FRANKEN FLAP GIVES
Not a moment too soon for Democrats
WASHINGTON — It took long enough. Almost too long.
Minnesota Sen. Al Franken — facing at least seven allegations of groping, attempting to forcibly kiss and engaging in other sexual harassment before and after his election — is reportedly expected to step down from his seat today.
The dam broke yesterday when Senate Democrats, led by Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York and more than a half-dozen other female senators, said enough was enough.
That watershed came not a moment too soon. Democrats were on the cusp of losing whatever moral high ground they claimed to hold on the issue of sexual harassment and other misconduct.
It’s an issue that has so gripped Washington and the nation that the brave women who have broken their silence about their harassers grace Time magazine’s coveted Person of the Year cover.
With President Trump and other Republicans turning a blind eye to tale after horrendous tale of Alabama U.S. Senate hopeful Roy Moore’s alleged conduct, Democrats could have stood up weeks ago to declare the allegations against Franken unacceptable.
Instead, they equivocated, called for nuance, warned against overreaction, and said Franken’s case was best left in the hands of the Ethics Committee.
During the course of my life I’ve been on the receiving end of the kind of conduct Franken’s accusers charge him with. I can attest that the first thought in my mind certainly was not the need for nuance.
Gillibrand, who also initially took a cautious approach to Franken’s allegations, finally got it.
“I think when we start having to talk about the differences between sexual assault and sexual harassment and unwanted groping, you are having the wrong conversation,” Gillibrand said yesterday. “You need to draw a line in the sand and say none of it is okay. None of it is acceptable.”
Every incident of sexual harassment along the continuum of awfulness — from lewd jokes to unsolicited fondling to outright assault — aren’t just individually condemnable. They all serve the common goal of marginalizing women in the workplace, in government and in society.
This reprehensible behavior is both a symptom and a cause of the “Good Ol’ Boys Club” patriarchy that stands as an impediment to women rising to, and keeping, positions of power.
But the Democrats’ tardiness on this issue has cost them already. They looked hypocritical in their condemnation of Moore and hedging on Franken. Their quick call for Michigan U.S. Rep. John Conyers to step down amid his own flurry of accusations, juxtaposed to the footdragging on Franken, drew expected charges of racism.
And given the moment when they said women are to be believed, Democrats certainly until now didn’t look like they were walking their own talk. Hopefully now they’ll be in step.