And has a wonderful laugh.

At this point I'd put her at the top of the field, but as always we'll have to wait until people start to vote.

Unlike Kirsten Gillibrand, Kamala Harris spoke with conviction and passion. She did not disappoint at all.

And she did a great job defending herself. I especially liked how she explained her views on capital punishment.

Did you notice how Lawrence got in there to talk with her during the switch between shows? She's just a natural. Very personable.

...she had what could be considered a minor issue in her past, but it was a minor issue that could have been inflated into a major one, and that's exactly what her opponent did in a debate. She stepped on her neck and made it seem much more "insidious" than it was.

We're talking about a relatively low-level government position, but her opponent reveled in the art of cutthroat politics. During the debate, she brought up the issue immediately. I wasn't there, but I saw the video. My friend immediately went into "deer in the headlights" mode. She was blindsided, she didn't think her opponent would do this to her in a public forum. But I'd studied her, I KNEW she would. And as much as I tried to prepare my friend for that moment, she blinked...which signaled "guilt"...and she ended up losing by a wide margin.

So I thought it was extremely astute of both Maddow and Harris to have that exchange last night.

No matter who ends up as our final candidate (and I do like Harris), we all know that Trump will be furiously searching for another "lock her (or him) up" moment. It's best to put everything on the table and frame it before he gets his tiny orange fingers on it.

Shows a lack of judgement to be President IMO.

And Amy said the only reason she didn't was because she works with him, as Senators from the same state.

Called for Sen Franklin to resign, and I intend to do so.

down the road who Al Franken endorses.

Harris may be wicked smart and have great policy suggestions, but she also was well-known as a prosecutor who was willing to go for the conviction despite exculpatory evidence showing up. I see red flags when a prosecutor is known for making innocence and justice secondary to getting the conviction. In Texas, we have far too many like that, and they are almost all proud Republicans.

Harris may have evolved and gotten more reasonable. People do change, not always for the worse, and Harris certainly seems smart enough to know who her national constituency will be. You don't get star treatment from Rachel Maddow if that is not the case. But until an apology for urging Franken to resign is forthcoming, I will be supporting none of his Senate detractors (of any race or gender) in the primaries. If someone is big enough to be president, one is big enough to admit a mistake, especially one with such far-reaching consequences. I do not want another W, who couldn't recall any mistakes he had made (even I could recall a few, had he only bothered to ask). I know my stance will put me into a small minority on DU. I'm perfectly fine with that. My vote counts no more than anyone else's.

than we do?

They were there, and they were communicating with their young aides. From their unity on this, I think we might have only been seeing part of the truth with Franken. He had the option of going through a long investigation and chose not to. There could be a good reason why.

If I have to do it again, so be it: he only left when the governor of Minnesota announced his replacement before he had even made his decision. That was the straw that broke the camel's back for Al, not a bunch of Republican-generated "accusations." A bunch of Democratic Senators saw the Alabama special election and ran for cover when none was needed. It was well-orchestrated, but Al and Franni had/have a great marriage, and none of this made-up stuff could change that. I have seen enough "guilty until proven innocent" situations, and this was one of them.

and their friends were all shocked when they suddenly announced plans to divorce. To everyone on the outside, it appeared they had a great marriage.

So I am skeptical that we can see into other people's marriages.

And I think the 7th incident, involving a former Democratic congressional aide, might have been what tipped the scales among the women Senators (who all would have been able to personally talk to her, and to Franken).

Maybe all 8 of the women, including the Congressional staffers, were giving accounts that were unfair to Franken. I trust the judgment of the women Senators that they weren't.

https://www.politico.com/story/2017/12/06/al-franken-accusation-sexual-harassment-2006-281049

Franken, who has been accused by six other women of groping or trying to forcibly kiss them, denied the accusation.

“This allegation is categorically not true and the idea that I would claim this as my right as an entertainer is preposterous. I look forward to fully cooperating with the ongoing ethics committee investigation,” Franken said in a statement to POLITICO.

Two former colleagues of the woman independently corroborated her version of events, including Franken telling her he had the right to try to kiss her because he was “an entertainer.” The first former colleague interviewed by POLITICO said she was told of the incident in 2006, shortly after it happened. The second former co-worker said she was made aware of the encounter sometime in 2009 or 2010.

Hours after this story was published Wednesday, more than a dozen Democratic senators, led by Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, called on Franken to resign.

Not all marriages are alike. I have been with my wife for 44 years now (married for 37 in April). We had the pleasure of hosting California Peggy and her husband here last year, and they make us look like beginners. If you have any reason to state that there are serious problems with any of the three, we are all ears. While it is sad if some marriages conceal deep problems, you cannot seriously project your parents' situation onto all other marriages.

for friends to be completely in the dark. Of course I'm not saying my parents' marriage represents all other marriages. I'm simply disagreeing with the idea that we can be certain of what is going on behind other people's closed doors.

