GOP Temper Tantrum – Al Franken Is So Mean!
If you find yourself with some extra money on your hands (I know times are tight for a lot of people), Al Franken might be someone to send a few bucks to. The fallout from the pro-rape vote of 30 Republican senators is making them mighty cranky. Of course, none of them can come up with an explanation for voting against rape victims and constituents aren’t in a forgiving mood. Instead of rethinking their reflexive corporate butt-kissing, they blame Franken:
Republican senators feel burned by Al Franken — and not by his old jokes.
The Republicans are steamed at Franken because partisans on the left are using a measure he sponsored to paint them as rapist sympathizers — and because Franken isn’t doing much to stop them.
“Trying to tap into the natural sympathy that we have for this victim of this rape —and use that as a justification to frankly misrepresent and embarrass his colleagues, I don’t think it’s a very constructive thing,” Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) said in an interview.
I guess the party of no ideas can’t even imagine that the vote really had nothing to do with embarrassing them, it was to actually help people get justice. Senator John Thune even added this wisdom:
“I don’t know what his motivation was for taking us on, but I would hope that we won’t see a lot of Daily Kos-inspired amendments in the future coming from him,” said South Dakota Sen. John Thune, No. 4 in the Senate Republican leadership. “I think hopefully he’ll settle down and do kind of the serious work of legislating that’s important to Minnesota.”
I’ll proudly proclaim my Daily Kos anti-rape values right now.
Tags: Al Franken, Franken Amendment, MN-Sen
Translation — they underestimated Franken ALOT. And do note the focus of this piece — repubs whinging that someone is not playing nice with them, when their whole playbook is nonstop hardball AND being able to get to the media first to spin the story. Franken did damn good work here and it make these fools look like the craven idiots they are.
There may or may not be merit to Franken’s position on arbitration clauses — but to argue that disagreeing with him makes an opponent pro-rape is despicable. And I say that as the spouse of a rape survivor.
You and your spouse have my sympathy but if those same Republicans whom I will call pro-rape had their way your wife would have had no recourse if she were employed by those companies at issue in the Franken Amendment.
So those evil Republicans are pro rape and I will call them pro-rape.
My sympathy goes out to you and your spouse. No one should have to experience that.
Yes, those poor a%#hole Republicans. They voted to keep giving huge government contracts to companies who cover up rape. Protecting rapists over rape victims means they encourage rape. I’m so sad (NOT)that someone would take that to mean that someone who votes to support these companies means these politicians are pro-rape. Voting for policies that encourage rape = pro-rape.
Wait a minute… calling Republicans pro-rape is disgusting and crossing the line, but saying Obama/Dems want to kill old people and comparing him to Hitler is a-okay?
Dumb question from a non-lawyer: How does an arbitration clause in a contract keep you from being charged with rape? Since when can you contract away enforcement of criminal laws?
Also not a lawyer but I think they were able to do this because it was overseas and covered by different laws. I think there’s actually different laws for contractors – they can get away with a whole lot more than soldiers do. The arbitration clause means the company also can’t be sued civilly.
Anon, UI
You are correct, the underlying issue is arbitration clauses in employment contracts and has nothing to do with protecting rapist or favoring them over thier victims.
If you worked for MBNA in Wilmington and were assaulted by a coworker, youwold call the local police have your attacker arrested and press charges. You may be tempted to file a civil suit against your emloyer MBNA for failing to provide a safe work environment… but you would find you had signed away your right to sue in favor of binding arbitration. The arbitor will be less swayed by the horror story of your attach and the sad story of the after affects and very much less tempted to figure “MBNA can afford it and the money will make UI/anon feel better” than say a typical jurry.
now mentally transport yourself to Bahgdad Iraq, where instead of working for MBNA you work for Dynocorp supporting the State Dept’s effort to build a banking system in Iraq. Same set of facts, you are asaulted by a coworker, but in Bahgdad you are unwilling to involve the local authorities. So no one gets arrested or prosecuted. Again, You want to file a civil suit against your emloyer Dynocorp for failing to provide a safe work environment… but you have signed away your right to sue in favor of binding arbitration as part of your employment contract.
But you in luck as there is a Senator who will use your sad story to justify legislation banning the arbitration clause, knowing it won’t pass but giving him and his ilk opportunit to label opponents of bad public policy “pro-rape”.
In Bagdad, there was no local authority to notify: the U.S. government was in charge.
Of course, that woman who got raped in Bagdad was held captive in a crate owned by the employer whose intention was to transport her back to the U.S. in said crate; and guarded from leaving by another employee of the employer, until one of the employees finally felt sorry for her and released her FROM THE BOX SHE WAS BEING HELD IN while her father kept calling her call phone, which was being held by the employee of the employer so that she couldn’t have any contact with anyone who might help her ….
Yeah, I’d say the opponents of the proposed policy were pro-big business to the point of supporting, hiding and abetting rape.
After all, it was just one woman.
And she probably asked for it.
This is less about unsafe workplaces than circumventing US courts for employee behavior outside of the US. The details of this case here.
Not the additional threats by her employer — not to go home for treatment or she’d be without a job.
The Republicans who voted to let businesses do this kind of thing — which interferes with due process no matter how you cut it — are indeed objectively pro-rape.
Exactly Cassandra. These GOP senators decided that keeping the arbitration contractor loophole open was more important than justice for rape victims.
The intention was not to make GOP senators look bad, the amendment’s intention was to close a loophole which allowed rapists to go unpunished. How was Franken to know that these senators would be dumb enough to vote against rape victims? The amendment did pass by the way. I think everyone actually expected it to pass unanimously and were surprised that 30 GOP senators (all men, of course) voted against it.
PM, I’ve read that at least 13 more women have come forward since the Franken amendment was introduced.
Isn’t it amazing that Al Franken, whom the Right denounced as a clown and a dimwit, has so wounded their sensitivities … and so quickly as a very junior, late-to-the-party Senator.
Which is it, FlufferNutters: dimwit or genius?