Al Franken’s case shows fair play no longer matters
Remember Al Franken? He used to be a comedian. More recently, he was a leading member of the United States Senate, with an even more promising political future.
In eight years as a Democrat from Minnesota, Franken distinguished himself with principled policies and sharp questioning. He was an outspoken progressive with a national following, who was considered a presidential prospect in 2020.
That ended in December 2017, when he resigned his seat amid accusations of sexual misconduct. The #Metoo movement was in full howl, accusing first and asking later — if it asked at all. Franken was done in by hard conservatives eager to take down a prominent Democrat and soft liberals quick to judgment. The lynch mob ran down Franken and strung him up.
In the era of Donald Trump and Brett Kavanaugh, both credibly accused of sexual assault, Al Franken was a piker among professionals; his sins were not of the same order. But he is out while Trump sits in the White House and Kavanaugh on the United States Supreme Court.
To understand what happened to Al Franken 18 months ago, read Jane Mayer’s provocative 12,000-word piece in The New Yorker.
Mayer wrote the best-selling Dark Money, an investigation into money and influence in politics from conservative corporate interests. She has her sympathies, like any writer, but her reporting is thorough, careful and skeptical.
What Mayer finds is that Franken was undone by his primary accuser, Leeann Tweeden, who said that he had “forced an unwanted kiss” on her in 2006 when they were on tour entertaining American troops overseas. Seven other women subsequently accused him of inappropriate touches or kisses.
For this, Franken was forced out of the Senate — only the fourth member in modern times to resign under threat of expulsion, his predecessors accused or convicted of criminality.
In Franken’s case, there was no investigation by the Senate ethics committee, although he asked for one. Half of his accusers remained anonymous. He apologized twice. There was no due process and no “proportionality of punishment,” as Mayer calls it. He was “railroaded.”
Mayer finds inconsistencies, falsehoods and journalistic malpractice in Franken’s case. She suggests that Tweeden, a right-wing talk-show host and supporter of Trump, had political motives and was supported by conservatives who loathed Franken.
Mayer examines, in forensic detail, the celebrated photograph in which Franken appears to be touching the chest of a sleeping Tweeden (in fatigues and flak jacket) on a military cargo plane. Mayer also looks at the whole context of the accusations of the unwanted kiss and finds it was part of a comedy routine that didn’t bother Tweeden at the time.
The conclusion: Franken was inappropriate, even crude with Tweeden, as he was with the other women. Still, it should not have cost him his seat.
The Democrats, led by the perfervid Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, thought so. Other leading women activists, recalling Franken’s record on women’s rights, were appalled by his pillorying. Seven sitting and former senators now regret their impetuousness. Vermont’s Patrick Leahy calls it “one of the biggest mistakes I’ve made” in 45 years in office, and Heidi Heitkamp wishes she could “take it back.”
But they can’t, and nor can Franken, who now regrets resigning. Yet there is a lesson for Democrats here: In today’s Washington, quaint notions of honour and empathy no longer apply. Conscience and fair play don’t matter anymore.
Trump works that way, and so do the Vichy Republicans. See the scorched-earth playbook of senators Lindsey Graham and Mitch Mcconnell.
Washington’s ethics undid Robert Mueller, a gentleman who naively thought he could defer to the attorney general on points of the law. This poisonous ecosystem sustains Trump, who denies, defames and denigrates with abandon, giving “the bully pulpit” new meaning.
To win next year, the Democrats will have to be as shameless and ruthless as the Republicans (who, let’s remember, felt no remorse about impeaching Bill Clinton in 1998.) Having exiled Al Franken, will the Democrats have the spine to do the same to Donald Trump?