December 7, 2017: Al Franken announces that he will resign from the U.S. Senate.
Alan Stuart Franken was born on May 21, 1951, in Manhattan, grew up in Albert Lea, Minnesota, and graduated from Harvard University. An original writer for Saturday Night Live, he wrote for and acted on the show from 1975 to 1980, and again from 1985 to 1995. He and his co-writer Tom Davis played Amtrak workers in the 1983 film Trading Places.
He entered politics for the first time, sort of, during the 1988 Presidential primaries: On SNL, in a Democratic debate, he played Senator Paul Simon of Illinois, complete with… (basso profundo) "the bow tie"; while in a Republican debate, he played a considerably more excitable, and higher-pitched, Reverend Pat Robertson.
In 1996, he wrote his first political book: Rush Limbaugh Is a Big Fat Idiot and Other Observations. In 2003, he took conservatives on again with Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right. But after the disappointment of the incredibly dirty 2004 election, he published a (mostly) bitter book titled The Truth (With Jokes).
He finally put his money where his mouth was, and in 2008, won the closest U.S. Senate election in Minnesota history, defeating a Republican incumbent, Norm Coleman. He won with a little more room in 2014. Even his critics admitted that the comedian was serious about his job.
But in 2017, his own fellow Senate Democrats forced him to resign – for nothing. Well, not for nothing: On November 16, radio broadcaster and model Leeann Tweeden alleged in a blog post, and an interview with her radio station, KABC, that Franken (who has been married to Franni Bryson since 1975, and has never been seriously accused of cheating on her) kissed her on a 2006 USO tour, during a rehearsal for a skit. Longtime Republican campaign operative Roger Stone circulated news of the allegations to right-wing media.
At first, it was her word against his. But, soon, a photo from the tour was released, showing him holding his hands above Tweeden's breasts -- but not touching her -- while she was asleep.
In particular, Senator Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, a fellow Democrat, demanded he resign -- at a time when the Democrats had only 46 Senators, plus 2 independents who usually caucused with them, and at a time when Franken was a proven winner of close elections, and had never previously been accused of any wrongdoing.
He should have stood up, and said, "I will resign my office the day after Donald Trump resigns his. Not before," and then walked away from the podium. Because Trump was already known to be guilty of actual sexual assault.
But his fellow Democrats ganged up on him, and he resigned, effective January 2, 2018. Governor Mark Dayton of Minnesota appointed Lieutenant Governor Tina Smith to serve out his term.
On March 17, 2019, Kirsten Gillibrand announced that she was running for President. On August 28, she suspended her campaign, because the sight of blood from Franken's back on her knife still being fresh meant that nobody wanted her. She shifted to running for re-election to the Senate in 2020. She won, while Tina Smith was elected to a full term in the Senate.
Al Franken has not run for public office since. But he is more popular in the Democratic Party than Kirsten Gillibrand. He got railroaded.
*
December 7, 2017 was a Thursday. Baseball was out of season. Football was in midweek. There were 4 games played in the NBA:
* The Brooklyn Nets beat the Oklahoma City Thunder, 100-95 at the Barclays Center.
* The Los Angeles Lakers beat the Philadelphia 76ers, 107-104 at the Wells Fargo Center (now the Xfinity Mobile Arena) in Philadelphia.
* The Houston Rockets beat the Utah Jazz, 112-101 at the Vivint Smart Home Arena (now the Delta Center) in Salt Lake City, Utah.
* And the Washington Wizards beat the Phoenix Suns, 109-99 at the Talking Stick Resort Arena (now the Mortgage Matchup Center) in Phoenix. Bradley Beal of the Wizards led all scorers on the night with 34 points.
And there were 9 games played in the NHL:
* The New York Islanders lost to the Pittsburgh Penguins, 4-3 at the PPG Paints Arena in Pittsburgh. Matt Hunwick scored the winning goal with 3:31 left in overtime.
* The Montreal Canadiens and the Calgary Flames played to a tie, 3-3 at the Bell Centre in Montreal.
* The Boston Bruins beat the Arizona Coyotes, 6-1 at the TD Garden in Boston.
* The Tampa Bay Lightning beat the Colorado Avalanche, 5-2 at the Amalie Arena (now the Benchmark International Arena) in Tampa.
* The Florida Panthers beat the Winnipeg Jets, 6-4 at the BB&T Center (now the Amerant Bank Arena) in the Miami suburb of Sunrise, Florida.
* The St. Louis Blues beat the Dallas Stars, 3-0 at the Scottrade Center (now the Enterprise Center) in St. Louis.
* The Los Angeles Kings beat the Ottawa Senators, 4-3 at the Staples Center (now the Crypto.com Arena) in Los Angeles. Drew Doughty scored the winning goal, 32 seconds into overtime.
* The San Jose Sharks beat the Carolina Hurricanes, 5-4 at the SAP Center in San Jose. Brent Burns scored the winning goal, 22 seconds into overtime.
* And the Philadelphia Flyers beat the Vancouver Canucks, 4-1 at the Rogers Arena in Vancouver.
No comments:
Post a Comment