OPINION:
Sen. Al Franken, who was just outed on a photograph wearing a big smile and groping the chest of a journalist while she slept, is now facing growing calls — many, from within his own liberal-minded ranks — to resign.
This, as Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Minority Leader Charles Schumer both agreed to put Franken before the ethics committee fires for review.
His days are numbered.
It’s not often Republicans and Democrats agree. Apparently, Franken’s burned enough bridges on Capitol Hilly and in Hollywood that he’s proving to be the lamb of the left to take down. Either that, or he’s small fry enough to sacrifice — easy enough for both parties to toss on the fires. How else to describe Bill Clinton and his life of Zero Accountability?
Not saying Franken doesn’t deserve the anger and discipline he’s facing right now. Just saying — where were his critics when Clinton was in the White House?
Anyhow, Franken’s woes began when Leeann Tweeden, a talk radio anchor, decided to tell her story of the good senator from Minnesota, and posted a photo of him taken back in 2006, in which he was grinning and reaching for her breasts. She was asleep in a chair at the time.
Tweeden also detailed during a recent media interview how Franken allegedly shoved his tongue down her throat without consent while they were rehearsing for a skit.
Alyssa Milano, star of the “Charmed” television series, tweeted this: “Zero tolerance. If we don’t hold all accountable for horrible behavior — nothing changes. Sorry, @SenAlFranken you should not be in a position to represent the female constituents in your state.”
She’s hardly alone in that view.
Actor Tom Arnold tweeted, as Breitbart found: “Stop it! I’m a liberal & know both of them & I believe @LeeannTweeden 100%. She’s a great mom & woman. @alfranken needs to own this right now or get out.”
The left-leaning magazine Slate got in the mix, with a piece from writer Mark Joseph Stern that went like this: “There is no rational reason to doubt the truth of Tweeden’s accusations, no legitimate defense of Franken’s actions, and no ambiguity here at all: Franken should resign from the Senate immediately. Democrats should call for him to step down straightaway. This revelation is a test of the Democratic Party’s consistency, honesty and decency.”
And The New York Times said similarly, in its own piece, penned by Michelle Goldberg, headlined simply, “Franken Should Go.”
Some in the Democratic Party are jumping aboard that same train.
“Although many other Democrats have called the former comedian’s actions disturbing, [Minnesota] state auditor Rebecca Otto and Megan Thomas, president of the party’s official Feminist Caucus, say he should leave office,” the Washington Examiner noted.
Franken’s apologized twice. But his days are numbered; count on it. His base has always been the progressive and far-left — the Hollywood liberal class. And now he’s facing an ethics review on Capitol Hill to boot? Smart money’s on Franken stepping aside, and before the end of this year.
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