Is Al Franken Coming Back To Politics?

Interesting undercurrent here. The world is in love with Volodymyr Zelenzkyy (one y or two?) the comedian who rose to the presidency of Ukraine. Comparisons have been drawn between Zelenskyy and Al Franken. This morning on Twitter radio host Chip Franklin threw out the idea of giving Franken a second chance.

Am I alone, or does Al Franken deserve a second chance?

— Chip Franklin.com (@chipfranklin) March 7, 2022

If you recall Franken’s time in the barrel, he was asked to resign from the U.S. Senate after pictures of him during his days as a comedian surfaced and he was accused of sexual harassment.

Does this look consensual? pic.twitter.com/uV912z5xzL

— Mary Hofmockel (@HofmockelMary) March 7, 2022

That’s pretty much the essence of the dispute, right there. Was Franken doing something as a “gag” which at the time passed muster, or is he, was he, part of a larger cultural trend to degrade women. When Franken resigned many said he was a sacrificial lamb and was railroaded, other people said he deserved it. What everyone seemed to be in agreement on, is that the Senate lost a dedicated and competent member and that’s a shame.

I have this photo still. Al Franken was an SNL comic. All 36 SNL women signed a letter defending Al. He was doing Military entertainment tours. Leeann Tweeden accused Al that he touched her breasts. Al apologized for this joke photo. He was a comic. https://t.co/tKpPCZBYm8 pic.twitter.com/vEMDbq3rhy

— STEVE JET CITY (@stevejetcity) March 7, 2022

This New Yorker article from 2019 is considered the gold standard on this topic, if you missed it.

Only two years ago, Franken was being talked up as a possible challenger to President Donald Trump in 2020. In Senate hearings, Franken had proved himself to be one of the most effective critics of the Trump Administration. His tough questioning of Jeff Sessions, Trump’s nominee for Attorney General, had led Sessions to recuse himself from the investigation into Russian influence in the 2016 election, and prompted the appointment of Robert Mueller as special counsel.

As it turns out, Franken’s only role in the 2020 Presidential campaign has been as a figure of controversy. On June 4th, Pete Buttigieg was widely criticized on social media for saying that he would not have pressured Franken to resign—as had virtually all his Democratic rivals who were then in the Senate—without first learning more about the alleged incidents. At the same time, the Presidential candidacy of Senator Kirsten Gillibrand has been plagued by questions about her role as the first of three dozen Democratic senators to demand Franken’s resignation. Gillibrand has cast herself as a feminist champion of “zero tolerance” toward sexual impropriety, but Democratic donors sympathetic to Franken have stunted her fund-raising and, Gillibrand says, tried to “intimidate” her “into silence.”

Franken’s fall was stunningly swift: he resigned only three weeks after Leeann Tweeden, a conservative talk-radio host, accused him of having forced an unwanted kiss on her during a 2006 U.S.O. tour. Seven more women followed with accusations against Franken; all of them centered on inappropriate touches or kisses. Half the accusers’ names have still not become public. Although both Franken and Tweeden called for an independent investigation into her charges, none took place. This reticence reflects the cultural moment: in an era when women’s accusations of sexual discrimination and harassment are finally being taken seriously, after years of belittlement and dismissal, some see it as offensive to subject accusers to scrutiny. “Believe Women” has become a credo of the #MeToo movement.

At his house, Franken said he understood that, in such an atmosphere, the public might not be eager to hear his grievances. Holding his head in his hands, he said, “I don’t think people who have been sexually assaulted, and those kinds of things, want to hear from people who have been #MeToo’d that they’re victims.” Yet, he added, being on the losing side of the #MeToo movement, which he fervently supports, has led him to spend time thinking about such matters as due process, proportionality of punishment, and the consequences of Internet-fuelled outrage. He told me that his therapist had likened his experience to “what happens when primates are shunned and humiliated by the rest of the other primates.” Their reaction, Franken said, with a mirthless laugh, “is ‘I’m going to die alone in the jungle.’ ”

Maybe not. Maybe he’ll end up going back to the Washington jungle.

Now here’s a piece of irony. Last summer Franken moved back to New York and lives on Manhattan’s Upper West side. That means that if he did want to run for the Senate, he might attempt to primary Kirsten Gillibrand, who was accused of grandstanding at the time for purposes of igniting her own career.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not looking for an internecine Democratic spat here, just observing that it would be an interesting piece of poetic justice. I never believed that Franken should resign when he did and I for one would love to see him back in the Senate.