On Rachel: One of the nominees that Franken grilled and found lacking in veracity has been

[Baitball Blogger]

renominated. I suspect that all these people are being renominated because Franken is not there to stop them from moving forward in the process.

Thank you, Kirsten Gillibrand. We'll be watching when these nominees come up for their Senate hearings.

[TheCowsCameHome]

1. We lost a great one,

at the hands of our own.

Let's see how this works out.

[applegrove]

2. Time for Corey Booker and Kamala Harris to show what they got.

[pnwmom]

5. Kamala Harris is a prosecutor , CA's former Attorney General. She's got it. n/t

[applegrove]

6. Good. Now she can share.

[pnwmom]

15. She already has. Multiple times.

That's why the Rs hate her.

For example:

[applegrove]

19. Never saw her live before. I did see on the Discussionist how scared Republicans,

at the time they went by 'alt right', were of her and how they attacked with a pithy nickname which I can't remember now. So I knew she was formidable.

.

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

36. I remember she grilled Jeff Sessions pretty hard

To the point where he said he was nervous about answering too quickly or something to those words.

[Gabi Hayes]

3. Ha

My rec upped it by three

And I won’t say what I think of that person

Why did she stop calling out repugs for their never ending depredations?

Laying low til she tosses her bonnet into the ring

Thinks people will forget her transgression against one of the two brave senators on the horizon?

[pnwmom]

4. Franken's replacement, Kamala Harris, is the prosecutor who was CA's attorney general.

She will be up to the job.

[Farmer-Rick]

7. Seems Deutsche Bank is officially attempting to takeover

The New York top legal office. What next? Put the top Russian mobster in charge of the New York police? We are being taken over by a forign country and our president is helping them.

[2naSalit]

12. ...

F'in' A right!

[scarletwoman]

8. Kirsten, not Jill. nt

[Baitball Blogger]

9. Corrected. Thank you.

[ecstatic]

10. I really hope someone on Mueller's team is keeping track of all the quid pro quo appointments

and nominations. They don't even try to hide it! And the rethugs in Congress just let it happen. SMH

[IluvPitties]

11. Sen. Gillibrand can't be trusted.

[SharonClark]

18. You joined DU to trash a Democratic Senator?

Maybe you should move on to a repug site.

[DRoseDARs]

20. Sen. Gillibrand can't be trusted.

I joined in 2003, 12 years before you. I'm about to pass 6000 posts, 2600 more than you. What was your point? Did I win your numbers game?

Her actions were self-serving and short-sighted at best...

Here some other roundly-criticized Democratic names for you: Sen. Zell Miller and Sen. Joe Lieberman. Care to defend their honor? Did you join DU to be a "My party, right or wrong" boot-licker? That's a conservative trait. As liberals we're supposedly better than that noise. Perhaps it's YOU that's on the wrong site.

I'm being sarcastic there, of course, but the unquestioning fealty many posters DEMAND is gross and unbecoming in the extreme. Liberals are SUPPOSED to question the actions and motivations of those in government, that's how you keep them HONEST and governing in our best interests rather than their own.

[Beaverhausen]

21. Did you see any news today?

Did you watch this story on Rachel Maddie’s show?

https://mobile.nytimes.com/2018/01/10/nyregion/gillibrand-trump-schumer-prosecutor-berman.html?referer=https://www.google.com/

[Renew Deal]

13. You really think Trump wouldn't have renominated them?

[Baitball Blogger]

14. I don't think he would have if Franken had remained in the Senate.

[pnwmom]

16. Kamala Harris is Franken's match in terms of the ability to question witnesses.

Franken's leaving isn't why DT renominated them; it's his stubbornness that makes it impossible for him to back down gracefully.

[Renew Deal]

17. I think he would have

He doesn't care about this stuff. It became less likely these people would be approved after Franken left because of Jones. He might not be that smart, but he is stubborn.

[pnwmom]

23. Kamala Harris, who is just as smart and just as stubborn, and who questions witnesses

like the prosecutor she is, is the one who replaced him.

The only problem the D's have is that they're the minority.

