It’s doesn’t have quite the same quality as Moore’s “Who Would Jesus Molest?” defenders, but I do see a lot of liberals playing Change the Subject awfully damn hard with regard to Franken. There’s about a bazillion discussions going on in liberal circles about Roger Stone and the Russian bots knowing about the allegations before they became public. Sure, it’s a politically motivated hit job. I don’t ever think that was ever in any serious doubt. But the thing is, this political hit job seems to have an actual basis in fact, making it very much different from the things thrown at Clinton by the same actors.

For crying out loud, Franken is not contesting the accusation. He’s referred himself to the ethics panel. Is that enough? No, actually it’s definitely not enough in the end, but it should be enough for his supporters to stop trying to defend him by calling the accusation “fishy”. Fishiness isn’t nearly as important as truth.

Exactly zero liberals are saying Franken groped this woman just the same way John the Baptist groped Elijah so it’s okay. But this is only because liberals and conservatives think differently. But they both have the same defend my team instinct, and sadly very little respect for the seriousness of the issue of sexual harassment.

Sexual harassment (should be) a non-partisan issue, and it’s rampant in places without oversight, such as Congress. There are absolutely more Democratic congresspeople who engaged in similar and worse behavior. And more Republicans too. And I’m not particularly sad about the prospect of dirt being dug up on the lot of them.