Al Franken, self-proclaimed “Giant of the Senate,” took to
that august body’s floor on March 6th of this year to chastise
Republicans in general- and President Donald Trump in particular- on the evils
of sexual harassment: “According to the Equal Employment Opportunity
Commission, at least 25 percent of American women say they have experienced
sexual harassment in the workplace. And recent high-profile revelations about
abuse — for example, former Fox News chairman Roger Ailes’ abuse of his
employees, as well as the allegations of sex bias at Kay and Sterling Jewelers
— demonstrate that we are far from addressing this issue on a broader scale. So,
I urge my Republican colleagues to reconsider their support for this
resolution. I urge them to not force vulnerable women who have been wronged
into the dark and into forced arbitration.”
And,
just last month, Abby Honold, the Twin Cities woman who helped Senator Franken
draft a new bill to aid victims of sexual assault, stood side-by-side with the
former comedian at a press conference announcing the bill. Honold, 22, was
raped by Daniel Drill-Mellum, who was once an intern for Franken, one reason
why she first approached the Senator’s office.
After
the allegations of sexual harassment against Franken were recently leveled, she
is now hoping someone else will champion the legislation.
In
2006, Leeann Tweeden, a television host and sports broadcaster, was on her
ninth USO tour to entertain our troops. Then comedian Al Franken was Also on
the tour. Tweeden alleges he wrote a skit in which he directed Tweeden to kiss
him, and repeatedly asked her to rehearse the bit. Tweeden demurred, but claims
Franken came at her anyway, “put his hand on the back of my head, mashed his
lips against mine and aggressively stuck his tongue in my mouth.” She says she
made sure she was never alone with Franken for the rest of the tour, but that,
“The tour wrapped and on Christmas Eve
we began the 36-hour trip home to L.A. After 2 weeks of grueling travel
and performing I was exhausted. When our C-17 cargo plane took off from
Afghanistan I immediately fell asleep, even though I was still wearing my flak
vest and Kevlar helmet.”
It was at this point that the
then-comedian and now-Senator from Minnesota was photographed cupping her breasts
with his hands, head swiveled towards the camera, goofy grin on his face. When
Tweeden finally saw the picture, she purportedly thought: “How dare anyone grab
my breasts like this and think it’s funny?”
Franken explained that some
things he thought were funny when he was a comedian by trade he no longer
thinks are funny now that he is in Congress. Which doesn’t explain why he
tackled a Howard Dean protester, slamming him to the ground, in 2004.
Fortunately for Franken, MSNBC,
the same network that thought President Trump should be impeached for
remarking, as a private citizen who had never been involved in politics at that
point, that he could theoretically grab women’s crotches with impunity, took a
much more sanguine view of Franken’s actual sexual harassment. That network’s
Kasie Hunt described Franken’s actions thusly: “[Franken] took a picture, which
his office now says was a joke, that showed him potentially—not actually
groping—but mock-groping her while she was asleep.”
Well, isn’t that special.
Stuart Smalley? “I’m good enough,
I’m smart enough…and, gosh darn it, women like me…to fondle them.”
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