Strange principle is emerging

[bigtree]

David Axelrod‏ @davidaxelrod 5h5 hours ago

Strange principle is emerging:

If you admit misconduct, you resign. But if you deny it, however compelling or voluminous the testimony against you, you continue in office-or on to office-with impunity?

Link to tweet

[ollie10]

1. You only have to resign if you are a Democrat. Simple

[MANative]

2. This. nt

[budkin]

6. This.

It's the unwritten rule because the GOP is the party of "values."

[democratisphere]

33. "corrupt values"

[FuzzyRabbit]

16. The IOKIYAR rule has been effect for years.

Nothing new about this. In a few days another Democrat will be accused of some wrongdoing and his fellow democrats will force him to resign.

A Republican accused of worse will be supported by the entire Republican party.

[ProfessorPlum]

18. Yeah, really. Axelrod can't find that pattern in the data?

[question everything]

25. And if your line of inquiry brought about the appointment of a special counsel. (nt)

[democratisphere]

32. .......and are forced out by Democrats.

[demmiblue]

3. Who admitted misconduct? n/t

[leftynyc]

20. Sen Franken's apology

was misinterpreted by just about everyone. He said he was sorry the women were remembering the events differently than he did but apologized for them feeling harassed. That was turned into an admission of guilt.

[demmiblue]

31. By now, one would think that that falsehood wouldn't be spread here.

Shoot, even Joy was victim to that and spread the lie. Oy!

[leftynyc]

36. The purity police

are ready to pounce on any Democrat for any reason whatsoever. You'll also notice that many are trashing Gillibrand (as I do) for her tossing Franken to the wolves. Not one word for Bernie Sanders doing the exact same thing and his audience is MUCH larger than Gillibrand.

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

39. Gillibrand is (or was) a presidential contender, Sanders isn't.

[leftynyc]

47. Bullshit

There is evidence all over the place he's thinking of running in 2020.

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

50. Sanders would find no traction in a crowded field

The Democrats are going to have their very own clown car in 2020 with a candidate for every flavor of leftist.

[demmiblue]

45. Here are a few words: I am a Bernie supporter, voted for him in the primary...

and voted for Hillary in the General. I am really, really disappointed that he was part of this. I expected better and I feel let down.

I think Senator Gillibrand is getting most of the flak because she was the flashpoint for all of this (as well as her Clinton comments).

[leftynyc]

48. Thank you

That's a lonely club you're part of but at least you're honest.

[demmiblue]

51. Most people are focused on the core group who caused this shit show.

Bernie et al. (et al. being the other couple dozen of senators) were not part of the initial take down/hit job. I think that is why you are not seeing a lot of discussion about the people who cosigned this farce.

[suffragette]

4. Trump and cronies will be blasting out that Franken would not have resigned if he wasnt guilty

Over and over and over again.

Then they’ll say that they and their buddies NOT resigning shows they aren’t guilty.

[leftynyc]

21. We have people right here

vomiting out the very same thing. Interesting.

[suffragette]

22. Yep. This is straight out of Stone, Rove, etc. bring them down by their strength.

Franken was strong on women’s issues - bring him down with Trumped up harassment charges.

Kerry was a decorated veteran - Swift boat.

ACORN was effective at registering voters - create false situation to entrap them.

Sherrod brought equity to her department - paint her as a racist.

Waters has been a champion for her district and tried to ensure minority owned banks weren’t excluded from bail out - accuse her and husband of doing this to try to profit.

Only it did not work with Waters because she fought back tooth and nail to take the process of trying to force her out from the back room to a public hearing and she was cleared of those phony ethics charges. I remember than that some DUers bought into that one, too and used the same “we have to be better than them” arguments to argue she should leave rather than have hearings.

[leftynyc]

35. Franken was/is a very strong liberal

I can't think of one vote of his I had taken exception to. He was well read, well spoken and a true champion for women and minorities. And he got taken out by his own team. I feel sick about this.

