I dont know, no person on this site more supported him when this happened, but he became a target of people who dont value justice, patriotism or the truth.

There was no limit to what they were going to do once they got their teeth into him.

He got tooooo popular. They couldn't shine with him there.

And look. They're still not shining. If you don't have it, you don't have it, kids. You are not leaders. They ate their own to try to get ahead.

That was just a small group, and some go-alongs. Most did not. But when the leader jumped on board, that was all she wrote.

They thought he was ambitious.

They saw him as competition.

They were so wrong.

He was just a patriot following in the footsteps of his friend, Paul Wellstone.

articulate, likable, asks good questions, has a good voice, and goes after a fact like a bulldog.

I wish he could come back.

He’s good enough, he’s smart enough and , doggone people like him.

I hope Gillbrand doesn't get the nomination. After that whole thing, I am not a fan. I didn't really like her all that much before, very nondescript, kind of boring. Now I don't like her at all.

I have to agree with that. I am not a big fan of Gillibrand. She was also not very good to the Clintons. Without theirhelp she would probably not be in the Senate to begin with. I understand principles over loyalty, but I feel that her actions were more political self-serving.

I think it was more about political appearance than conviction.

in either public or private (other than the ones on the Ethics committee who said nothing and Menendez, who was under federal ethics investigation at the time himself) was Joe Manchin. All the rest turned on him in some form or another. Some waited until the very end to sink the knives in.

https://upload.democraticunderground.com/100210256586#post84

Fascinating.
Manchin knows how to fight.

human.

[img][/img]

that did him in.

Rather than call them out as lies, he apologized. A tactical mistake that made him a political liability.

to.

NONE of it was credible intel that he did ANYTHING wrong, but it could have been a long list of other liars they knew were about to come out, or not, I am just guessing.

Al would not lay down for no reason. The most disgusting human beings ALIVE came after him, ON THE RIGHT, and they were Never going to stop like they NEVER stopped with Bill Clinton until he was impeached.

Al Franken is one of the greatest patriots and feminists of our time.

NONE of this has to do with his guilt, he did NOTHING wrong, NOTHING.

The pic is actually NOT wrong given the time and context, but he apologized anyway.

I am talking about the right and the way they lie, he must have known more lies were coming.

He should have fought back and called them out as lies. Apologizing made him look guilty and that made him a political liability.

1. Al Franken did nothing wrong, period (I am in this group) but was forced by political shitstorm to resign

2. Al Franken was guilty (not many here believe this but there are some)

3. Al Franken was innocent but it is HIS fault he is out of politics for not fighting back

or wait, I said 3, there are

4. It is ALL the democratic party's fault (that one really infuriates me)


I cant keep track of who is in what group...What I CAN tell you is the idea that this shitstorm would be made WORSE by democrats blaming DEMOCRATS?

And the number 4s infuriate me too.

For many, especially the number 4s. There seems to be a canonization of Franken as if he were the most outspoken, most effective, most liberal democrat in congress. If you look into the record, he wasn't. There are far more liberal and effective senators. He wasn't even the most anti-Trump senator based on his voting record. Yet Franken is being held up as some icon. It is a bit cult of personality-ish.

He did not seem to be fearful of questioning everything since he was well founded in his knowledge.
The ‘cult’ just really misses a senator who was not afraid to ask the hard questions nor worry that they had to answer to whoever paid them.
I still miss him and think the lack of his presence is a loss for America.

and members of Congress. He wasn’t the only one. Acting as if he was is cult of personality.

He made bad choices with his conduct.

It’s Mueller Time!!

What was he thinking when he grilled Sessions like that? Dark day, wasn't it, mythology?

Did it?

He was railroaded, and his Democratic peers should be ashamed that they contributed to that railroading.

Took too much attention from those who think they should be.

This is one time Dems we’re dead wrong. They jumped the gun. It was a Right Wing hack job.

allegations from the right wing.

So no, it wasn't his own fault.

The only video I saw was showing his primary accuser rubbing her bum against one of the performers at the USO Show—ON STAGE—where Al was accused of groping her.

There was ONE picture where he jokingly pretended he was touching Leanne Tweeden's breasts while she was asleep. He wasn't actually touching them. That picture was taken with her phone and was likely just a prank. He was on a USO tour with her performing skits that were all about sexual innuendo. There's pictures of her grabbing another guy's ass on that same tour.

That's it. There are no pictures that confirm what the other women said afterward, who claimed that he touched them while taking photos with them. In fact, in the photos that were released with Franken and those women, you could see that he WASN'T touching them inappropriately.

Nothing. He was mugging and clowning for the cameras, in most cases in front of a group of people who were in on the joke. A fucking hit job, plain as day. By craven right wing pricks and operatives.

Not nearly the way it was made out to be. And what happened to investigations?

Remember the old suggestion from wise parents "Don't do anything that you would not want to read in the papers".

It was a Roger Stone/Sean Hannity hit job. A suggestion would be to read up on the background of LeAnn Tweeden!

Shall we arrest Mike Myers for playing Dr. Evil?

He embodied and often exceeded what we expect from our representatives.

He was railroaded, the initial accuser was clearly lying, but since when did the fact that he did nothing wrong, NOTHING, since when does that matter?

OK, posing for the pic was wrong, compared to what rump and moore are accused of and we know they are guilty of it is like a gopher mound in your back yard vs the Rocly Mountains.

ACCEPTED his apology and said on TV that she did NOT want him to resign.

and the Democratic Party. I look forward to Democratic voters doing huge damage to the redumbliCON party in November 2018.

We win if we vote. Because WE have the biggest numbers of voters.

