O.K. I'll say it. Leanne Tweeden used the Franken

[busterbrown]

Incident as news about me press release.. For God sakes can one possibly think that Franken really was doing something wrong and at the same time turning it into a photo op... And the horrible kiss and I agree that she could have been kind of grossed out by it...was a rehearsal kiss.

Yep, one must know that Franken wasn't rubbing his cock during these events.. He was trying to be funny and that did not work out well.. But Al Franken Fucked Up.. and I think Tweeden it saw it as an opportunity .

By the way my wife an actress and formal model (not high profile at all)? Very attached to Feminist issues attends a shit load of events agrees with me

[MFM008]

1. As do I

Last edited Fri Nov 17, 2017, 01:36 AM - Edit history (1)

First she took an incident and is making hay with it big time. It was probably stupid and fumbling but I feel she's exaggerating and Jake Tapper just asked her on CNN what she thought about people who made these sort of claims exclusively for political gain ....now I just heard him ask that and I haven't heard him ask that to anybody else so he's also smelling a big fat right-wing rat here.
Also I think Franken apologized because he knew that if she felt offended because of his tasteless joke and that was enough .....she felt offended and he apologized ....he also apologized to the entire USO troop ,
does that mean he also sexually assaulted all of them?
I just smelled great big stinky dead Bannon right-wing Hannity rat behind this whole thing.

[busterbrown]

37. Yep an some think we're a political machine reacting!

Well stated!

[magicarpet]

65. Yup the Fascist dirty tricks crew....

Sean Hannity
Steve Bannon
Roger Stone
Among a hand-full of trusted field operatives to pull this off

Saw her photo, concocted the juicy kiss story, then unleashed her to the media to take the heat off Judge Roy Moore, bad Russia news coming out, and create a diversion for the "middle class tax plan" so not a lot of media attention was focused there.

Disaster and Diversion Capitalism and Fascist Politics at its very best.

[woolldog]

2. The real news is how gullible some Democrats are, calling on Franken to resign...

Good lord.

[bdamomma]

4. The only person who should resign

is that scum in the WH, he is a traitor.

[FakeNoose]

42. If anybody on DU wants Al Franken to resign

... they must be trolls. So they should be kicked out, they don't belong here.

[Maraya1969]

64. +1000

[brewens]

3. He was probably being a dick, having fun showing the young guys he was an old horn dog too.

You wouldn't very likely see a woman celebrity clowning around pretending to unzip some hot young dudes fly. As far as the rehearsal kiss goes, we are supposed to believe the accusers, we'll be willing to do it with every one of theirs. That makes it suck even more.

If the woman was a flirtatious good sport all through the tour, even liked kissing Al while rehearsing, doesn't matter if there were no other witnesses. Al left himself wide open because of the stupid pic.

[WyLoochka]

41. Why are we "supposed to" believe accusers?

I always thought we, as adherents reason and the rule of law, were "supposed to" hear out testimony and weigh evidence, holding the accused innocent until proven guilty.

[airmid]

53. I always start by believing accusers but there are tells. And there are horror stories...

A guy I knew through high school and after ending up taking his life over false accusations. He was proven innocent in a court of law but his life was ruined. He never recovered and killed himself. People need to be held to account for their words and actions.

[moriah]

54. Because in general liberals do understand that most accusations *aren't* false.

Some are, of course, and before taking someone's freedoms away there needs to be hard evidence.

But we are supposed to, if not "believe" alleged victims without question, listen to every accusation with as open of a mind as we can. Even when it's against someone we admire. Actually, especially when it's against someone we admire, because that's going to be the accusation we don't *want* to believe. The one we really do need to try to put aside our admiration for the accused and not let those feelings make us rush to unfairly attack the alleged victim.

And yes, I include attacks about a person's decision to allow men to look at their bodies in less-than-Quiverfull dress, or even completely nude. And attacks about a person's political affiliation before other evidence has discredited them -- because it'd certainly suck to be in the reverse position. I wonder how many registered Democrats in Alabama have information about Moore but feel it's safer to let Beverly Young Nelson speak for them.

All of this applies no matter which side of the aisle you, the accused, and the alleged victims stand on, because it's just avoiding hypocrisy. And if we're going to hold Republicans to those standards, we gotta have them too.

