Pouring One Out for Gillibrand

I know I've really not been spending a lot of time with the 2020 Democratic primary coverage, and in part it's because there are still too many candidates for my woeful attention span to keep up with, and it's still early days. But I want to talk a little bit about Kirsten Gillibrand leaving the race because I had high hopes for her. She was someone who, from her appointment to the Senate, struck me as having the kind of leadership qualities and relatability that really could take her to the White House. As a feminist, and as a liberal who believes in the representation of many voices, I wanted to see her do well in this race.

I think part of her failure to catch on was definitely due to people blaming her for Sen. Franken's resignation, and I am still mad that this falls on her like it was something she initiated and that it never would have happened but for her. If she wasn't the first person to call for it, would it have been Sen. Schumer? Would it have been Sen. McCaskill? Sen. Murray? Would Sen. Harris now be the one facing a possible 2020 election kneecapping? 

There's no use in looking back in anger. You just never know what could have been, but what I do know is that Sen. Gillibrand, who cares about women's stories and has supported victim's rights, never was the first one to shaft a colleague expecting to capitalize on that or think it would make her a hero. Because you don't watch how other women are treated for speaking out again and again and develop that particular expectation about things. Calling her "ambitious" for that, or for her subsequent presidential run when that had long been in the cards for her is like saying ambition is wrong when women look up, and address what they find vexatious, or ask to see their talents fully realized. 

There was nothing wrong in the political calculus she shared with many other knowledgeable politicians regarding this. There was nothing wrong with throwing her hat into this now-crowded ring, against a miserable incumbent that I fully understand why anyone might be chuffed at the possibility of beating.  And I don't pin her lack of political traction on the Franken affair alone--it is hard to stand out in this particular crowd, and I am not the only person following politics who has a short attention-span.  

So she will go on to serve out her time in a yet-long term, and I don't doubt she will do so with honor and distinction. I don't know that, all other things considered, she's going to be someone's idea of a running mate, but I want her in the Senate, still doing the job I know she does well. 

Time, I think, is on her side. Even if right now, fate wasn't. 

(I note in passing I missed saying anything about Jay Inslee's late run to keep the climate change discussion in our minds, John Hickenlooper's dropping out of the race to a more promising Senate run, and Seth Moulton's departure--because in all honesty? I got nothing.)

Hindsight is 50-50

How @alfranken got railroaded: my story here https://t.co/zNzRMPRoa2

— Jane Mayer (@JaneMayerNYer) July 22, 2019

While I really think Jane Mayer generally does great work, this piece does nothing for me. I felt like Tweeden's political bias was irrelevant to whether or not her claims should be taken seriously at the time, and still do. I think it was pretty clear at the time that conservative media was positively gleeful about reporting a liberal senator as having been accused of sexual harassment, and that dynamic, while interesting, isn't surprising to us after years of their paying attention to "but Bill Clinton's penis" (which was, in its day, somehow even more ubiquitous than "but Hillary Clinton's emails").

What remains the case is that there were more allegations, that numerous senators called on Franken to resign, that he made that decision himself, that once he resigned, no further investigation was going to happen (or would satisfy the right wing radio scandal-mongers) and that looking back in anger, regret, or anything else will simply never tell us "what might have been". Hindsight isn't 20/20, it's 50-50.

For me, the bigger picture was the accused sexual harasser/rapist in the White House, the accused pedophile Roy Moore, and the ability to take seriously claims that we believe and stand with women who report sexual harassment on the left. It couldn't be a "both sides" issue. Life isn't fair.

I think Franken was right to resign when he did instead of dragging it out, and I can totally understand his regret now, just as I can understand how his friends and supporters feel about that. I think it definitely is that case that right wing media cynically seized on it, and whether it was true or not never would have mattered, and the same people who wanted Franken's scalp, would go on to defend Kavanaugh or any other conservative figure under allegation of sexual wrongdoing. We don't know what would have happened had anything been just a little different.

And for what it's worth, people who want to blame any of this on Senator Gillibrand can pretty much stuff it.

Oh Look, Trump's Awake...

Maybe it's not too much to ask that the president somehow not describe a US Senator who is critical of "Trump" (love that Tweeting in third person!) due to his sexual harassment  history as "begging", willing to "do anything", and "USED"? Because those kind of sound sexist and creepy in context. Or even out of context.