And I know that after the first Republican-backed women came forward to complain about Franken, there were other women complaining who were Democratic staffers. And they had corroborating witnesses. So I'm not going to assume that all of the women Senators who signed that letter were wrong or being unfair to him.

I am not going to assume this was anything other than what it has always looked like to me: an orchestrated effort to silence Al Franken's voice in the Senate by orchestrated campaign of fiction. I'm in France and Belgium every week. I despise the Napoleonic Code.

in an orchestrated effort to silence Franken's voice in the Senate?

Maybe you have forgotten how equivocal Franken's responses were. He said he took so many thousands of pictures that he didn't remember if he might have grabbed some women by the butt.



https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2017/11/27/did-he-or-didnt-he-al-franken-keeps-apologizing-for-groping-he-says-he-cant-remember-doing/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.9e68b0f0c09b

With each subsequent statement or interview, Franken seems to be going out of his way to give his accusers the benefit of the doubt. It's something he didn't do right off the bat, despite being on the record that victims of sexual harassment should be believed.

In another interview, this time with Minnesota Public Radio, Franken said: “What my intention was doesn't matter. Some women said I had crossed the line, and for that I am very sorry ... I think we have to listen to and respect what they are saying.”

“Respect” what his accusers say happened, but don't admit to what he's accused of.

And that is namely nothing untoward. The reason he didn't offer a strong defense in the beginning is that he knew better than anyone how little veracity there was to the whole story, and therefore thought that was enough for the scam to fizzle. He was completely blindsided by the fact that the accusations were given any credibility at all, and had no idea how to react to that. I am chagrined that he even needed to offer a defense for something that was concocted for this purpose. If someone WANTS to think evil of him, I can't stop them, but that doesn't give any more credibility to the allegations than anything else. If thirty Democratic Senators wanted to play CYA, that's on them. I'm betting most of them are ashamed, excepting those who saw the affair as a convenient stepping stone to higher things, but don't dare say so publicly. That's the way I see it, and I believe Al's version of it. You are free to believe the opposite if you so desire, but I'll take my sources over anyone else's, unless they have talked to Al or anyone who knows him well since last Friday, and have heard something different.

One can take an accusation seriously, and still refuse to admit to the subject of the accusation if it is untrue. I would do the same thing. If a bunch of Republicans for some reason want to concoct some story about me, I'm sure some Democrats would find reason to believe the charges just because they wanted to. It doesn't make them any more true than the allegations about Al, and I'd be hard put to figure out how to respond if a bunch of my work colleagues felt some urgent necessity to side with the accusers. It wouldn't make them any more right, and I sure as hell would not be lending any of them support for the presidency. In this case, it's Al and not me. My attitude toward his colleagues in the Senate remains the same. They fell for a scam. Fine, but when it's at Al's expense and they hide their heads in the sand, it's not fine any more. I will not throw in my lot with any of them, and any one of them could be next.

I would be able to. I could have taken thousands of pictures and been able to say, NO, I never grabbed a man, or a woman, by the butt. And I never groped anyone.

I think he got stuck in a generational change. Behaviors that in his generation might have been considered just joking around, "boys will be boys," (at least by the MEN), suddenly weren't.

It's like being accused of exposing yourself to other men (or women if you are one) in a gym locker. You have to be aware there's on offense perceived to deny it. He really had to figure out what it was he was being accused of doing, and by whom.

Al is just not a macho "boys will be boys" type. He is light years away from Brett Kavanaugh, who only got away with getting the Supreme Court because the Republican majority in the Senate guaranteed it. I can't exactly get you a one on one interview with Al, so you can either accept that or not. But I would never adopt a "guilty until proven innocent" standard, even if I didn't have a personal connection. This is not 19th century France (or 1920s Mississippi), and Napoleon is not writing our penal code.

'The right decision,' Amy Klobuchar, others say of Franken's resignation

https://www.twincities.com/2017/12/07/amy-klobuchar-mark-dayton-others-react-to-al-franken-resignation-announcement/

U.S. SEN. AMY KLOBUCHAR

“Today Senator Franken acknowledged that he could no longer serve in the Senate and resigned. As he and I discussed yesterday, this is the right decision. Senator Franken has worked for years on behalf of the people of Minnesota and he has been a leader on issues that are fundamental to Americans’ lives, including education, privacy, healthcare and mental health. He has been a friend to me and to many in our state.

