The Franken Effect

MANIFESTO

Josh Marshall has been highlighting this story for the past day, and it's pretty funny—in a perverse sort of way, of course.

The Republicans are steamed at [Minnesota Democratic Senator Al] Franken because partisans on the left are using a measure he sponsored to paint them as rapist sympathizers—and because Franken isn't doing much to stop them.

"Trying to tap into the natural sympathy that we have for this victim of this rape—and use that as a justification to frankly misrepresent and embarrass his colleagues, I don't think it's a very constructive thing," Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) said in an interview.

The upshot is that Senate Republicans see Franken's amendment as an anti-bipartisanship effort. That is, their complaint is that he's purposely divided Senate Democrats and Republicans in their collective efforts to (Wait for it.) pass beneficial legislation.

Republican disingenuousness knows no bounds.