General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: The silence left by Franken leaving is deafening. [View all]Hortensis
(58,785 posts)the governor of Minnesota jumped the gun and appointed his successor before he had even decided to resign." Interesting. I don't remember reading that.
All sensible Dems knew this was a right-wing hit aimed at Franken and also meant to confuse voters into thinking Republican sins were ours. Roy Moore's in particular. No news there.
But the notion that all the accusations would just fall apart under Republican-dominated questioning is very unrealistic. Weren't there 8 accusers by the time we threw in the towel, with possibly more to come? Even Hannity's Tweeden would have done great damage as her stories were dismantled. There is absolutely no way to prove Franken's tongue wasn't in someone's mouth or his hand squeezing a buttock, and there'd be no way to treat these "victims" with anything but marked respect and win. Every salacious made-up detail would have been all over the media for days, and possibly weeks, and so would even the slightest whiff of anything that could be spun as victim shaming. Major trap.
That most of those who believed then Franken needed to resign (attitudes of nearly 3/4 of his colleagues were known even if not announced) now don't, seems very unlikely. For sure it would have been dragged out as noisily and nastily as possible to try to save the senate seat Roy Moore was running for. And in the end Franken would have been smeared far worse than he was when he announced he would resign.