[YessirAtsaFact]

60. Lindsey Grahams take on the photo

People don’t pose for photos if they think they are doing something wrong.

I hate Graham’s politics, but he can be decent, for a repugnant goon

[brewens]

61. I'm rethinking that as well from some other things I'm hearing. I'm pretty skeptical

that she was asleep. She may have been right in the spirit of things, having some fun clowning around with a guy she really liked. Now he's an enemy Senator. With everything going on,maybe she's using the photo that was once a fun memory, to get back at our side for the other things going on.

[Larrybanal]

66. set up

i have read on several sights written by franken's assigned military shadow and the photographer of the photo and both said it was posed and she was in on it. investigate as franken wants...she doesn't and hopefully the truth will come out

[Nitram]

5. Franken has always been starkly honest about the danger to his political career inherent

in his tendency for edgy comedic gags. I may be wrong, but I think this Trump supporter has made an attempt to equate Franken with Roy Moore for political reasons, knowing full well it was a comedy stunt and nothing more.

[SergeStorms]

10. She showed the picture to Hannity.....

some time ago. I guess it was considered a joke - at the time - but when opportunity knocked, they let it fly.

[misanthrope]

13. Agreed

This got cooked up at an opportune time.

[mitch96]

21. "She showed the picture to Hannity".....

So is she gonna get picked up by Faux noise as a commentator??
m

[Kirk Lover]

22. She already was one. She appeared on Hannity's show on the panel.

[George II]

34. And Roger Stone knew that it was going to break today. That tells me quite a bit about this.

[Duppers]

6. The photo was an obvious gag.

And it was taken with *her* phone so she could find it. I would've hit him just the same and then would've forgotten it.

Best here..

www.democraticunderground.com/10029852851

[kag]

7. Yup.

I listened to her press conference, and just kept thinking "Wow, this woman is all about the attention, and it's women like her who make it more difficult for 'real' victims to come forward."

Sorry if that sounds like victim-blaming, but just listening to her was difficult because she sounded way too happy to be getting all this attention.

[L. Coyote]

16. Her Twitter feed is all about herself.

[peggysue2]

8. I agree with you and your wife

Franken was acting like a mindless frat boy for chuckles and an audience of young military guys. When my husband was in the Navy he attended these USO shows and according to him the shows were always off-color and sexual charged. The 20-something sailors hooted and hollered with every sexual innuendo. So, this skit falls within that context.

As a woman do I like this sort of thing? No. But I'm not a 20-something sailor stuck on an aircraft carrier halfway around the world with 5000 other men.

This is a political hit job. Roger Stone's early am tweet is a clear signal that he and his dirty tricks team had something in the pipeline.

To add to the mess, a second woman has come forward claiming Franken stalked her after a contentious appearance on Bill Maher's show in 2002. According to Melanie Morgan, Franken carried the dispute backstage and then stalked her with repeated telephone calls. She says she felt 'threatened.'

See how this works??

As for calls for Franken's immediate resignation? Pure BS that some Dems are too willing to run with because in the short term it's the easier, quicker route. Wrong. Now is the time to hold fast, allow an ethics inquiry proceed and get everyone under oath and publicly testify for the record. Then, let the cards fall as they may.

Messy? Yeah. But so is democracy.

[dhol82]

14. Yup, glad that Franken himself called for a senate inquiry.

Hope that gets this mess over with.

Political hit job? Totally!

[misanthrope]

15. Exactly

He is the one who called for the ethics investigation, not her. He also issued a soft denial of the kiss recollection.He seems to show confidence with that move.

I would also like to know how often she falls asleep sitting up.

[Nitram]

43. Thanks, peggysue, for sharing your observations and experiences.

I believe you are 100% right about everything you wrote.

[LisaM]

47. I was wondering about that too - whether USO shows were raunchy.

Like you said, these are kids stuck halfway around the world and I'm sure the shows aren't anything I would enjoy, but the point is to entertain them.

They used to televise the Bob Hope ones forever ago, and it seems to me that he used to bring along a lot of "starlets" (I don't like the word, but that's what they were called) and that the shows were loaded with flirting and innuendo and raunchy jokes. It seemed to be the point, almost.