He would have destroyed Zuckerberg with a few, pointed and funny questions.

I hate that he got thrown under the bus. He is the one that got Sessions. I miss my Senator so much.

I fear the elections coming up in November for Minnesota. Holy mother of God, Tim Pawlenty wants to run for governor again as he apparently didn't do enough damage the first time around. Sadly, there are people in Minnesota that will vote for him.

Too bad he got railroaded without due process.

No...I have not forgotten, and will not forget. What happened to Al Franken was sickening.

NOT!

Still such a loss for our party. There has been no one to take his place. NO ONE.

I wish Al Franken were still in there fighting for us. He is a brilliant man and I saw him several times interviewing and I thought he would make a good president and then he was gone for no reason. I really believe someone else could see his skills and that is why they wanted him gone because they have presidential ambitions.

Never!

That'll show 'em. And he might be the best person for the job, too.

🤣❤️🎵🎶

Just plain yes!

His name on a ballot.................

If he were still in the Senate, he'd still be the story. It sucks, but there it is.

Great strategy.

And it became more clear as time went on.

They should have asked questions in order of knowledge pertaining to the Internet. Everyone else should've gone back to the bar.

I am a New Yorker and Kirsten Gillibrand is one of my U.S. Senators. I think was she did to Franken was atrocious. She led the charge to oust him to burnish her political credentials as a zero-tolerance for sex misconduct politician. Not based on any real evidence, but just the appearance of impropriety. What Franken did clowning around in that picture was poor taste and bad judgment, but it was not a real crime or real abuse.

I also believe in zero-tolerance for any such behavior that is real misconduct, but I also believe in Due Process. Franken was given no Due Process. He was smeared and tried in the court of public opinion, and had no real opportunity to defend himself. To equate him with real Abusers is a terrible thing, a false accusation. Such false accusations diminish the cause of fighting real abuse and misconduct. So, I am not too happy with my Senator on this matter.

I hope that Franken comes back in some form, maybe back to politics and comedy. He should maybe get a Radio Show like his old days on Air America. He is a good American, a talented comedian, and is politically astute. I wish him well.

One of the stupidest moves ever.

…..all the time. Would be such a help to all Democrats just to have him there.

Facebook needs to be regulated. Time and again they've shown they won't self-regulate and they never voluntarily will.

I remain pissed at those who turned on him. And no I will not move on!

But then I wish he was there every day.

Still missing him. Never going to stop. Come back in a new incarnation, Al!

wondering what he would have said to mr. fb, what he would have asked.

i'm still pissed off that my two senators (durbin & duckworth) jumped on that fucking bandwagon. that was the day i pushed durbin off the pedestal.

Forcing him out was a disservice to the country.

Sherrod Brown know how I felt.

He tried to pacify me with the sexual harassment bit. I made it clear it was a hack job led by Roger Stone. Leeann was getting a contract from Sinclair. That was her bribe.

Everyone is replaceable, especially politicians.

A friend of mine is also one of Al's best friends, and that is one question I can answer.

The answer is pretty simple, actually. Since none--NONE--of the allegations of sexual harassment had a grain of truth to them, Al Franken didn't take them seriously. By the time Democratic Senators were falling for the BS, thinking "Roy Moore, we gotta be even-handed," he was totally blindsided. After all, he didn't expect his own fellow Democrats to fall for a contrived Republican lie. When the Governor of Minnesota designated his successor before he had even been given a hearing or decided to resign, that's when he decided to throw in the towel.

My disappointment at our Democratic Senators for falling for a series of lies was and still is beyond measure. When confronted with poison, instead of refusing it, they asked for a second helping. I have received numerous appeals for contributions from many of them this election season, and I sent their solicitations back saying I would send then a check as soon as I saw their public apology to Al Franken. Instead, the checks are going to Doctors without Borders, Greenpeace, the American Cancer Society, Planned Parenthood, NRDC, etc., plus some newbies that don't carry the stain (GO BETO!).

That does not mean anyone else has to, though.

They're very adept at stealing defeat from the jaws of victory. Roger Stone successfully exploited the Me Too movement and used it against spineless Democrats who saw surrendering to lies as the easy way out. Note to spineless Democrats: Good things don't come easy.

That was my favorite moment.

Bears notice how easily our party was manipulated, and allowed itself to be. We were suckers.

Well, I assume we cant place the blame on any other democrat, or we will be scolded by the DU admin, but does anyone truly not blame Kirsten Gillibrand for her reckless attack on Frankin?

I don't blame all Democrats. I blame Gillibrand. We can't trash Dems, or the Dem Party in general. But we're allowed to voice an opinion as to who we hold responsible for a particular action that ended in harm for another Democrat.

wasn't there.

That would be the overwhelming topic of the day, dominating everything else. Donald Trump would barely earn a mention.

Can you believe the Democratic party still has Al Franken representing it in the senate? What a disgrace.

That would be on the lips of Americans everywhere.

I still can't believe that was allowed to happen. It's the reason you never overreact to today, or to details. Cherish the big picture and Al Franken would be asking those questions on senate panels for a long time.

Unfortunately the vast majority of Americans don't think that way. It's a race to overreact to the most recent thing on the table.

Hey, I can overreact more than you can overreact. Get your act together.

Nobody even fully understands what he did so wrong except being so popular & good at his job representing us all.
What was deemed "sexual harassment" by our "democratic" Senators was painful and retraumatizing to all who have actually suffered real abuse.

But more than wishing for that I wish he were still a Senator period. It’s a disgrace how the Democratic Party treated him.

...I'd love to see him question Mike Pompeo!