Posted on 11/18/2017 7:50:58 PM PST by nickcarraway
Should he stay or should he go? Hollywood, never as monolithic as Fox News viewers believe, certainly has reached no consensus on Al Franken, the Saturday Night Live veteran turned Minnesota senator.
“Zero tolerance,” tweets Alyssa Milano, firmly in the he-needs-to-go camp. On the other side: “He made a mistake,” said Chelsea Handler, agreeing with a Franken-supporting Bill Maher on last night’s Real Time With Bill Maher. “He’s not a predator.”
Maher neatly summed up the anti-resignation argument: “He did a bad thing and the condemnation has been universal, which he deserves. What he doesn’t deserve is to be lumped in with Roy Moore. Or Kevin Space. Or Harvey Weinstein. Or Donald Trump, who calls his accusers liars, threatens to sue them, did long riffs at his rallies where he said they were too ugly for him to assault.”
But with calls for Franken’s resignation coming from Republicans and some Democrats – including two candidates for governor of Franken’s state – the topic of Franken’s suitability for office remained a hot topic on cable news all day.
Now, at least two of Franken’s former SNL cohorts are wading in, both supporting their old colleague. Jane Curtin tells The New York Times today that she’s “upset about this atmosphere and good people being dragged into it.”
Curtin, one of the original Not Ready For Prime-Time Players, said the longtime SNL writer and featured player was a powerful ally of the show’s female writers and performers.
“If he did that,” Curtin said of Leeann Tweeden’s allegations, “that’s really stupid, but I have never seen him in a situation where he has been sexually aggressive with anybody.”
Also today, Curtin’s SNL castmate Laraine Newman retweeted two posts supporting Franken. Newman first retweeted a Washington Post column by Feminasty podcaster Kate Harding that begins, “I’m a feminist. I study rape culture. And I don’t want Al Franken to resign.” Laurie Zaks, the president of Mandeville TV and former executive producer of Castle, retweeted the same column.
Newman then retweeted a WaPo article about former female staffers of Franken who issued a statement in support of the senator that noted “He treated us with the utmost respect.”
The statement comes as the senator's accuser says she's willing to meet with him to discuss the allegations.
Another former SNL cast member, Rob Schneider (who recently said he too had been sexually harassed by a director), is in Franken’s corner. “I’ve known @alfranken for over 27 years, I disagree with him on a lot of stuff, but he is not and has never been a sexual harasser.”
Mike Shoemaker, Late Night With Seth Meyers producer, called the Franken photo “inexcusable,” but called his friend “a good man and a great senator”:
Mike Shoemaker ✔@shoemakermike
Been friends with @AlFranken since 1986. He's made countless crude inappropriate jokes. That picture is inexcusable and it's good that people were outraged. BUT his apology was exemplary and he is a good man and a great senator. Admire the people who admit when they're wrong.
Actor Terry Crews, who has also gone public with a harassment accusation, insists Franken be “held accountable.”ably!”
Franken’s an insufferable jerk and anyone who knows him knows that.
The only reason any leftist wants him gone is to build the case, as weak as it is, to have Moore do the same - that is, act as if the two cases are apples and apples.
Therefore, I want Franken to stay - should he go anyway, the ‘Rats would just replace him with a Franken clone. Or worse, while Moore going, means the ‘Rat wins.
He did a bad thing and the condemnation has been universal, which he deserves. What he doesn’t deserve is to be lumped in with Roy Moore.
Correct. Because Moore has been accused but no evidence is present. It is she said he said issue. Franken was accused and photographic evidence has been shown to back the accusation!
K do not think Franken should lose his job. He was boorish but not criminal.
Clinton did far worse.
I know this might make me unpopular.
The Moore thing is bogus too.
“‘SNL’ Cast Members Take Sides”
leftists fighting amongst themselves
“You’d Better Put Some Ice On That”
Tom Shales’ brilliant oral history of Saturday Night Live, Franken appears as a lying, drug-abusing (and distributing), jackass.
Who gives a $hit.
SNL ceased being funny on November 4, 1980.
Isn’t there also evidence that he joked about raping a baby? This accusation has been made against him.
I’d be surprised if it wasn’t actually a crime- a misdemeanor assault.
(No, I’m not outraged at any of this media frenzy- except the frenzy.)
I thought Melanie Morgan said she had evidence about him also that she was putting together for spoke out?
As bad and stupid as he is, I don’t want Franken replaced by a Muslim, there I said it, so I must be a racist.
AH! For the days when you could say “Jane, you ignorant slut!” and everyone knew it was a joke and no one got “offended”, “triggered”, or sued.
And on that note
Franken is and has always been an ass; particularly when politics are involved. He’s in the same cage as Baldwin; the one that impersonates President Trump.
Having said that; I don’t think he’s guilty of anything more than poor taste in joke making when it comes to Mrs Tweeden who could have come forward long ago with this allegation instead of waiting for the damn of sexual assault allegations to break.
He should not be in the Senate since he only won by a few hundred votes and over a thousand were found to be illegal votes and I sure as heck don’t want to see that Elison puke anywhere near our congress. He’s not just an ass; he’s pure evil too.
Comparing the false allegations against Judge Roy Moore and President Trump to the real accusations against others like Spacey and Weinstein is stupidly overreaching so those comparisons should be roundly ignored.
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