“As the women who have come forward to tell their stories across America have made clear, sexual harassment is never acceptable. In every workplace in America, including the U.S. Senate, we must confront the challenges of harassment and misconduct. Nothing is easy or pleasant about this, but we all must recognize that our workplace cultures — and the way we treat each other as human beings — must change.

“For Franni, the Franken family, Senator Franken’s friends and supporters in our state, it’s a very tough day. I want you to know I remain as committed as ever to working together and standing up for people, for common decency, and for our democracy during an incredibly difficult and divisive time in our country. And as we go forward together, we must never forget the words of Senator Paul Wellstone, whom Senator Franken quoted in part today, ‘Politics is not about power. Politics is not about money. Politics is not about winning for the sake of winning. Politics is about the improvement of people’s lives.”

snip



https://edition.cnn.com/2017/12/08/politics/amy-klobuchar-senate-al-franken-minnesota/index.html

"I had condemned his conduct early on when the first allegation was made," she told CNN's Dana Bash on "Inside Politics." "I felt I was in a different role as his colleague, that I'm someone that has worked with him for a long time, there's a lot of trust there, and I felt it was best to handle it in that way."

In a coordinated effort, female Democratic senators called for Franken's resignation in rapid fire Wednesday. Klobuchar did not join in that effort and said in a statement at the time that she spoke with him privately. By Wednesday evening, more than two dozen senators -- including Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer -- had called for Franken's resignation.

"I talked to him about the fact that you had reached the situation with the mounting allegations and the fact that there was an ethics investigation going on," Klobuchar told CNN Friday.

snip


When asked about the ramifications of Franken's decision to resign, which Bash said was "under duress" -- and Klobuchar agreed -- the senator said it's "not about just toppling men." "This is about guaranteeing we will have better workplaces where people treat each other fairly," she responded. "And there is a lot of good men in the workplace. You know some of them. I think the key here will be due process."

snip


https://www.bizjournals.com/bizwomen/news/latest-news/2017/12/why-democrats-pushed-franken-out.html?page=all

snip

A contrast is just what Democrats likely want to focus on, according to The Washington Post. Forcing out Franken, along with Rep. John Conyers, shows the party is “willing to sacrifice their own in the interest of staking out the higher ground,” per The Post.

Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar called Franken Wednesday and privately urged him to step down, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reported. While she plans to uphold Franken’s legacy and the work he’s done for the state, she thought his speech was “short.”

“I know that he didn’t really apologize to the people and that would have been nice,” Klobuchar said, per the Minneapolis Star Tribune.

snip


http://www.startribune.com/sen-amy-klobuchar-says-franken-s-legacy-will-last-but-adds-he-should-have-apologized/462628583/

snip

As for the farewell speech itself, Klobuchar said: “I thought the speech was short. ... I know that he didn’t really apologize to the people and that would have been nice.

“I think the bigger deal for me was that he was able to talk ... with a lot of love for our state, what he liked about his job and what he wanted to be his legacy.”

That legacy, she said, would include Franken’s work on issues like health care and privacy.

But the legacy will also be shadowed by more than half a dozen sexual harassment allegations against Franken. On Wednesday, Klobuchar said, as a seventh accuser came forward and other Senate Democrats began calling for his resignation, she called Franken to privately urge him to do the “right thing” and step down.

snip

Virtually all female Dems were calling for his resignation. And for some reason he didnt put up much of defense. A completely innocent person would have been screaming to high heaven.

We have a super candidate in Kamala Harris and attempts to take her down over this issue are very suspect.

Female who called for Sen. Frankin to resign will ever get my vote.

I gave her the benefit of the doubt.

Do you have any favorites?

As you note, I do not have that many choices at this point that I feel have the judgement to be President.

But that's another story

https://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article90461052.html

I can imagine her going up against Dear Leader and making him look like the ass he is. I also like that she confronts the issues the media has been dwelling on head on and straightens them out. I'm trying to figure out how anyone could think the prosecutor was responsible for a crooked police lab person and why life in prison without parole is unacceptable.

https://democraticunderground.com/10029423914

http://www.progressivepunch.org/scores.htm?x=43&y=3&house=senate&party=&sort=crucial-lifetime&order=down


____________________________

I do understand you like Senator Sanders, he is a good Senator. That’s why his state sent him to Congress in 1990, where he has been ever since.

But please no fact-free nonsense about other candidates who aren’t named Bernie.

The "Not A Real Progressive" bullshit is proof that the Bernie-bots fear her, too...

I feel about her the way I felt about Obama when he was running. She is my front runner right now. I worry about a California candidate running in the midwest, but if she sits in enough kitchens and eats enough chicken dinners with them I think they might come around.