Image Source: People

With all of the sleazy, disgusting and lurid sexual problems that seem to be a part of the Republican official’s way of life, it was only a matter of time before there was a lash back against a Democrat. This is not to say that there aren’t any liberals that are never part of this mix, it’s just that the overtly religious doctrine that conservatives follow does lend to repressed sexual conditions.

So in scanning any Democrat that maintained both logic and a powerful presence as well as one that is knee-deep in calling out those Republicans involved in lying and RussiaGate, there was one name that is both popular and had the potential to be taken down: Al Franken. And so, a woman named Leeann Tweeden has come forward to accuse Al Franken of sexual assault during a USO tour in which they performed together in Afghanistan in 2006. Conservatives know the liberal market and also understand that if they throw out a piece of red meat that accuses a well-respected Democrat of having bad behavior, liberals will climb all over each other to rip him or her apart; and that is exactly what happened as many liberals called for Franken to step down, refused to believe or look at any of the logic behind the accusation and proceeded to argue with each other under the defense that “we are better than them”.

Everyone is familiar with Franken’s background as a comedian and his celebrity on the comedy show Saturday Night Live. Having attended many shows at the Los Angeles famed “Comedy Store” in the 80’s, I am also well-aware that the skits that were performed away from the camera were often saucy and bawdy. This made Franken’s past a hot potential to find at least one or two questionable situations and when you added in his work with the USO tours, it was a formula for success for conservatives.

Image Source: Rolling Stone

Al’s History

Let me say right up front that as a woman and a life-long feminist, I absolutely support women coming forward when there have been sexual assaults or abuse. There has been a history of demeaning women in both the courtroom and life so that most refused to put themselves through the process and simply remained quiet. However, this situation is quite a bit different and it requires that we step back and view this with a lens of logic. The fact is that Franken doesn’t have a history of demeaning women, in fact it is the opposite.

PoliticusUsa listed an article entitled: 14 Female Staffers Say That Al Franken Treated Them With Respect And Was A Champion For Women, in which they have an official statement signed by all 14 women, including their names:

“Many of us spent years working for Senator Franken in Minnesota and Washington. In our time working for the Senator, he treated us with the utmost respect. He valued our work and our opinions and was a champion for women both in the legislation he supported and in promoting women to leadership roles in our offices.”

In addition, 36 women from SNL have come forward in support of Al Franken. A CNN article states: “Altogether, 36 women who worked on the show signed the statement, including original cast members Jane Curtin and Laraine Newman. The signatories include performers, writers and production staff.”

The CNN statement included: “We feel compelled to stand up for Al Franken, whom we have all had the pleasure of working with over the years on Saturday Night Live (SNL),” the former and current staffers wrote in a statement.”

“What Al did was stupid and foolish, and we think it was appropriate for him to apologize to Ms Tweeden, and to the public,” the note said. “In our experience, we know Al as a devoted and dedicated family man, a wonderful comedic performer, and an honorable public servant.”

Both SNL and USO stage skits are well-known to be over the top when it comes to topics such as sex, but the USO performances are even more so due to the audience of mostly military males. Since the days of Bob Hope, there have always been beautiful bombshell women showing up in scanty outfits and sexual dialogue running from innuendos to outright blatant views. If you are either a male or female performing in these shows you are expected to play along.

But as a drooling media grabs onto this accusatory story and runs with it in their typical non-journalistic way to get improved ratings, they are missing some very important pieces of the puzzle. Examining Franken’s history and combining it with Tweeden’s, there is a very strong smell of a rat, and the “rat” has the name of Fox and conservatives all over it.

The Accuser

In this analysis there will be absolutely NO “slut shaming”. What Tweeden did as a model, posing for a variety of magazines, scantily clad or not, does not have any bearing on this situation. However, there are some rather suspicious alliances that Tweeden has adopted over the years and this includes being a guest and friend of Sean Hannity (who holds a disdain for Franken) as well as part of the Fox Sports newscaster group. This raises concern as to a potential motive for coming forward.

Another point that must be made is that many women refuse to come forward when a sexual assault occurs. It is thanks to the “MeToo” campaign that so many women have found their voices and have brought the sexual assault condition front and center. I support these women, have been part of these women, and hope that there will be some good that comes from it all.

But with that said, we must also take a hard look and recognize that this is not a black and white situation. Believing all accusers, no matter what, is just as bad as not believing them. There is no justice served if we do not consider that there may be some women that make accusations based on a personal agenda.

Image Source: BusinessInsider

The Accusation and Al’s Apology

Tweeden’s accusation has run a gamut of comments but basically entails that Al made use of a photo-op in which he acted like he was grabbing at her breasts while she was sleeping and wearing a military vest. She also accused him of being overly aggressive about practicing their stage kiss for a skit performance and then shoving his tongue down into her mouth without her permission.

Do not get me wrong. I am not defending what Franken may have done. However, I do take everything into context with an eyebrow raising condition. When Tweeden made her accusation it was splashed all over MSM headlines without any kind of method of analysis. Al Franken immediately offered an apology for the occurrence, indicating that the photo-op was unacceptable and also noting that he did not remember the situation as Tweeden described. Franken also requested an ethics investigation into himself, which requires testimony under oath. While Tweeden accepted Franken’s apology, she oddly stated that an investigation would not be necessary.

