Adam Schiff book preview

There goes Al

And he should.  But the sad - and frustrating - thing about this is that the Democrats are the only ones who are going to pay any political price for their behavior.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE:

Is Al Franken going down?

The Republicans seem to weather all kinds of sexual scandals, but I'm not sure Democrat Al Franken will be able to do the same.

As more women come forward to accuse Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) of unwanted touching and other forms of sexual harassment, the embattled lawmaker issued another statement on Thanksgiving Day apologizing for his behavior and vowing to be “much more careful and sensitive” going forward.

  TPM

May be too late to save your career, Senator.

“I’ve met tens of thousands of people and taken thousands of photographs, often in crowded and chaotic situations,” Franken wrote. “I’m a warm person; I hug people. I’ve learned from recent stories that in some of those encounters, I crossed a line for some women — and I know that any number is too many. Some women have found my greetings or embraces for a hug or photo inappropriate, and I respect their feelings about that.”

They aren't complaining about your hugs, Al. They're complaining about you grabbing their asses.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Invitation to investigate

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Thursday that the Senate was taking “appropriate action” regarding allegations that Sen. Al Franken (R-MN)

“It appears that the Senate is looking into that, which they should, and we feel that’s an appropriate action,” Sanders said, in a brief response to a reporter’s question.

  TPM

Which makes an investigation of Roy Moore, should he win the Alabama seat, unavoidable, perhaps one of the reasons Franken invited the Senate to hold an ethics investigation on himself in his "apology".

Which brings us to this news:

After lawyers for Alabama Senate GOP Candidate Roy Moore’ held a press conference requesting the yearbook of a woman who accused Moore of sexual assault — she claims Moore signed her yearbook when she was in high school — the woman’s lawyer said she would hand it over.

But to Congress, not the Moore campaign.

Beverly Young Nelson, the woman who said Moore sexually assaulted her in his car when she was 16, and her attorney Gloria Allred sent a letter to the Senate Ethics Committee and the Senate Judiciary Committee requesting a hearing so that both Nelson and Moore could testify under oath, Allred said on CNN Wednesday night.

  TPM

 ...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Every powerful man must be desperately searching his memory right now

Al Franken accosted a female fellow USO entertainer.

And apparently thought this was funny (she was sleeping.

 ...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Franken has issued a pathetic but unsurprising "apology":

“I certainly don’t remember the rehearsal for the skit in the same way, but I send my sincerest apologies to Leeann,” Franken said in a statement provided to the Guardian. “As to the photo, it was clearly intended to be funny but wasn’t. I shouldn’t have done it.”

  Guardian

From Franken's Facebook page:

The first thing I want to do is apologize: to Leeann, to everyone else who was part of that tour, to everyone who has worked for me, to everyone I represent, and to everyone who counts on me to be an ally and supporter and champion of women. There's more I want to say, but the first and most important thing—and if it's the only thing you care to hear, that's fine—is: I'm sorry.

I respect women. I don't respect men who don't. And the fact that my own actions have given people a good reason to doubt that makes me feel ashamed.

But I want to say something else, too. Over the last few months, all of us—including and especially men who respect women—have been forced to take a good, hard look at our own actions and think (perhaps, shamefully, for the first time) about how those actions have affected women.

For instance, that picture. I don't know what was in my head when I took that picture, and it doesn't matter. 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.

Coming from the world of comedy, I've told and written a lot of jokes that I once thought were funny but later came to realize were just plain offensive. But the intentions behind my actions aren't the point at all. It's the impact these jokes had on others that matters. And I'm sorry it's taken me so long to come to terms with that.

While I don't remember the rehearsal for the skit as Leeann does, I understand why we need to listen to and believe women’s experiences.

I am asking that an ethics investigation be undertaken, and I will gladly cooperate.

And the truth is, what people think of me in light of this is far less important than what people think of women who continue to come forward to tell their stories. They deserve to be heard, and believed. And they deserve to know that I am their ally and supporter. I have let them down and am committed to making it up to them.

You can start by taking back that line about not remembering the rehearsal the same way - in essence, an attempt to cast doubt on her credibility, while at the same time saying you understand why we need to believe women.  Just not this one, eh?

