Franken Should Not Resign (Yet)   It's Too Early To Call For Franken's Resignation Surely by now you've heard about Leeann Tweeden accusations regarding a 2006 USO trip she made with then-comedian Senator Al Franken. (He was elected two years later from Minnesota). In a nutshell, she accuses him of putting his tongue down her throat while rehearsing a skit that called for a kiss (but presumably not that kind of kiss). She also accuses him of groping her, based on the photo above, which she says was taken while she was asleep (and of course without her consent). Recently we have seen a plethora of articles written by opinion writers with a feminist and/or left-of-center political outlook: most of these pieces suggest that Franken should resign NOW - even before the Senate Ethnics Committee hearing that appears to be in the offing. I greatly respect (and generally agree with) all of these wri...

What the Franken "Groping" Photo Says (and doesn't)   What the Franken Photo Does (and Doesn't) Tell Us - "groping" versus "sexual assault" versus "sexual harassment" Unless you've been asleep or in a coma for the last 24 hours, you've heard about what Leeann Tweeden wrote wrote regarding a 2006 USO trip she made with then-comedian Al Franken. And as I'm sure you also know, Senator Franken (D-Minn.) was elected two years later and continues to serve (as of this writing, at least). I'm not going to address one of the two things that Tweeden said about Franken's behavior: namely, the incident in which she claimed that he french-kissed her without her consent. (Of course that's a very serious allegation!) But what I want to do now is focus on the one piece of physical evidence, namely the photo that you see above - and have doubtless alread...

Trump Might've Been Right About Gillespie   Was Trump Right about Gillespie? Maybe. You'll hear a lot of theories about Gillespie's nine-point loss to Northam in the recent Virginia gubernatorial contest. Jennifer Rubin's wrap-up in the Washington Post lists many . In a widely-lampooned tweet , President Trump said: "Ed Gillespie worked hard but did not embrace me or what I stand for." The data shows that Trump may have been right. If 90% of the people who support Trump unconditionally for tribal or cultural reasons, and who voted for him in 2016 had also voted for Gillespie, then Gillespie could've won. Let's tease that out. I'll begin with a number: at least 61% of Trump's voters and supporters favor him unconditionally . (If you want to know where I got that, read my analysis here .) Many of them are white evangelicals who believe that Tr...