About Gillibrand and Franken - a letter, not mine.

[Perrenial Voter]

109. While I am really sorry about the loss of Franken, who

would have been great during the Kavanah hearings, I thought this was done to establish a marker -- a 0-tolerance policy -- for the Democratic Party as a contrast with the Republican Party. In other words, it was a political move for the good of the party, one that Franken went along with and sacrificed his position for.

However, the episode highlights the need for nuances in sexual harassment allegations and for some discussion of the kind of evidence that can be expected to support such allegations. Journalists have an incentive to sensationalize allegations, while in a legal setting it is very hard to make a case. My view is that, for these kinds of crimes, lie detectors should be used and made admissable in court to get beyond the "he said, she said" modality. Likewise, capturing data from cell phones and social media ought to be the norm in such cases.