Cortez Masto's Statement on Franken

[Leith]

While Cortez Masto was not one of those who came out publicly about Franken resigning, sher has an opinion.

https://www.cortezmasto.senate.gov/news/press-releases/cortez-masto-statement-on-resignation-of-senator-al-franken

Here is the entirety:

Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) released the following statement after Senator Al Franken’s announcement that he will resign:

“I am extremely disappointed in Senator Franken. The experiences shared by the brave women who have come forward show a disturbing pattern of behavior.

“Throughout my career as a prosecutor and Nevada’s Attorney General, I’ve stood up to support survivors of sexual violence and misconduct. My time working with these survivors has shown me that the epidemic of sexual harassment and sexual assault is bigger than one Senator and that the culture of the United States Congress must change. That begins with reforming the Ethics process to clearly set the highest standards of conduct for Members of Congress and to enforce severe sanctions for Members and staff that engage in this inappropriate conduct. The United States Senate must undertake a comprehensive effort to conduct the ethics process in an open, swift, and thorough manner.

“This revised process must restore the faith of the American people in this institution. I am working with my colleagues on the Rules Committee on bipartisan solutions to fix this broken and outdated process. We must stop using taxpayer dollars to settle sexual harassment claims. We must create an environment where every woman or man feels empowered to come forward. We must reform the Senate’s outdated rules and practices to reflect a higher standard of conduct for Members and staff, and protect the survivors that break their silence.”

She doesn't say anything different from what any of the others have to say.

[rzemanfl]

1. Good luck with "bipartisan solutions" Senator. n/t

[David__77]

2. "The experiences shared by the brave women... show a disturbing pattern of behavior." Really?

It's worth thinking about. Does the sharing of experience demonstrate a pattern of behavior?

What are the criteria by which such a pattern could be demonstrated? Is the criterion "someone said so?" I get why Democrats demanded Franken resign - it's an outgrowth of a certain logic that accusers of sexual misconduct are not to be invalidated. I don't know if Franken failed to invalidate his accusers because of this logic, or because he agreed with them.

[flotsam]

3. " This revised process must restore the faith of the American people in this institution."

Good-you want to restore my faith-I still want an investigation with every accuser testifying under oath in open court. Unless of course your true belief is a witch hunt is ok as long as you are the hunter.

[Leith]

4. You Know What Else Pisses Me Off?

The canned phrases.

All of out here in TV Land are dumbfounded by what we know and what happened to Franken. C'mon! Playing kissy-face and squeezing somebody's waist is now grounds for dismissal? Hell, my mother-in-law has done that to me and we are still on good terms.

All they do is utter platitudes about how we must respect women and believe them when they tell of wrongdoing (thanks, Sherlock - we never would have figured it out ourselves). Well, I have no disagreement with that.

But the facts that the general public know about are accusations from (1) a woman who is on video goosing a guitar player and playing kissy-face and hump-da-leg with a random audience member; (2) a few more women who said that he groped them while getting a picture taken, with none of that or even any type of reaction appearing in the picture; (3) aforementioned kissy-face game.

Meanwhile, there is an adulterer, pussy grabber, kissy-face champion, groper extraordinaire all wrapped up in one lumpy orange package occupying the White House - and what are the Democrats saying about it? Not a hell of a lot.

I want better than that.