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Report: Franken to Resign Tomorrow
From Minnesota Public Radio:
A Democratic official who has spoken to Al Franken and key aides says Franken will resign his Minnesota Senate seat on Thursday, the official tells MPR News.
The official spoke to Franken and separately to Franken’s staff. A staff member told the official that Franken had gone to his Washington home to discuss his plans with family.
MPR News agreed to withhold the official’s name because the official wanted to give Franken the chance to talk about his decision in his own words.
Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton, a Democrat, will name a successor for the final two years of Franken’s term.
Update:
Not accurate, @mpr @Stowydad. No final decision has been made and the Senator is still talking with his family. Please update your story.
— U.S. Senator Al Franken (@SenFranken) December 6, 2017
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Published in Politics
Good riddance.
Wow, the DEMs are really putting their money where their mouth is. Guess everyone should give up on holding onto Session’s sear since Franken’s replacement will be a Republican.
What? Minnesota’s governor will keep the seat in Democrats’ hands?
Never mind then. Stay the course. McConnell can expel Moore later. Heck, at that point the GOP can hang him in effigy if they want to virtue signal.
Six months ago my best friend was saying he’d be a great choice to take on (and defeat) Trump in ’20. LOL!
There must be something big really lurking out there for Franken to throw in the towel over the stuff published so far. Sounds like he is trying to dodge a bullet by resigning before it all comes apart.
I am beginning to think that we are being setup for something – and more than just the expulsion of Roy Moore when he wins. While I agree that Franken is a pig, it doesn’t seem like his behavior is any worse than prior pigs that have resided in the Senate. Ted Kennedy comes to mind.
Exposing powerful men as grabby sexual harassers and demanding apologies and better behavior is one thing, but automatic dismissal, as it seems to have become (e.g. Charlie Rose, Matt Laurer, Franken, etc.), seems going too far. For politicians it seems like using it against them in elections is perfectly proper, but unless criminal activity occurred I really can’t get behind forced resignations.
I don’t think Franken is being “forced” out. I mean it’s not like his Democrat colleagues have grabbed him about his body and are carrying him out the door.
At the moment, I think Franken is groping around for just the right thing to say tomorrow.
Franken does not want to leave at all, he seems to believe he can ride it out. This is all coming from Democrat leadership that wants him gone. Keeping him carries too much baggage, especially after getting rid of Conyers, and getting rid of him gives them room to fully hang Moore around the neck of the GOP going into the 2018 elections.
Two years? He was elected in 2014, so he has three years (through January 2021) left on his term. But won’t there be a special election to fill the seat next year?
Yes.
Exactly. “The remedy is at the ballot box”, as we used to say. How quaint that sounds now!
I think this is a calculated gambit. By getting rid of Franken now, the Democrats can have Dayton appoint an Amy Klobuchar clone — a reliable but invisible D vote — who will have a long enough tenure to get re-elected through the power of incumbency.
Meanwhile, they can proclaim how virtuous they are to have sacrificed a son on the altar of harassment. Although this would have no real procedural impact on accusations against Moore and Trump, I think they want the publicity to fuel the media fire against the Republicans. They can count on the major outlets to continue the screaming and the rending of garments at the national level.
At the local level, Minnesota media will fawn over the new appointee who has bravely stepped into the controversy and has saved the reputation of all Minnesotans with their exemplary behavior (by smiling and waving while doing nothing but voting D).
Not to mention ridding themselves of the albatross of a buffoon hanging ’round their necks.
@brianwatt “At the moment, I think Franken is groping around for just the right thing to say tomorrow.”
I think you could have ended that sentence half way through.
Exactly my first words.
Would have been too easy and obvious.
Hmmm, seems he isn’t quite dead yet.
Schumer,”You’re not fooling anyone”.
This sets up an interesting special election, since the outstate areas are not as reliably D as before. I wonder what Pawlenty’s thinking now.
I think Franken takes a “leave of absence” not a full on resignation.
this is just too cute. It’s position for when Moore gets elected. But at the same time, there has to be a deal here. Maybe Senate ethics “clears” him while he’s on his leave of absence and he comes back?
I think the “calls” are bait for a Republican to join in, it’s not just Moore, it’s Trump as well that is the target.
I hope he doesn’t resign. I like the idea of a neutered Franken in the office, rather than some new progressive appointed by Dayton. A wounded Franken would be easier to beat in an election than a fresh face that the local media would fawn over for their heroic role in filling Franken’s shoes and rebuilding trust….all that predictable drivel.
Mary Jo Kopekne was unavailable to comment.
this many Senators wouldn’t be virtue signaling if the deal wasn’t already made, the delay was to get more Senators to get on board and posture publicly
But a pro wrestling swerve would be fun.
I see the secondary target of Trump as well.
But, do I misunderstand, if the people of Alabama elect Roy Moore to the Senate, the Senate can censure and/or remove him. Then he gets replaced.
I’m not up on blue state/red state: wouldn’t Moore be replaced with an R, followed by an election for a permanent replacement if Moore was given the boot.
But if Moore is removed on the basis of the accusations, where does that leave Trump, with accusations against him?
In the end, the accusations create distraction from the Congress’ true purpose: governing this nation.
They want to get rid of Franken’s drip, drip, drip, as well as setting the stage to excoriate the GOP about Moore.
For a Democrat, scandals are résumé enhancements.
Not necessarily. This whole sexual harassment wave is taking the same trajectory as other liberal causes celebres over the past few years.
Take gay marriage. Liberals were generally in favor of extending gay rights for decades, but gay marriage wasn’t on anybody’s radar until all of a sudden it was. Then within a few months, the mob known as the liberal base had forced all of their elected officials to fall into line and denounce their previous opposition or waffling on gay marriage. Remember Obama’s highly-choreographed “evolution”?
This is the same thing: a current turning into a rising tide turning into a destructive tsunami, all within a few months.
Except that if he does resign today, he won’t have been forced out – he’ll have been pressured out by his peers.
Ironically, that’s the way conservatives claim they would prefer the world to work: instead of always reverting to the cudgel of the law and the power of the state, it would be better for communities to self-police using peer pressure, ostracism, and rewarding good behavior.
That’s exactly what the Democrats are doing here: using pressure and (presumably) the threat of ostracism to get Franken and Conyers to do the noble thing without resorting to any formal or legal proceedings. I think that’s worth applauding.
If it was anyone other the politicians, I would agree they might be doing the noble thing. But they are indeed politicians. And so, based on thousands of years of recorded human history, it would be foolish to assume they are being anything other than manipulative and deceitful in order to profit themselves.
I agree with that.
Just for what it may be worth, it is the premise of both the capitalist economic system and the republic as a form of government to bring people’s self-interest in line with the public interest. If they are doing the right thing, then I don’t care why they are doing the right thing. But I’m not entirely sure that they are doing the right thing. A mob has formed, and mobs are emphatically not a system designed to bring the mob’s interest in line with the public interest.
It’s official, he’s leaving.