[guest post by Dana]

Just days after he launched his new radio show on SirusXM, a military veteran has become the ninth woman to to accuse Al Franken of groping her in 2006:

“I was just out of college in my first job, working for U.S. senator Patty Murray,” she told New York. Franken, then exploring a run for the Senate, was the guest speaker at Murray’s annual Golden Tennis Shoes Awards (named for a dismissive description of Murray, early in her political career, as a mom in tennis shoes).

The woman worked the photo line, and when it was her turn to be photographed with Franken, she said, “he puts his hand on my ass. He’s telling the photographer, ‘Take another one. I think I blinked. Take another one.’ And I’m just frozen. It’s so violating. And then he gives me a little squeeze on my buttock, and I am bright red. I don’t say anything at the time, but I felt deeply, deeply uncomfortable.”

So what, right? I mean, if the self-anointed champion of women tells women everywhere to get over it when a male Democrat is caught up in accusations of sexual harassment and inappropriate handsiness, who are they, or even you to make a big deal of it:

Hillary Clinton defended former Vice President Joe Biden against allegations that he has has acted inappropriately by head kissing and touching the backs of women. In a video interview with People Magazine to promote her upcoming book, the former first lady said that the former veep should be judged for the “totality” of his record and that he “is a thoroughly decent human being who has served our country honorably and well for decades.” She said that focusing on the allegations of inappropriate behavior was just a distraction. “We can pick apart anybody. I mean, that’s a great spectator sport,” she said. “But this man who’s there in the Oval Office right now poses a clear and present danger to the future of the United States. So get over it.”

Heh, Hillary would claim that her own husband served his country honorably for decades too, so what’s a little handsy sexual assault, eh??

Dear Hillary, your hypocritical underpants are showing. Yet again. While it’s a very unattractive look, it is a revealing reminder of the breadth of unabashed hypocrisy and dishonesty in which you trade.

[Ed. I don’t really care about Al Franken, other than he is a sleazebag who may once again be in a position of power as he has not ruled out running for public office. I don’t really care about Hillary Clinton, other than she may run again in 2020 and women may be stupid enough to buy her shtick.]

(Cross-posted at The Jury Talks Back.)

–Dana

Donald Trump on Twitter last night:

His lies were made in perhaps the most blatant and sinister manner ever seen in the great Chamber. He wrote down and read terrible things, then said it was from the mouth of the President of the United States. I want Schiff questioned at the highest level for Fraud & Treason…..

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 29, 2019

It’s tempting to write this off as just another wacky Donald Trump tweet. It’s not.

Yes, calling things you don’t like “treason” is a common form of political hyperbole. We know this. However, it is also a crime that is actually prosecuted by the United States Department of Justice. So this isn’t just any random politician, with no power over criminal justice, casually making an accusation of treason. In fact, it’s not even the President of the United States casually making an accusation of treason (which he has done before). It is the President of the United States saying in no uncertain terms that he wants a U.S. Congressman questioned on suspicion of having committed treason.

Pointing to random Democrats who have yelled “treason!” over Russiagate is not a valid response to the concern I address here, unless those random Democrats have the power to order someone arrested for treason. If they do, I want them gone from their jobs yesterday.

Trump defenders will also assert that Trump is not serious. He hasn’t actually asked for this to be done, after all! He is “joking” or blowing off steam. Well, perhaps he is. I don’t care. Someone who has the ability to hire and fire members of the federal criminal justice system, and give them orders, has no business talking this way — and if they can’t help but do so, they can’t run federal law enforcement. It’s just that simple. Trump is talking about having a political opponent, Adam Schiff, arrested for a crime that the political opponent clearly didn’t even remotely approach committing — and Trump’s subordinates actually have the power to put people in jail for committing that crime. This is not a tenable situation. Not remotely.

Imagine if Trump actually ordered DoJ to investigate Schiff for treason. Would the GOP defend that too? After all, established GOP doctrine now says Trump may order the criminal investigation of political opponents, and fire DoJ employees for not serving his personal interests.

Trump’s threat to have Adam Schiff investigated for treason is impeachable all by itself, but the threat is also part of a larger pattern of Trump’s view of criminal law as nothing but another tool he can use to protect himself and threaten his enemies. There are too many examples to cite them all: threatening Michael Cohen’s father with an investigation; expecting Jeff Sessions to un-recuse and exonerate him out of personal loyalty; asking the FBI director to drop an investigation of one of his former campaign and White House officials; asking a foreign leader to criminally investigate a likely political opponent; dangling pardons in front of potential witnesses against him; ordering subordinates to fire a prosecutor investigating his own wrongdoing. Donald Trump sees law enforcement as a collection of henchmen there to serve his personal partisan political interests. That’s not what they are there to do, and we can’t continue to have someone running federal law enforcement who sees the Department of Justice as his personal hit men.

This can’t continue like this. This has to stop. Donald Trump has to be removed from office.

UPDATE: Trump this a.m. Now Trump is not just suggesting Schiff should be questioned, but also that he be arrested.

Rep. Adam Schiff illegally made up a FAKE & terrible statement, pretended it to be mine as the most important part of my call to the Ukrainian President, and read it aloud to Congress and the American people. It bore NO relationship to what I said on the call. Arrest for Treason?

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 30, 2019

It can’t go on.

[Cross-posted at The Jury Talks Back.]