[suffragette]

42. I feel the same. And you just know they're already

Cooking up the next smear campaign. I'm betting it will be about entirely different issue, though again something going after strength of person.

In the meantime, the political calculus some on DU are cheering on in thinking this will reach out to more women voters will not have that effect.

[leftynyc]

44. No, it wont

The only effect it will have is cons crowing "see, even his own team knew he was guilty". Sickening.

[suffragette]

52. Exactly. Also, you have pile on from the women Dems were trying to bring in with the calculus.

Saw an example of that already today by a writer here in liberal Seattle who is the type of voter they think they’lll win over and who had been calling for Franken’s head on a pike.

https://www.thestranger.com/slog/2017/12/07/25616000/i-dont-care-about-democrats-setting-a-good-example

I don't care about shaming "Republicans into being better people." I don't care about "unilateral disarmament" when it comes to sexual harassment and sexual assault. I don't care about "asymmetrical warfare." I don't care about high morality, or norm preservation, or any other term people are using to explain the rationale to get rid of Democrats who sexually humiliate their colleagues and constituents.

When it comes to sexual assault and sexual harassment, there is only one thing I care about: Putting an end to it. That is it. Plain and simple. Nothing more, nothing less.

If liberals consider that goal some sort of performative morality without any political calculus, they clearly do not understand my interests, and I don't want to belong to their political party.

[kcr]

24. Yes! Already seeing it. Could have predicted that.

Forcing him out before an investigation wasn't high minded. It was stupid, stupid, stupid! Oh, god, so stupid I will never get over this.

[flamingdem]

5. The leadership needs to answer for this

now, right now. A wrong has been committed. They had better do something to avoid losing us.

[Kirk Lover]

8. Losing Us??? Where the hell you going?

[flamingdem]

10. Against those who supported his ouster

Hoping for new blood

[lame54]

13. Nowhere else to go...

Is hardly a strong party slogan

Not showing up to the polls is a real consequence

They need to stop slapping themselves on the back and take a peek out of there bubble to see the real damage they are doing and do something about it

[hurple]

14. I say

Let this country die a horrible flaming death!

Turth has died, justice has died, the whole concept of innocent until *proven* guilty just died... the country is in its death throes.

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

40. defeated indifference is a place

[ollie10]

15. Yes, they do need to answer for this

Gillebrand, Warren, Brown, Harris, Sanders....all of them!

They took the easy way out, of course.

It would have been far more honorable, however, to defend one of our best instead of throwing him under the bus

This is all about running for president, however, not helping the party.

[LanternWaste]

27. No. This is all about the harassment and abuse of women at the hands of men

"This is all about running for president..."

No. This is all about the harassment and abuse of women at the hands of men in power. And the sooner we realize that, the sooner we avoid looking like political hacks.

[ollie10]

28. Oh....so you don't believe Gillibrand, Warren, Harris, Brown or Sanders are interested in running?

I respectfully disagree that this is about harassment, since it is quite a stretch to call what Franken was accused of by mostly anonymous sources harassment. It raises issues of due process and railroading. It is disappointing that Franken was railroaded. I think it is naive to believe that political ambitions had nothing to do with this.

[DeadLetterOffice]

34. Thank you.

These threads are making me ill.
So disgusted to see all the people here willing to disparage women's voices when said voices are inconvenient.

[leftynyc]

46. SOME women

Don't pretend we don't stand up for women because I'm questioning some twit who has been friends with donnie junior for years. And the use of anonymous accusations makes me ill. It's fascist.

[enough]

7. Correct, but he's leaving out the basic premise:

If you're a Democrat accused, you resign. If you're a Republican accused, you don't.

Which will lead very soon to the idea that Democrats are the party with a sexual-misconduct problem, while Republicans are not.

It's like what Trump says about Moore: "He denies all of it." And what all the republicans say about Trump: "He denies all of it." It's all they have to do.