This brings the question forward: if the accusation is indeed true, why would the accuser try to negate an investigation?

Franken’s apology was sincere and revealing as he stated:

“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.”

A Look at that USO Tour

Since this is the focus of the allegations of impropriety, it is important to also view this under a microscope as to what additional actions and behavior occurred. One cannot be blind to the circumstance and give an overall view of the accusations. Again, USO performances are well-known for the inclusion of things overtly sexual. However, there are a number of images as well as videos appearing that show that Tweeden didn’t seem to have a problem with sexual performances on stage including that of her grabbing the butt of a Country and Western performer and rubbing her behind up against him and the singer grabbing at her butt. Additional videos of the tour have included a very sexual performance with the comedian Robin Williams as well as the real on-stage “kiss” with Franken.

But all of this can be pushed to the sidelines as it is introduced as performances that she “approved” of and not one that was forced upon her. This is where the fine line of question comes in and one that has often been used in court to demean the testimony of the women that have come forward about sexual assault.

In this case, we have a woman that signed up for known sexually oriented skits and performances that she approved of, and rehearsed, and then performed many of them onstage in both a preplanned and ad hoc way.

Not So Innocent

If this was indeed a situation of a woman coming forward to accuse an attacker, why did Roger Stone, know and tweet about it twelve hours before Tweeden’s announcement came out? As described in a Miami.cbslocal article:

“Hours before allegations of sexual misconduct were publicly-leveled against Senator Al Franken, Roger Stone, a self-described master of the political dark arts, suggested he knew the attack on the Minnesota Democrat was about to be made. A Twitter account linked to the on-again, off-again Trump adviser posted a quote from Stone in the early hours Thursday morning that read: “Roger Stone says it’s Al Franken’s `time in the barrel’. Franken next in long list of Democrats to be accused of `grabby’ behavior.”

This situation appears as if it is a complete and total “setup” and yet a vast number of liberals, in a “holier than thou” attitude, refuse to use critical thinking for analyzing the condition. They continued to attack Franken in a vicious manner, going so far as requesting that he step down from his Senate position. This is exactly the response that conservatives wanted to see. Franken’s Senate position is a powerful one and well-needed for the Democrats.

For days after the Tweeden announcement was made many liberals refused to take a view of anything that might smack of a well-planned and orchestrated smear campaign. Tweeden has long been aligned with Fox, Hannity and the conservative media and the entire drama is being played out as planned. Liberals themselves are including Franken with other sexual predators including Alabama’s Roy Moore and even Trump himself, and who have a long history of abuse towards women.

Justice is Not Blind Belief

One of the problems with this recent “reveal” is that people are aligning themselves on one side only. There is a terrible new habit of believing anything and everything an accuser states, without considering that there might be untruths or even a personal agenda occurring. To appear to “disbelieve” would lend to an appearance of a throwback to times gone by and so some are simply believing — no matter what.

Each case requires critical thinking and compliance with a logical process. There are situations where women do lie about sexual attacks and they take it all the way to court. While these may be few and far between and I am not suggested that Tweeden is lying, I am suggesting that we need to step back and take a good hard look at the potential reasons, her alliances, what she has already gained by her increased notoriety and finally: the liberal attitude of simply ripping our own apart without due process of law or even the ethics investigation that Franken himself has requested.

From television to radio programs, this story was escalated to the point of simply being nauseating. This unto itself demonstrates something important as MSM has not done the same thing with the sixteen women that have come forward to accuse Trump nor have they treated Roy Moore with the same harsh examinations. Instead, there is a state of denial for Trump and videos of women coming forward to defend Moore.

To say that this is hypocrisy at its best — is an understatement, and liberals have contributed to this condition.

Image Source: The Hill

An Opportunity for Franken

Now that the dust has somewhat settled on this story, some liberals are waking up with a bad hangover. While those that are on the “believe everything” side have unfriended some of their Facebook and Twitter friends that asked logical questions, there is also a large number of liberals that have continued to support Al Franken.

There are many that perceive this situation in a reality state: Franken has been a long supporter of women’s issues and does not have a history of this behavior. They also know that things done in our youth that were understood to be part of the times can be viewed now as unacceptable. This is what happened to Al Franken and he should not be lumped in with lifetime sexual attackers or abusers because of it.

So where do things go from here? To be honest, this could be an opportunity for Al. He has stepped out of the spotlight of the drooling media and has been spending time with his family while he contemplates what he wants to do with his future. It is a moment in time that Franken could actually take the bull by the horns and create a platform for exposing how our society views male behavior and to address men as equals in changing what has become totally unacceptable behavior towards women. This is a discussion that has been part of the feminist movement for many years but as of yet, never adopted by men. The time is now to bring to light all of the subtle and not-so-subtle actions, words and deeds that eventually lead to the mistreatment of women. Franken could lead this program and he is in the perfect position to do so. This would also alter the public view and maybe, just maybe, the liberals would take a step back, look at the situation for what it is, and stop eating their own.

After all it sure got the attention away from the Roy Moore and RussiaGate scandals.