Figuring the Future of Sen Franken.

For John, BLUF:  Maybe they will throw Bill Clinton to the wolves to spare Senator Al Franken.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Democrats Missed A Chance To Draw A Line In The Sand On Sexual Misconduct

Nate Silver, from the FiveThirtyEight Blog, 16 November 2017.

Here is the lede:

At about 11:15 this morning, an hour or so after Leeann Tweeden published an allegation that Democratic Sen. Al Franken of Minnesota had groped and kissed her without her consent in 2006, I assumed that Franken was headed toward resignation.  I didn’t necessarily expect Franken to resign immediately or without putting up a fight.  But barring some highly exculpatory evidence, I expected Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and other prominent Democrats to be pushing Franken out the door.

I would go with Mr Silver here, for the reason stated below:

In other words, I thought the Democrats had an opportunity to maintain the moral high ground without having to pay a political price for it.  They could keep the pressure up on Moore, who has put Republicans in a no-win situation in Alabama.  And they could help to establish a precedent wherein severe instances of sexual harassment warrant resignation.  In the long run, that might create more of a problem for Republicans than for Democrats, because the overwhelming majority of sexual harassment is conducted by men, and there are 265 Republican men in Congress compared with 164 Democratic onEs.

Bou, the women in Mr Silver's office didn't see it that way.

Maybe they would rather have a reliable progressive voter, who they have to slap away from time to time, than some Republican, no matter how clean his record.  It is an "economic" choice, with some things prioritized higher than others.

Regards  —  Cliff