OPINION:
How precious is this?
Politico is reporting that many Democrat Senators who called for the resignation of alleged serial groper Al Franken are now having second thoughts over their public preening and virtue signaling:
Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), who issued a statement calling for Franken’s resignation, has since told him privately that he regrets doing so, according to two people familiar with the conversation. Leahy declined to comment.
“I think we acted prematurely, before we had all the facts,” said a third senator who has also called for the resignation, and has since expressed regret directly to Franken. “In retrospect, I think we acted too fast.” The senator asked not to be named because of the political sensitivity of the issue among Democrats.
Two of the senators who issued resignation calls told POLITICO they felt rushed to weigh in, as they were focused on hearings and other meetings and pressure on Franken mounted. In retrospect they said they signed off on statements without the appropriate care and thought.
Fascinating. Leahy and two other senators refuse to go on the record so they can protect their political hides from the wrath of the #MeToo movement but they talk to Politico off the record so as to publicly signal to Franken that he should reconsider his promise to resign “in the coming weeks.”
The political expediency here is rather hard to miss, is it not?
In the throws of the Alabama senate race that put Republican Roy Moore’s past behaviors front and center as a rallying cry for Democrats and establishment Republicans it was convenient and helpful to publicly scream for Franken’s head. After all, if Senate Dems gave Franken a pass while publicly flailing away at Moore, they’d be seen as the pro-Clinton, Kennedy-worshipping, Weinstein money grubbing hypocrites that they are.
But now that Moore is out of the picture, well…. Franken doesn’t really need to go, now does he?
But these spineless Dems are still terrified to go on the record so they whisper to Politico and other friendly reporters to get the word out and float the idea to see if something sticks.
Franken’s office didn’t comment on the article but Politico dutifully regurgitates the story of the Minnesota groper’s attendance at Oklahoma Republican James Lankford’s bible study meeting last week. No word on whether Franken brought Bill Clinton’s super-sized bible to that meeting but since there were no pool reporters to capture the moment, we doubt it.
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