Not every celebrity goes and entertains the troops, and Franken was always front and center about doing that. I wish someone who'd been at one of the shows - or a lot of people - would speak up and say, hey, that's what those shows have always been about and we give him credit for coming to visit us.

It's also probably a stressful environment and I'd guess that many of the celebrities who do go over make bad decisions some of the time.

[peggysue2]

56. I've never attended one

But my husband said yes, lots of off-color jokes, nubile young women playing along and young military men hooting and hollering and crying for more. My husband said it's a way to blow off steam and tension when you're far from home, under stress and/or danger and missing your wife, girlfriend and life left behind. And the young military guys always appreciated the people who participated, those who gave up their time to visit them, remember them, cheer them on.

[SergeStorms]

9. I concur.

There is absolutely no way Al is "groping" her in that photo. If she had worse photos, or had proof of further harassment or unwanted sexual advances, she would have brought them. If that's the best she has.........

[VOX]

11. She was just following Stones/Bannons/Hannitys lead.

But sure, it puts her and her marginal career in the limelight as “value added.”

Total orchestrated political hit, dropped on Thursday afternoon for maximum effect in the media.

[snort]

12. And she is pretending to be asleep,

right? As is the guy next to them in the pic, right? So she's taken a staged pic and turned it into a hit job. Right.

[BannonsLiver]

23. Any concern that this woman has gone on Hannity as a birther?

That doesn’t raise any red flags with you about credibility, that she bought into some racist, batshit crazy slur?

Or that every member of the right wing slimesphere including Roger Stone was tweeting about this yesterday, before it broke?

Again, no red flags?

[maddiemom]

57. This woman was also a birther?

Any references to her in that regard that you can cite? Not doubting you, just curious.

[Honeycombe8]

55. She's not pretending to be asleep. That's why it's funny.

Or WAS funny, decades ago.

The whole group of entertainers punked each other on trips. Not just this group, but other groups, as well.

I wouldn't have been offended. It's punking. Conservatives, though, are known for not having a sense of humor, and for that reason, he should have realized she wouldn't find it funny. But of course, to a comedian, that's precisely what makes it funnier.

[Mira]

17. She used it for self aggrandizement.

Now she's a little famous. For 15 minutes. And the photo alone makes it backfire. She is a dishonest human being and her motives were impure.

[They_Live]

18. The timing of this story.

Tax scam.

Haven't seen the skit that photo is from (has anyone?), but he's playing a character, right? Quite different than cruising the mall for jailbait. Or pretending you're a preacher while ambulance chasing.

[TheDemsshouldhireme]

19. We're being played

I just have to say this. You're telling me a playboy model, lingerie model, who has probably been hit on by countless athletes, rockstars, entertainment people, etc. But the most traumatic experience she feels the need to call out to the press, at the time Moore is in deepcrap, is Franken mimicking groping her over a bullet proof vest and a sketch kiss that went too far.

Add in Roger Stone tipped off ahead of time.

Not buying what they are selling.

[calimary]

20. Welcome to DU, TheDemsshouldhireme!

Maybe they should. This isn't a straightforward blunder. It's stupid, juvenile, and tasteless on Franken's part but mighty opportunistic on her part. Especially if Roger Stone was in the background somewhere.

[RVN VET71]

24. Agree, except there's a real serious question about the kiss

Franked remembers it differently. And even her description of it seems, well, worked on, refined, and rehearsed, if that's the word to be used here.

[busterbrown]

39. Yep.. she's a gorgeous 10 for some

Franken was aware...Way out of his league..he knew it and it gave him strength to have some fun. Problem wrong time .

[LenaBaby61]

32. "Not buying what they are selling."

Me either.

Something about this whole thing stinks to high heaven.

[busterbrown]

33. Well Stated..

You are absolutely right on.. But then again you and I are under the same tent.The tent of truth.. Amazing how the right wing can obfuscate facts

[Dawson Leery]

25. Certainly.

Democrats/Liberals must be careful whom they deal with.
Liberals should stay away from the USO. Their 'acts' are washed up junk grade celebs.
Also, be weary of the Country/Contemporary Christian genres.

