Al Franken Resigns

[Amarok]

[Joods]

If anything, it was a strategic political move on the dems part considering what is going to happen next week with Moore.

[henryp]

This is a good thing. If Moore is elected, I think we see him booted by the ethics committee. A nice precedent to have for congress.

[Anomalocaris]

I don't think so.  Trump supports Moore because Steven Bannon told him to.  The Republicans in the Congress will lick Trump's excrements from the floor even though Steven Bannon is after many of their hides.  If Moore gets elected, he will remain seated as long as the GOP controls the Senate and become another permanent degradation of an American government institution.

Trump is the kind of disease that shows the American political system no longer an immune system.  The destruction of the immune system has been a long sought goal of the puppet string pullers of the Republican Party.  To expect the immune system will suddenly rally while the same Republican Party animated by the same callous indifference to anyone other than their donors and agitators remain in power is sheer fantasy

America is like a late stage untreated AIDS patient. He is afflicted with sores and infections all over the place. His recouperative powers is small and not up to the task of closing any of his sores. He will not rally to fight off another infection. There is no prospect of treatment in the near future.

[henryp]

I don't think so.  Trump supports Moore because Steven Bannon told him to.  The Republicans in the Congress will lick Trump's excrements from the floor even though Steven Bannon is after many of their hides.  If Moore gets elected, he will remain seated as long as the GOP controls the Senate and become another permanent degradation of an American government institution.

McConnell has already stated the investigation will be initiated immediately if Moore is elected.

I assume Alabama has a republican governor, so booting Moore won't cost the republican party any power, since the Gov will name a replacement like they're doing with Franken in Minnesota.   

The only worry, is I don't know what power an ethics committee has exactly.

[Anomalocaris]

I don't think so.  Trump supports Moore because Steven Bannon told him to.  The Republicans in the Congress will lick Trump's excrements from the floor even though Steven Bannon is after many of their hides.  If Moore gets elected, he will remain seated as long as the GOP controls the Senate and become another permanent degradation of an American government institution.

McConnell has already stated the investigation will be initiated immediately if Moore is elected.

I assume Alabama has a republican governor, so booting Moore won't cost the republican party any power, since the Gov will name a replacement like they're doing with Franken in Minnesota.   

The only worry, is I don't know what power an ethics committee has exactly.

McConnell has backpedaled so fast he is practically breaking the sound barrier.  Moore is Steve Bannon's man.  Steven Bannon pulls the Donald's strings.  The Donald had put his weight behind Moore and he has thin skin.  McConnell is spinless and will lick Trump's ass to shift himself slightly off center of Bannon's sights.

Need I say more?

[henryp]

McConnell has backpedaled so fast he is practically breaking the sound barrier.  Moore is Steve Bannon's man.  Steven Bannon pulls the Donald's strings.  The Donald had put his weight behind Moore and he has thin skin.  McConnell is spinless and will lick Trump's ass to shift himself slightly off center of Bannon's sights.

Need I say more?

Sounds like a pretty objective unbiased opinion on the matter.

But this is why I think Franken's resignation is so key.  The critics who try to keep Moore in office have nobody to point to. 

Trump/Bannon aren't dumb strategically.  They know what I know.  Get the guy in, and then whatever happens happens.  Trump will step back and say "That's for the ethics committee to decide!"  Trump endorsed Strange in the primary.  So when Moore gets the boot, Trump can say "Told you you should've gone with Luther Strange!"  And he was right, for once.

[Anomalocaris]

Trump is stupid strategically.   He only claim much more credit then is there for himself when occasionally someone else manage to steer him away from a larger disaster to a slightly smaller one.

Bannon is not necessarily dumb, but he is a one trick pony who succeeds with brutal scorched earth trolling rather than finess.  So long as someone keeps handing him more torches, he would be a force to be reckoned with.  But once that stops, he would quickly immolate himself in his eagerness to keep up his momentum.

[Alex K]

I think Franken resigning sets an important precedent in general but also gives the Dems some political leverage - which they probably won't properly use to their advantage because... they always mess these things up?

[bennyboy]

The somewhat sad thing for me is that I think some of these guys have been adapting to the new social climate. Watch sit-coms or dramas from the 70s and 80s and we'll see how pervasive this kind of thinking and behavior was-- quite frankly, it was just the normal way people thought.

I'm pretty sure a Clinton of today would keep his cigar in his pants, or a Franken would stop to think "Hmmmm. . . maybe this girl won't think me grabbing her is just a joke."