Al Franken stepped up and took it like a man.

[tecelote]

This is a far cry from what Weinstein or Bill O'Reilly did. No where close to what the President of the United States has done.

Al did not blame the victim or deny it. He still has my respect.

[Cattledog]

1. Exactly, and he is being vilified by some who think they know all the answers.

[Old Vet]

2. Yes he did, I cant think of anything else he could of said..........

IMHO It looked like a bad joke gone terribly wrong.......

[pat_k]

7. As Ms. Tweeden appears to acknowledge,

... the general atmosphere of a USO tour probably didn't help matters ("the skits were full of sexual innuendo geared toward a young, male audience..." )

The photo puts a black spot on Franken's image. There is nothing he can say to erase that. He is clearly disgusted with himself, and said so. All he can do is continue to live his life with integrity and demonstrate that he is reformed and acquired a real understanding of how destructive such conduct is.

We've had plenty of people in office who have "reformed" themselves on one front or another -- the many reformed racists (or supposedly reformed) are the first that come to mind.

If anyone who was a complete ass about something at some point in their lives were barred from Congress, I think we would have an awful lot of empty seats in the House and Senate.

[Bradshaw3]

3. And they are talking about him resigning on CNN while

dump will remain President after groping numerous women and Moore will probably be a senator after committing a sex crime against an underage girl. Par for the course.

[tecelote]

5. Par for the course. Exactly.

Time to turn the tables though. He better not resign until Trump and most of congress resigns.

[pat_k]

4. I'm disgusted with him, as he is with himself, but any parrallel to Moore,

...Packwood, Adams, or other figures whose careers were (or will be) rightfully ended by a history of sexually abusive conduct is completely absurd.

I respect the honestly of his response. Unfortunately, that photo is a black spot on my image of him I won't be able to erase.

You are right Al:

"...There's no excuse. I look at it now and I feel disgusted with myself. It isn't funny. It's completely inappropriate. It's obvious how Leeann would feel violated by that picture. And, what's more, I can see how millions of other women would feel violated by it—women who have had similar experiences in their own lives, women who fear having those experiences, women who look up to me, women who have counted on me..."

[underpants]

6. Yes he did

[SandyZ]

8. I think so, too. The people stating it didn't happen ought to step back.