[burrowowl]

26. As do I!

and Keith is putting out a petition to tell Franken to resign.
To hell with the DNC until they get some guts and put out some real issues and stand beside them!

[TheDebbieDee]

27. I also think Ms Tweeden's primary motivation was to jumpstart her career...

And I think Sen Franken believes the same thing - that's why he asked for the Ethics Investigation...

[Dawson Leery]

28. Junk Grade Celebrities will do ANYTHING for attention.

[BannonsLiver]

30. She wants to be a Fox News babe as my wife put it.

[tenderfoot]

29. She's hot...

[BannonsLiver]

31. What a shock shes hooked up with the tv poker scene

Loaded with libertarian flat earth weirdos.

[Dawson Leery]

35. Who is weirder? The Pro-Poker gang or MMA?

[BannonsLiver]

36. MMA by a nose but Im not married to that.

[hexola]

51. A Stephen Paddock kind of gal...

I guess...?

[lancelyons]

38. Im sure there where others at that USO tour that probably know it was goofing around however...

Im sure there where others at that USO tour that probably know it was goofing around however...

It is still sexual harassment. It is not sexual assault like Moore.

In comedy I think that might be more accepted.. going to wait to see who comes out to talk about that time.. ie who took the picture, what about the guy next to Tweeden in the picture. I cant imagine she was actually sleeping with the body armor on.

[busterbrown]

40. Yep Wellstated

Comedy! It was all about the Comedy.. Jesus! you can bet your life that Al was not walking around with a hard on.. If he was he would have been done.. Yes...Fucking Done!

[treestar]

44. I agree. If it was bad she would

have brought it to public attention earlier. Timing makes it look like the purpose really is to counter the Moore problem.

[disillusioned73]

45. Yeah, I tend to agree with your assesment..

Frankin's behavior although inappropriate and rightfully apologised for it - he should not resign. It doesn't even begin to broach the level of Alabama dude(name is escaping me) scuminess with pedophilia allegations & the sort..

The corporate media is so easily played by operatives that tend to distract.. although I watched a segment w/ Don Lemon last night that was pretty good & addressed a lot of these uncomfortable issues.. of course a righty tried to deflect the segment but the rest of the panel took him to task..

[YOHABLO]

46. Why is she coming out now? This is a right wing ploy .. you betcha.

[hexola]

48. We don't really know anything about their relationship...

Its not impossible there was a little more going on - which might actually cut Franken some slack.

His behavior might not seem so circumspect with the knowledge of some hanky panky.

[Honeycombe8]

49. It's my understanding that the whole USO group of entertainers did that sort of thing.

They're young, funny, push the envelope...they all punked each other. Punking crosses the line...like drawing a penis on someone's forehead when they're sleeping.

I would say that I would not have been offended by Franken's punking me like that. As for the kiss...I don't believe he french kissed her (he says he remembers that differently). I don't think he "insisted repeatedly" that they rehears the kiss, despite her protestations that it's not needed. It makes more sense that she put him off once (thinking she knew better than the pro, at what needed to be rehearsed), but his penchant for rehearsing and excellence in entertainment won out, and they rehearsed. If she didn't want to kiss anyone, she should not agree to be in a comedy skit where she has to kiss someone.

[hexola]

50. Yes - Franken was more writer than performer

I could see him wanting to make sure physical sight gag was going to go over well...just being a TV guy and all.

[maxsolomon]

52. Your wife models Formal Wear?

I didn't know that was a specialty.

[zentrum]

58. The photo part...

....is what really makes it innocent to me. A bad and failed joke, but harassers don't harass in plain sight with everyone around aware and looking at them.

[Ligyron]

59. How does someone get their tongue in your mouth provided it's closed?

You'd never make it past my teeth, that's for sure.

The MSM keeps saying he "gropped" her. No he didn't. Nowhere in that picture is he touching her.

[SoCalMusicLover]

62. I Wondered That Too

As a male, I know from experience, if someone does not want an open mouthed kiss, they keep their mouth closed.

Ask any guy who has been on a 1st date. The situation would be over in less than 2 seconds, if she was resistant to him trying to french kiss her. Yet she makes it seem like he was practically going down on her for several minutes.

[FreeStateDemocrat]

63. Slimy right-wing hit job to create distraction from tax cut abomination.