Althouse on Franken

For John, BLUF:  Ah, the politics of this thing are making it worse.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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"What they did to Al was atrocious, the Democrats.... The most hypocritical thing I’ve ever seen done to a human being..."

"I am still furious that Franken was railroaded into resigning by Schumer, Gillibrand, et al. He was not given a chance to defend himself..."

Both posts are from Blogger and Law Professor Emeritus Ann Althouse.

This is Professor Althouse in the first post:

Said Senator Joe Manchin, arguing that Al Franken should not follow through with his announced resignation.

Manchin was not one of the Senators who called for Franken's resignation, but Patrick Leahy was, and he's now saying he regrets it: "I think we acted prematurely, before we had all the facts... In retrospect, I think we acted too fast." Oh, bullshit. The whole point was acting fast, and you knew you were acting fast. It's not something you're figuring out later.

I'm calling for Leahy's resignation for acting precipitously, as he now admits, and for lying now and saying he's only noticing the excessive speed "in retrospect." I think the fast action was done to affect the Alabama election. What a sorry business!

Professor Althouse was moved to go back at it again based on a Washington Post article, "Could Al Franken un-resign? Sure."

I've already posted today on the topic of the potential for Franken to "un-resign." He'd always only said he would resign in the coming weeks, so I presume it would be procedurally easy to decline to follow through on his earlier statement. What I'm putting up this post to discuss is the political future of Kirsten Gillibrand, who I think wants to run for President. She chose to elevate her profile over the Franken scandal and she succeeded dramatically — getting an "avalanche of Democratic senators" to join her in calling for Franken's resignation, which seemed to force him into abruptly acceding to her imperious demand.

If Franken turns around and says he won't resign, he will be talking about fairness, due process, and evidence-based judgment. Whatever he says will be critical of the way power was exercised under the leadership of Kirsten Gillibrand. This is her signature issue, and she made a grand show of flexing her muscle, and her fellow Democrats behaved as if she were their leader on this issue. If what they did is portrayed as ill-considered and rash, Gillibrand looks like someone who should not be trusted with great power.

If Democrats care about the future of Kirsten Gillibrand, they need Franken to shut up and go away.

Hat tip to Ann Althouse.

Regards  —  Cliff