Gingrich on Franken: This Is Hysteria!

Dude, you sound desperate. Knock it off.

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich is seriously stressing out over the martyrdom of Senator Al Franken.

Franken announced he would resign from the Senate last week, after several more women came forward to accuse him of inappropriate behavior, prompting half of the Democratic caucus to ask that he step down.

Of course, there’s no word on exactly when he’ll step down, and that speech he gave was an angry, snotty diatribe, but to listen to Gingrich, it was justified.

Speaking on Sunday, Franken’s new best friend said:

“He’s never faced his accusers. He’s never had due process. He’s never had an opportunity to clear his name,” Gingrich told “Fox News Sunday” when asked why the calls for Franken to step aside were “a lynching.”

He’s not on trial. This is a matter of character and apparently, his is lacking.

“Now a million people had elected him. And 30 people decided he was inappropriate. Now they haven’t decided yet that Bob Menendez, by the way, who has a much more interesting story to tell, is inappropriate,” Gingrich added, referring to Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.), whose federal corruption case last month ended in a mistrial.

Some of those people elected him from the trunk of a car.

Menendez… you’ve got me there. I’ve got nothing.

“This is purely and simply hysteria.”

And it may be, but given the stories that have emerged across the spectrum of entertainment, media, and politics, it seems like it’s past time to do something. What were once ugly secrets and rumors are seeing the light of day, and maybe Franken’s personality is such that his colleagues don’t feel especially beholden to defend him.

“I was told by a reporter who really tries to pay attention to this stuff — that to some extent the blowback on Nancy Pelosi when she tried to defend John Conyers was so intense from the left that everybody else on the left suddenly said ‘Got it. Lynch mobs are in this week. Let’s go lynch somebody. Franken’s available,’” Gingrich said on Sunday, referencing House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi’s (D-Calif.) comments that former Rep. John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.) deserved due process in the face of sexual misconduct allegations.

And that may have some merit. They didn’t act fast enough with the John Conyers stories, which were, even in the most generous light, disturbing.

Just because it seems Franken is being scapegoated, however, that doesn’t mean he’s being judged unfairly.

“I mean, there was no objective force to kick him out,” Gingrich added of Franken. “He wasn’t going to be expelled. He just couldn’t take the social ostracism.”

Well, I’m going to try and feel really bad for Al Franken.

In the meantime, I think it would be closer to the truth to say Gingrich’s motives are not completely out of compassion and concern that Franken be given a break.

I think, if we’re being honest, a lot of it has to do with the fact that the Republican party compromised their claim to the moral high ground in 2016, and those chickens have come home to roost.

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