Well, for some of us. I guess there are those who are cheering that Senator Al Franken is in trouble today…
A woman said Thursday that Minnesota Democratic Sen. Al Franken groped her and kissed her without her consent in 2006 while she was on a USO Tour overseas.
That he did this doesn't seem to be in dispute — there's a photo, after all — and he has issued a couple of apologies and asked to have a proper ethics investigation which was probably going to happen even if he hadn't asked for one. The woman in question, talk radio host Leeann Tweeden, seems to have accepted his apology and she said, "I'm not calling on him to step down" but that her opinion may change if other women come forward with similar allegations. How she feels will not matter to some.
I assume that if other women turned up with other credible accusations, Franken would certainly have to step down. If it's just this one, some people will still call for it but he might survive. Most of us can buy the idea that someone could do a really creepy, inappropriate thing — something well below the seriousness of physical violence — once as a boneheaded mistake. If they do it repeatedly, that's when it becomes indicative of who they are.
If I were Franken, I think I'd cooperate with the ethics investigation and if its findings indicate it's just the one offense but that he should resign, I'd say, "Fine. I'll quit just as soon as you do the ethics investigation of the guy in the White House with far more (and far more serious) accusations against him!" But I bet he won't do that.
If seems like this is an isolated incident, he might still might be out but he'll surely have to quit if a pattern emerges. That's when a lot of people will be saying, "What a sad ending to the Al Franken Decade." No matter what happens, I'm really disappointed in the man.