The Daily 202: Push for Al Franken's resignation shows importance of women in Congress

[DonViejo]

(emphasis exists in the original)

By James Hohmann December 7 at 8:21 AM

THE BIG IDEA: Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) is widely expected to announce his resignation Thursday after more than half of his Democratic colleagues, led by a group of women, called on him to step down. A Democratic official who has spoken to the senator and key aides told Minnesota Public Radio that he will resign, though his office says no final decision has been made.

The willingness of female lawmakers to directly confront their friend, when many men still seemed content to let a Senate Ethics Committee investigation run its natural course, will offer a helpful data point for female candidates to make the case in 2018 that there needs to be more women on Capitol Hill.

-- Franken’s apparent downfall, which comes as President Trump and the Republican National Committee rally behind Roy Moore in Alabama, reflects the degree to which women have more clout in the Democratic Party than the Republican Party. Of the 21 women serving in the Senate, 16 are Democrats and just five are Republicans. Women still account for less than 1 in 5 of the representatives in the House, and there are three times as many Democratic women (62) as Republican women (21).

That differential might help explain why Rep. Blake Farenthold (R-Tex.) has accepted no culpability for an $84,000 taxpayer-funded settlement with a former staffer who alleged that he made inappropriate sexual remarks. He said he will reimburse the Treasury with his own money, but GOP leaders aren’t trying to push him out.

The first House Democrat to call for Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.) to resign criticized her Republican colleagues for this:

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