Now Al Franken (US Senator) accused of sexual assault
- Thread starter Phil C. McNasty
- Start date
It's funny but so many people have mocked Pence for his refusal to ever be alone with a woman. He won't work with them unless there is a group of people present, he won't even eat lunch with them. His rationale was that he did not want to be put in a situation that could be misconstrued.
I have to admit that given the current situation that I am witnessing where even a compliment about shoes is being labelled sexual harassment, Pence is looking pretty smart.
As to Franken, well, if he doesn't resign, he has to face his electorate and I suspect he will lose. Too bad, I like the guy.
I have to admit that given the current situation that I am witnessing where even a compliment about shoes is being labelled sexual harassment, Pence is looking pretty smart.
As to Franken, well, if he doesn't resign, he has to face his electorate and I suspect he will lose. Too bad, I like the guy.
I think that could be called the Roy Moore Gambit: 'The voters vindicated me'.
How could Republicans argue against that?
I liked him as well.
He also probably played the whole scandal poorly. If he instead said something along the lines of 'as a comic my job was to push boundaries and make fun of it, I apologize for the attempt at a joke that wasn't funny in the end and for acting in ways that at the time weren't unacceptable but now clearly are,' he might have gained enough sympathies to carry on.
The voters can elect anyone who is eligible to stand for election. They can elect awful, immoral people if they so choose. Senators can be removed through an expulsion process that can be initiated by the Senate. If a Senator is expelled, he/she cannot refuse to leave the Senate on the basis that "the voters vindicated me".
However, that doesn't mean a Senator can be removed from the Senate at the whim of his colleagues. 20 people have been removed from Congress (House + Senate). 17 of them were removed for continuing to support the confederacy after the resolution of the civil war (akin to treason). The only other Senator not among these 17 who was ever removed was found to have committed treason. 2 congressmen were removed for bribery/racketeering. The standard applied is whether the Senator breached "any law, rule, regulation, or other standard of conduct applicable to the conduct of such Member... in the performance of his duties or the discharge of his responsibilities". As a result, to begin with it would have to be established that Moore breached some law, rule, regulation or other standard. There would have to be evidence. To gather that evidence, there would have to be hearings. The findings of those hearings, if not in accordance with legal standards of proof generally applicable under the law, would be subject to challenge in the courts. Then, if he were found to violated some law, that wrongdoing would have to be found to impact upon his responsibilities as a Senator.
It is not clear at all to me, that even if the Senate were capable of finding the criminal charges that have been levied against Moore are substantiated (I think the "moral" charges (i.e. dating girls who were of age but substantially younger than he was) are irrelevant to such a proceeding), that such conduct (in his distant past) renders him unable to serve as a Senator. Compare these charges to the primary historical basis for expulsion - treason. (BTW - this is why I think Franken was prepared to submit himself to an Ethics Committee review. He knows that his conduct doesn't stack up against treason either).
So, the bottom line on Moore is - if the Alabama voters put him in the Senate, he will be difficult to remove (other than by political pressure by his own party).
Nothing would have saved him once the floodgates open.
Watching MSNBC again this morning. Lots of handwringing over this but still calling for his ouster.
He was a rising star. But I think he will resign today.
Given some of the later accusations against him, if anything the above approach would probably have made matters worse for him than they already are. Further, to a certain extent he did try that approach at first, but as the accusations mounted it became less and less tenable.
So if he does resign today.
http://www.centerforpolitics.org/cr...-out-how-wed-rate-a-minnesota-senate-special/
Scheduled to speak on the Senate floor about 11:45 Eastern Time.
http://www.centerforpolitics.org/cr...-out-how-wed-rate-a-minnesota-senate-special/
Scheduled to speak on the Senate floor about 11:45 Eastern Time.
I don’t think either has had to admit guilt so they are not yet at the bubba sleaze level. No one who supported bubba should have cause to cast a stone....
Interesting. Are you saying that you disbelieve all of Roy Moore's accusers? And that Trump never did what he bragged about (and what more than a dozen women said he did)?
PS: I have no love for Franken. But it seems to me that moral issues should not be a matter of party affiliation.
Doesn’t really matter what I believe, Democrats were quite happy to support Clinton when it served their political interests.
http://ww4.hdnux.com/photos/45/32/40/9807923/39/square_gallery_thumb.jpg
