The upcoming resignation from the United States Senate by Al Franken, D-Minn., does two things. It rids the body of a man whose degrading actions and words go far beyond the eight women who have recently accused him of various forms of sexual harassment. But it also - rightfully so - puts the onus on the Republican Party to investigate any charges against senatorial candidate Roy Moore should he win a special election in Alabama on Tuesday.
Franken, in a speech on the floor of the Senate Thursday, said he would resign "in the coming weeks." Without repeating the apology he made when his first accuser came forward weeks ago, he said "some of the allegations against me are simply not true" and "other [incidents] I remember very differently."
The comedian-turned-politician appeared anything but contrite as he called it "the worst day of my political life," maintained "I know who I really am" and declared he knew of nothing he had done to bring "dishonor on this institution."
Many politicians have had sharp tongues over the years, but Franken's has been particularly vicious. Much of the hate he spewed came before his eight and a half years in the Senate, and it was couched as jokes, but his words were meant to mean exactly what they did.
"Republicans are shameless d--," he wrote in his 2005 book "The Truth (With Jokes)," which focused on the 2004 presidential election. "No, that's not fair. Republican politicians are shameless d--."
Norm Coleman, the Senate incumbent Franken beat by several hundred votes in 2008, "is one of the administration's leading butt boys," he said.
"Nobody likes getting an abortion," he wrote in the same book. "Except, perhaps, rape victims."
His various pre-senatorial writings and speeches also found him detailing three-way sex with robots, describing a potential "Saturday Night Live" skit in which CBS reporter Lesley Stahl is taken into a closet and raped, and roasting actor Rob Reiner by depicting a fantasy incident in which he was raped by his father, Carl Reiner, and his father's friends.
Democrats initially believed the initial incident of Franken groping a woman, captured in a photograph, could be swept under the table, but the recent resignation by 27-term U.S. Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., after similar accusations (and others by many more women involving many other men in various professions) convinced 36 Democratic senators to urge Franken to quit.
It also will put more of a spotlight on Moore, should he be elected. The former Alabama judge, twice ousted from the bench, has been accused by nine women of sexual harassment or sexual assault more than 35 years ago. Like the Minnesota senator, he has said the allegations are not true.
As with Franken, though, several senators already either have said Moore likely will face an immediate ethics investigation or expulsion.
What we can be sure of with a win is there are sure to be an increase in calls to see less of Moore.