[Renew Deal]

24. Its a numbers game

On some level it doesn’t matter who you have if you don’t have the numbers.

[Progressive dog]

32. Franken hero worship helps no one

It's amazing that so many self described Democrats attribute super human powers to a Senator because 32 other Democratic Senators asked that Senator to resign.
Franken is gone, he chose to leave when asked by a large majority of his Democratic colleagues. Those other Democrats actually accomplished something by working together. They refused to excuse Franken's behavior. They did the right thing and got Franken to do the right thing.

[Baitball Blogger]

33. What was accomplished was create a Pandoras box dilemma which can now be used against

Democrats by the other side. The no tolerance rule puts boorish behavior, like the kind that Franken was involved with, in the same boat with the men who are committing acts that can and should be criminalized. See the difference? One should have required an apology and acknowledgement of poor judgment, while the other should be facing legal action.

Nothing Franken did required legal action. So, go ahead with your purge. Let's just see those that remain in their seats step up their game and stick their necks out, instead of playing the go along to get along game that I've seen over the last several decades.

[Progressive dog]

34. What was accomplished was actually standing up

for justice. You can't twist this to make 32 Democratic Senators in the wrong.
The minimum standard for Senators should be higher than it wasn't a crime or "it didn't require legal action." Thirty two of 47 Democratic Senators were in favor of a higher standard. Only one was willing to voice support for Franken staying.
This whole Franken was railroaded crap sounds more like an attack on Democrats than a reasoned appeal to justice.

[Baitball Blogger]

37. We will agree to disagree.

In my book, it was poor judgment to ask him to leave without going through the process. It tells me that our Democratic leaders are more interested in playing politics than they are in due diligence.

[Progressive dog]

39. We will not agree to disagree

You may, if you so choose.The politics being played is by those who don't accept Franken's decision to resign and that game is directed against Democrats.

[Baitball Blogger]

40. That's duplicitious to claim that Franken decided to resign at the same time

Last edited Fri Jan 12, 2018, 05:47 PM - Edit history (1)

that you yourself brought up the fact that, "32 other Democratic Senators asked that Senator to resign."

It doesn't matter how you try to paint it, the facts lead to the conclusion that he was denied due process and was pushed out. That doesn't advance the Democrats reputation for being fair and just, because at the core of a fair and just process is due diligence.

[Progressive dog]

41. Due process ended when Frtanken resigned

just like legal due process ends when someone pleads guilty. No one forced him to leave and blaming 32 Democratic Senators for exercising their freedom of opinion and speech is about as low as it gets.

[Baitball Blogger]

42. He resigned because he was pushed out.

He wanted to go through the process, but those 32 Democratic Senators wanted him to resign. Cause and effect. The fact that you can dispense with facts so easily suggests that there is nothing more that I have to gain here by continuing this conversation.

[Progressive dog]

43. They wanted, Franken obeyed

That is a pretty poor defense of Franken as a leader.

[arthritisR_US]

22. I think you nailed it!

[NCTraveler]

25. This makes absolutley no sense at all.

" because Franken is not there to stop them from moving forward in the process."

Unhinged and poorly thought out attack on Democrats. This is nothing more than that.

[Baitball Blogger]

28. How is support for Franken an attack on Democrats?

Going a little over the edge, there.

Franken had an impact and to deny it is unreasonable.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

26. Franken was the only person anywhere who could do anything?

[Baitball Blogger]

30. We're about to find out, aren't we?

[mythology]

29. Franken couldn't have stopped a nomination

We don't have the votes to do that. And if you want to blame somebody for Franken being gone, blame him. He apologized for inappropriate behavior. If he had kept his hands to himself, then he would still be in the Senate.

[Progressive dog]

31. Facts won't stop these attacks on Gillibrand

Kind of makes me wonder which side they're on. Thanks for trying.

[LexVegas]

35. ...

[ProudLib72]

38. Well, if you are right about him being renominated because Franken left

And he gets his butt kicked again, that will be some seriously funny shit.

I don't see how it could be argued that Franken's line of questioning was in any way wrong simply because he later decided to leave. So it should still stand that the nominee is unacceptable.