It wasn’t that long ago that someone totally unqualified to be president was running a campaign unlike any in American history. His rallies were hate-fests at which he encouraged violence against protesters and those who didn’t agree with him. His platform was one of revenge and resentment.
Personally, he was a disaster, twice-divorced, father of children with three different women, a noted public philanderer who had no concept of government, the world or policy.
And yet, if pressed to pick the one topic which dominated 2016, it would be hard to avoid, “her emails.” Yes, despite the fact that the current incumbent ripped off employees and contractors, had questionable relationships with foreign governments and ran a fake charity, the campaign was dominated by the fact that Hillary Clinton had a private email server which, by the way, was never hacked (unlike the State Department) and which never jeopardized national security. The fact that her predecessors used outside email never got much traction.
She also erased emails, something none of us ever do.
So when James Comey dropped his October bombshell about finding more emails, the media went batshit. Despite the fact that no one, not even Comey, knew what was in them, the story led the papers and the newscasts. By the time Comey said, “never mind,” the damage was done.
Afterwards, there was the usual navel-gazing and self-evaluation from the press that perhaps they had overemphasized Hillary’s email and didn’t focus enough on the fact that the incumbent was and is in no way qualified to be a national leader.
And what did they learn from that exercise? Nothing, as events of the recent week demonstrate. On the day that House Republicans passed a bill that blows a $1.5 trillion hole in the deficit, screws teachers, grad students, middle class homeowners while giving the incumbent and his family and friends billions, what was the media obsessing with?
One kiss and one gag photo from 10 years ago. That’s it. That a Senator, Al Franken, was involved back before he was a senator and part of a totally different culture was deemed irrelevant in the current over-heated political climate.
Context Is Important
How overheated? Self-righteous twits at Vice and Slate, among others, are aligning themselves with Breitbart in demanding the Franken resign. (No, I’m not linking to their stories. Screw them.) Chickenshi*t politicians who should know better (more about Sen. Gillibrand later) can’t wait to dump on Franken.
Let’s look at the context, and yes, there is context.
If you read Franken’s fine new book there is a great chapter about the writers room at SNL, with all of the nonsense, gross jokes, black humor and the rest. Comedy isn’t always pretty.
Have you ever watched the very first SNL skit? It’s totally tasteless, but very funny, like many of the sketches SNL has done over the years.
In fact, if you watched enough of SNL, you would see lots of the very behavior about which Franken’s accuser was complaining. Why would Franken include a tongue kiss? It’s part of the shtik. Look at the “Kissing Family” sketches, for example.
If Franken’s accuser felt offended by his sketch, she was within her rights to smack him and say “knock it off.” I wonder whether she had encountered similar behaviors in her show-biz career and how she reacted to them.
Instead, she waited 10 years until the middle of a highly political season in which a Republican Senate candidate has credible allegations of sexual predation following weeks of other instances of such behavior being made public. And you have Republicans trying to distract everyone from their disastrous tax plans.
Franken wasn’t her superior. He had no power over her career. He wasn’t making a sexual attack on her. They were rehearsing a sketch that, in context, maybe wasn’t the best idea but it’s ridiculous to translate what he was doing then into today’s climate.
There was no pattern of behavior that justifies resignation or anything like it. Democrats own up to their mistakes while Republicans circle the wagons, and then attack Democrats.
The Political Climate Is Distorting
Of course Dems have to condemn Franken. In this climate, they can’t afford not to, with both Republicans and their echo chambers and affronted Democrats on the attack.
But let’s hold up for a minute, please. The junior senator from New York, who has compiled an admirable record of working on behalf of victimized women, couldn’t wait to pile on and give back political contributions Franken had given he (as did Sen. Jon Tester from Montana).
She then blundered into history about which she should know better, which brings us back to where we started, with the Clintons and the concept of context. Gillibrand said Bill Clinton should have resigned, because it would have saved everyone lots of pain later.
Bill Clinton’s foibles have been tossed around also the past few weeks. He suffered for his behavior but, amazingly, his wife stood by him (and got roasted for it).
But to say Clinton should have quite misunderstands history. Monica Lewinsky was a side show that the so-called Independent Counsel Ken Starr dug up after he couldn’t find anything on the main topic of the day, a failed land deal on which the Clintons lost money.
From the minute Clinton took office after beating Bush I, Republicans were after him. Whether it was firing travel office employees, or Hillary Clinton’s legal career, or Whitewater, the idea was to de-legitimize the Clinton presidency and get revenge for the investigation and resignation of Richard Nixon, he of the break-ins, hush money and cover up. The right wing spent millions on the effort, sending David Brock (in his unenlightened days) down to Arkansas to dig up dirt along with all sorts of other dirty deals, official and otherwise. Lewinsky herself was setup by Republican apparatchiks.
A Clinton resignation would have let the radical Republicans win, Sen. Gillibrand. That was the issue. It wasn’t about sex or about women. It never was. It was about power and taking down a Democratic president.
So let’s take a breath and take a step back. The death penalty for jaywalking is ridiculous. Franken apologized.
It’s time for us, and for the media, to focus on what really matters, like throwing millions of people, including children, off of health care; on that hypocritical and harmful economic policy; on the destruction of environmental protection, the obliteration of the Internet, and all of the other wonderful policies the current Administration is trying to distract us from.
Let’s learn the lesson of “but, her emails,” so we don’t have to go through it again with, “but, that kiss.”