Richard Painter's fascinating tweet concerning Franken & Moore

[catbyte]

Link to tweet

[bettyellen]

1. Truth!

[Rene]

43. fingers crossed

[rzemanfl]

2. Hmmm. n/t

[malaise]

3. Damn that would be perfect

but there will be no replacement until Al resigns at the end of the year.

[calimary]

32. That actually would be perfect!

If there’s SO much concern about how “the people have spoken” and “it’s up to the voters of fill-in-the-blank state...” then why not? After all, the voters of Minnesota have spoken clearly, TWICE, in favor of Al Franken.

[maddiemom]

35. And close and contested as the first race was...

surely these accusations would have come out then. Oh, right. It wasn't the cause du jour back then so that someone would have thought to make spurious accusations (not to belittle righteous accusations). I just now wondered if I could go back thirty years and sue the estate of my husband's then boss (an avuncular gentlemen who never copped a feel, otherwise) who used to always ask me to sit on his lap at Christmas parties. I took it with a grain of salt and totally forgot it (his WIFE told me to excuse and indulge him, and he wasn't, then, considered a dirty old man) until now. I guess I wasn't too badly scarred for life.

[klook]

39. At least he didn't squeeze your waist...

imagine the horror!

[Brainstormy]

4. Brilliant! n/t

[L. Coyote]

5. Isn't Franken waiting that long?

[DFW]

6. Those were my thoughts exactly! Just posted them a few minutes ago elsewhere

I said that it was my hope:

That IF Moore wins (by whatever machinations are pulled) that Alabama Senate race, and is seated without a word of comment from Republican Senators, that Al Franken rescinds his decision to resign. He should take this action pointing out that the seating of Moore is an incontrovertible sign that nothing he did or was accused of is anything close to that which constitutes inappropriate behavior by Senate ethics standards as just proved by the majority's silent acceptance of Moore to their ranks.

[Glimmer of Hope]

7. Dude is so smart.

[roamer65]

8. I agree 100 pct.

[McCamy Taylor]

9. Actually, not a bad political move.

Will drive the GOP crazy. They want Franken out so badly, but do they want it badly enough to give up a Senate seat?

[Lotusflower70]

10. Ah yeah!

I am secretly crushing on this man's mind. He has a great sense of humor as well. I needed this right now. I am grieving the loss of my Senator. Thank you Richard.

[BannonsLiver]

11. Fascinating.

Oh how I'd love to believe that was the plan all along, some 12 dimensional jujitsu shit aimed at swinging the election to Jones and then a week later saying "gotcha!" and Franken comes back. I know that's not exactly what Painter is suggesting, but it sparked the thought in my mind.

But that would require street smarts, and a willingness to play dirty, like the Republicans do. We got none of either where it counts.

[bluestarone]

12. sounds like

a plan to me!!!! LET'S DO IT

[oberliner]

13. Been a day of bashing Democrats and praising Republicans on DU

Very bizarre.

(Richard Painter being the Republican that many DU-ers seem to like)

[dem4decades]

17. I'm guilty, I praised Robert Mueller earlier.

And Al Franken too.

[JI7]

29. you defend bigots like the Birthers . Richard Painter isn't a birther

you attack him because he attacks Trump .

everyone can see through the shit here.

[The Polack MSgt]

33. Thank you

Not just birthers though.

He told me that a lot of trump voters voted for the orange chancre because they believed it would help POC

[hay rick]

14. Don't think Dayton buys the false equivalence of Franken and Moore. nt

[iluvtennis]

15. Love it.

[NBachers]

16. And he should go back in if Doug Jones wins anyway.

[George II]

18. Saw that this afternoon - not a bad idea. Remember, Franken is still in the Senate for a few weeks.

[PatSeg]

19. That's brilliant!

[Honeycombe8]

20. Moore has nothing to do with it, altho I wish the Gov would hold off.

I don't see how Franken stays, when his fellow Senators and the leadership have fired him, basically. Overruling the voters who elected him.

[Hortensis]

21. What? "They go low, and we go low too" is NOT Michelle's legacy.

Does anyone care that the CHIPS program may not be renewed? Is the new thinking that we should try to match the Republicans in denying healthcare to children then?

[MGKrebs]

30. It is an interesting idea though.

Franken has denied the allegations, as has Moore. Presumably the Repubs would say that they believe Moore. So this is really about accepting the word of the accusers without question, more so than admitting to accepting an assaulter in the Senate.

It's a difficult case to make for sure if you want to be on the high road, and there is a question of whether you want to make distinctions between degrees of assault. I haven't read details of all the Franken accusations, but at least two of them are a bit questionable.

It was inevitable that there would be some kind of backlash as accepting any accusation without question was inevitably going to spin out of control at some point- some would try to take advantage of that situation and maybe already have.

[fierywoman]

22. Fuck yes!!!

[George II]

23. Did you see this one?

Link to tweet

[lastlib]

26. That's hys-TERICAL!!

. . .

[old guy]

24. I like it!

Unfortunately, Dems don't have the guts to do this. The repubs might throw a hissy fit and we can't have that. Why, they may call us names!

[Alice11111]

36. Yeah, we have to take the high road, and smash our teeth in.

[Drahthaardogs]

25. Yes!

Would be brilliant

[MadDAsHell]

27. Maybe, but how do you put back in someone who chose to come out.

Franken wasn’t impeached or anything; he resigned.

[stopwastingmymoney]

28. He didn't actually resign

He just said he was going to

[MadDAsHell]

42. Fair point. Didnt think of that. nt

[Alice11111]

37. He was given no choice. Lynch mob. He bought a

few weeks for a few reasons, IMO. I think his party in MN may be leaving the option open for him to run again, if the climate changes. The temp appointment for Sen has to agree not to run. Franken might not get elected though...as both the Repubs and Dems, DNC (is it still a Dem organization now that they took out Dem leadership?) will apparently beat him up with the same BS. It does give time to expose the truth. Of course, Fox, who was partly behind this anyway, Hannity, will never air the truth, so a lot of people will not know.

With friends like this, who needs enemies?

[oasis]

31. Gillibrand and Hirono should make a public appeal for Franken to stay. nt

[Alice11111]

38. Gillibrand was the leader of the rush to judgment.

She has HER OWN agenda. Don't expect any help from her. She would expose her own negligence of misrepresenting the facts, intentionally IMO, and her deliberate attempt to avoid due process, unconstitutional. Unfortunately, Senators are immune from suit in such situations.

[oasis]

44. That's why she needs to be the main person to make amends.

I can't see her rising to any higher office unless she can demonstrate some growth.

[Alice11111]

45. If I decided, which I don't, she would forfeit her position,

unless she herself undergoes an ethics investigation and attempts to clear his name.

[DinahMoeHum]

34. Totally agree.

n/t

[gopiscrap]

40. totally agree

[Thor_MN]

41. To be fair, Dayton can not do anything until Franken actually resigns.

He has not resigned yet, just announced that he would do so in the coming weeks.

http://www.cnn.com/2017/12/07/politics/speech-al-franken-transcript/index.html

"Nevertheless, today I am announcing that in the coming weeks I will be resigning as member of the United States Senate. "