I have to wonder what the vetting process for Democratic male Sen/Pres candidates will include now

[ehrnst]

It used to be smoking marijuana was a deal breaker. Not any more, thank goodness. We would be excluding a majority of those who went to college.

How do you vet for harassment? Especially when someone doesn't consider what they did in a social situation harassment?

I have to wonder if Franken's past in comedy was a reason that he would not consider a run for president. Having worked in comedy, I can tell you it's, for the most part a sexist boy's club, and rife with behavior towards women that are dealbreakers as things stand now.

I think that we can pretty much exclude any man that comes from a film or theater background. Too much in the way of the sheer number of women that they have worked with in close quarters. Too much to check out.

Do we ask if a potential candidate attended any fraternity parties? Was he in a fraternity? We know how harassment of women is endemic there. Do we contact his college classmates?

We'll need to contact every HR person of every workplace they were in to determine if there was a complaint.

Do we set a number of years that have passed since any possible harrassment incidences?

Of course this standard will not be applied to GOP Senate candidates, and so they will have a wider pool.

Because you know that the GOP will now do this vetting of our candidates for this information once they run for office if we don't, and they may wait until after they win the election to come forward with it.

We have to determine what is and is not 'zero tolerance,' before they do this to us. If we are going risk political death for our principles, we have to be sure that those principles are measurable.

I am grateful for the outpouring of support for the women coming forward. As with any major push forward, there is the equal force of backlash.

The GOP is going to make sure that we, not they, suffer from that backlash.

I have to trust that the Democratic Senators that are calling for Franken's resignation have an endgame to direct the damage back to the GOP.

[tapermaker]

1. Any man with a penis will be unworthy

If you have made a pass in your life. Forgetaboutit. From here on out the only way a man gets on the ticket is if he is a transgender,and I don't mean Chaz Bono. How ,in this environment, where any women has only to mention he tried to kiss me once ,and half the Senate drags out the pitch forks, does any man serve ever again as a Democrat. It's up to the females now .you have successfully demasculated and neutered the male Democrat to the point where he is nothing but an empty husk.

[mythology]

2. This is hyperbolic

Franken wasn't accused by one woman. He was accused by 8. By the accusations he has a history of inappropriate behavior. Sexual harassment is rarely a one time event.

But also polls have shown the larger public doesn't think the political parties have handled sexual harassment and/or assault well.

I'm a male and I have no concerns of somebody accusing me of this. I know to keep my hands to myself. I no more worry about being accused of sexual harassment than I do of being accused of rape.

[tapermaker]

3. I think your a little nieve

If you had the pull in the Senate franken had ,the ratfuckers would come out of the woodwork with however many damaged repub women were needed to effect your downfall from here on out. How many holiday parties have you attended , political functions, get aways ? you going to call these fine ladies liers?. There is no way to win these arguments .doesn't matter if you are innocent when dealing with pedo ratfucking repubs and roll over Dems.

[uponit7771]

5. No its not seeing the allegations of "squeezed my side during a huge" and Roger Stone coached people

... who have taken down a good man.

[BannonsLiver]

6. +1

Men will be "discouraged" from running. I tend to agree, that will be the standard.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

4. I'm fine with Democrats vetting potential candidates more thoroughly.

Change is hard. We can do better.

[Hortensis]

7. The usual adjustment problems, but I think it'll be good.

I am angry every time I hear hostile sexual predators compared to a horndog like Clinton who genuinely likes women and their company, but it would have been better for the nation if Clinton had accepted in college that he could have intimate relationships with many women OR he could be governor and president.

As for the sexual exploiters, predators, and abusers, we need to whip them out of the boardrooms and political offices, and into prison as appropriate.

As for the standard not being applied to GOP candidates, let's HOPE so that it continues as real and blatant as is is now for some time. This is, after all, a division between ideologies that Franken is sacrificing and being sacrificed to identify.

[panader0]

8. Full disclosure of the Akashic Records.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akashic_records

Just ask Dr Strange.....

[OliverQ]

9. As someone who is an actor in theatre, I don't think you can exclude

people in theatre just because there are a lot of women. A huge chunk of the guys in theatre are also gay (although that presents its own issues with getting elected since an openly gay president is probably decades away) and theatre people from my experience aren't the type that treat women like that. A lot sexual stuff goes on among cast members, but it's always consensual as far as I can tell.