized on this, at least partially, as a political opportunity for herself, you're not being honest with yourself.
TM
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The idea of seizing something for political opportunity suggests that she is somehow insincere; I don't think that's right. You may disagree with her, you may diminish her arguments (I don't), but do you really this is not an issue she cares deeply about? She's been in the fray on every sexual assault issue in front of the Senate (the debates between her an Claire McCaskel on some of these issues are worth paying attention to). One of my friends has done a couple documentaries on rape in the military and on campus, and Gilli was very helpful on them, including in opening up doors to get them access.
Look, Franken clearly engaged in bad behavior, he's admitted it and apologized for it. There were also a lot (and I mean a lot) of allegations he didn't admit to but generally indicated he didn't remember. They were coming out in a consistent stream, and his attorney was trying to dismiss them because he was acting like an "entertainer" instead of a politician (should we start talking Harvey Weinstein and whats acceptable in entertainment here?)
If he had stuck around for the investigation, I suspect the incidents would have kept coming for a while. People started to cry "enough", and Gilli was definitely at the lead of those within the Senate, but I suspect Franken also realized that resigning was the way to get it to stop and retain some dignity. And its convenient to blame the people calling him on the shit instead of himself for doing all the shit.
I'm fine with giving people some room, but I also think it was clear that Franken was going down and it was a relief that he chose to cut it short.
