Byron York: Can Al Franken be rehabilitated?
by Byron York
| July 23, 2019 02:27 PM
Al Franken, the Minnesota Democrat and former Saturday Night Live star forced out of the Senate in late 2017 by #MeToo allegations, is back in the news.
The New Yorker has published a long article suggesting Franken was "railroaded" (author Jane Mayer's word) and reporting that several of Franken's old Senate colleagues now regret calling for him to resign.
Two reactions: First, Franken was railroaded. Faced with a number of iffy allegations, Senate Democrats panicked and pushed him out before any investigation could be done. It was, as I wrote at the time, an example of the "kangaroo court justice of the college campus coming to the U.S. Senate."
Second, it is striking that Mayer would come to Franken's defense, and use the word "railroaded," given that just last year she tried to railroad Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh with a flimsy, damning, and unverified allegation of sexual misconduct. And, of course, in an earlier generation, Mayer tried to railroad Justice Clarence Thomas. The sheer partisanship would be funny if the results weren't so serious.
Mayer's new piece examines the most-publicized allegation against Franken, that he inappropriately kissed Leeann Tweeden, a radio host with whom Franken appeared in a series of USO shows in 2006. It was the most publicized because Franken posed for a gag photo in which he appeared to be grabbing Tweeden's breasts as she slept on a flight home from the USO tour.
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https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/columnists/byron-york-can-al-franken-be-rehabilitated