Manafort Ordered to Testify

The Senate judiciary committee has issued a subpoena to Paul Manafort, the former Trump campaign manager, seeking his testimony at a public hearing on Wednesday.

The Republican senator Chuck Grassley and the Democratic senator Dianne Feinstein said they were unable to reach an agreement with Manafort for a voluntary transcribed interview with the committee.

  Guardian

Now, I don't know the ins and outs - barely the obvious points - of these hearings, but if Paul Manafort won't make a deal for a written and voluntary interview, then it seems to me like he's wanting to have something under oath. (I don't know what the Committee is asking for in the deal, of course.) And Manafort is willing to have a public hearing vs. a voluntary private interview and written testimony? I think I might be worried if I were the current Trump team.

A spokesman for Manafort said he met with staff of the Senate intelligence committee on Tuesday. The committee is looking into any possible collusion between Russia and Trump associates.

Spokesman Jason Maloni said Manafort “answered their questions fully”.

And yet the Judiciary Committee is having to issue a subpoena? What's going on?

Even more confusing: Jake Tapper, just a couple of days ago, said that the Judiciary Committee had struck a deal with both Junior and Manafort to testify behind closed doors.

So, until that gets cleared up for me, check out the Tapper clip where he's interviewing Al Franken. It's full of tidbits, including that Franken, who is a member of the Judiciary Committee, doesn't like Kushner's deal to testify behind closed doors with no oath. He wants Kushner under oath.

Kushner spoke privately on Monday with Senate intelligence committee investigators.

[...]

Kushner is returning to Capitol Hill on Wednesday for a second day of private meetings with congressional investigators investigating Russia’s meddling in the 2016 presidential election. He is slated to have a closed-door meeting with lawmakers on the House intelligence committee on Tuesday.

  Guardian

Everybody gets a crack at him. I'm assuming everybody is going to get a crack at Junior, too, and he will be in trouble, because he's not smart enough to know what to say. Perhaps he'll have an attorney by his side who forbids him to say anything.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE 8:30pm:  He changed his mind.  He's taking his chances.

US Senators Urge Obama to Get Behind Netanyahu

The news that many progressive US senators as well as vice presidential candidate Tim Kaine signed on to an Israel lobby letter designed to limit President Obama’s actions against the Israeli occupation, now nearly 50 years old, has been widely reported, but the plain facts need to be stated.

Yesterday the Israel lobby group AIPAC, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, flexed its muscle against President Obama and on the side of Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu by posting a letter signed by 88 senators warning President Obama not to back any international measures that would pressure Israel to withdraw from occupied territories.

[...]

The letter was circulated by NY Senator Kirsten Gillibrand and got many progressive signatures: Elizabeth Warren, Al Franken, Amy Klobuchar, Ron Wyden, Tammy Baldwin, Chris Murphy, Barbara Mikulski, Barbara Boxer, Cory Booker, Sherrod Brown, Richard Blumenthal, Ed Markey, Jack Reed, right along with John McCain, Mike Lee, Lindsey Graham and John Barrasso.

[...]

The letter is entirely consistent with the Democratic Party platform pushed through by Hillary Clinton in July, which removed references to occupation and settlements; Cornel West said then that the party was “beholden to AIPAC.”

  Mondoweiss

Indeed.

At Tablet, Yair Rosenberg reports that Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio and Ben Sasse all did not sign the letter because it didn’t go far enough in support of Israel (and against the two-state solution, in Cruz’s case).

[...]

The brave senators who did not sign this letter [presumably because of disagreement with Israel's policies in Palestine] include Democrats Patrick Leahy of VT, Bernie Sanders, Tom Carper of Delaware, and Dick Durbin of Illinois, along with Republican Rand Paul of Kentucky.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Even Faster Than I Expected

The Carrier IQ scandal has drawn the ire of at least one lawmaker. U.S. Senator Al Franken (D-MN) published a letter to Carrier IQ on Thursday saying he’s “very concerned” about reports of the company’s software tracking a staggering amount of user information.

Franken also demands that the company and its CEO, tech veteran Larry Lenhart, provide answers to a list of 11 questions about just how Carrier IQ operates, what information it collects and to whom the information is transmitted. Franken wants answers within two weeks, by December 14.

  TPM

Al must be using an Android system cell.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE