Al Franken’s Farcical Resignation Speech

[EasyAce]

By Rich Lowry
http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/454443/al-frankens-farcical-resignation-speech

Al Franken’s resignation speech made no sense. If he is innocent as he claims (he says some of
the allegations were untrue and he remembers the rest differently than his accusers) and if he is as
confident that the Ethics Committee would vindicate him as he says, he shouldn’t be resigning. Indeed,
a duly-elected senator wrongly accused owes it to himself and his constituents to fight on — lies and
mis-remembered accounts shouldn’t chase anyone from the Senate . . .

. . . A couple of things are going on here: 1) Democrats obviously want to clear the decks to get a clear
line of fire on Roy Moore and Donald Trump, and Franken realizes he can’t stand in the way; 2) In the
current environment in the Democratic party it is difficult to question the credibility of any accusers,
so Franken would have just dug himself in a deeper hole by trying to defend himself (this is a dynamic
that could lead to injustices); 3) Franken is pretty clearly not telling the truth in his denials, and that
would have become even more obvious over time . . .