[Turn CO Blue]

9. Yep, indicted but denying Bob Menendez still has his seat and wants his chairmanship back too.

But 32 Dem Senators have conveniently not held press conferences going after him to resign. Hmmm.

[eleny]

12. Fighting tooth and nail for oneself - Now there's a lesson in there somewhere

If only Dem leadership would pull its collective head out of its ass it might see it.

[uncletio200]

38. Christie

I assume that’s because Christie is still governor. I wonder if the dems pushing Al Franken out the door would have been so exuberant if Pawlenty was still governor here in Minnesota.

[R B Garr]

11. Quote: with the full support of his party.

I did notice Al’s emphasis on that portion of the sentence, as if he’s disgusted at the stupidity of those who railroaded him. The Republican’s don’t give a crap about ethics. We just got rid of one of their biggest thorns and gave them a huge out on multiple levels. Stupidest thing ever.

Bye, Al. Sorry your party didn’t stick with you. You deserved better.

[kairos12]

17. The Reich Wing motto: Deny till you die.

[bucolic_frolic]

19. Nothing strange about it

It's called privilege

Or at least that's how the GOP sees it

[Perseus]

23. As far as I know, he did not admit misconduct

He has said repeatedly that he remembers it differently than his accusers do.

He has apologized if anything he did caused them any anguish, but has never admitted wrongdoing.

[Irish_Dem]

26. So Dems should just lie like the GOP crime syndicate? nt

[Denzil_DC]

30. Apparently so, if they want to hang onto their seats. n/t

[Irish_Dem]

37. Then there is no daylight between us and the GOP crime family. nt

[Denzil_DC]

41. Well, you asked the question.

Apparently, if Franken had been more aggressive in his denials and gone after his accusers, as is expected, he wouldn't be under the bus.

Enjoy the daylight while it lasts.

[Irish_Dem]

53. If he had done that, he would be under the bus in a different way. nt

[Denzil_DC]

54. Under the bus is under the bus.

Not much daylight down there.

To listen to many here (and some in the Democratic hierarchy) who've condemned him, if he'd been more proactive as outlined above, he'd have survived.

[Irish_Dem]

55. Yes, but under the bus in hell is for a lot longer. nt

[Denzil_DC]

56. Well, if you're going to get all metaphysical, I think there's a long queue at those gates.

Be happy. What you apparently thought should happen did - Franken's going.

Now watch the consequences.

[Irish_Dem]

57. That is not what I thought should happen. It was all managed quite badly. nt

[Denzil_DC]

58. Looking around here, it still IS being! n/t

[Irish_Dem]

59. Yes. nt

[FarCenter]

49. Franken could have admitted & apologized for what he did, disputed what he did not, & kept his seat

There is nothing in what the tabloid press has so far disclosed that would cause him to be expelled from the Senate.

No One Has Been Expelled From The Senate Since The Civil War

https://www.npr.org/2017/11/16/564229931/no-one-has-been-expelled-from-the-senate-since-the-civil-war

Expulsion requires a two-thirds vote of the Senate.

Franken caved unnecessarily.

[lunatica]

29. This is a shameful time for this country.

the country of equal opportunity and human rights. It's nothing more than empty words now.

[debsy]

43. The whole world has gone upside down.

The party in control has absolutely no compunction about lying, cheating, stealing, and letting people die so that they can gain themselves. They are the minority yet their cheating has allowed them to control everything. I'm sure many Germans felt this helpless in the early 30s. The only thing that might work is to stop paying taxes. Let the idiots and billionaires coverall all this opprobrious behavior. We need to organize a tax protest.

[bigtree]

60. »

[PufPuf23]

61. Franken was taken down by the Democratic leadership and Senators,

with support from his own Party, Franken could have weathered the political storm.

Some Democrats used GOP bullshit for their own inter-party ambitions.