Another Woman Accuses Al Franken of Groping Her, When He Was a Sitting Senator in 2010

I'm sure he has a different recollection of the encounter, but also apologizes for... nothing.

Um, I said that as a joke, because that's been his previous Crisis Communications Firm scripted line. In fact, it's been several of these guys' line -- Ben Affleck claims he does not remember if he groped an actress, but either way, he's sorry. Kevin Spacey said he didn't remember molesting a then-16-year-old kid, but whichever way, he's sorry.

However, it turns out that's exactly what he did say in this incident as well -- I don't remember this happening, but I'm sorry. For... unspecified reasons.

The Crisis Communications Script seems to call for Apologies Without Admissions -- which makes them not apologies.

A woman says Sen. Al Franken inappropriately touched her in 2010, telling CNN that he grabbed her buttocks while taking a photo at the Minnesota State Fair.

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Lindsay Menz, a 33-year-old woman who now lives in Frisco, Texas, reached out to CNN on Thursday hours after Tweeden made her story public. Menz said she wanted to share an "uncomfortable" interaction that left her feeling "gross."

According to Menz, she attended the Minnesota State Fair with her husband and father in the summer of 2010, almost two years after Franken was elected to the Senate. Her fathe''s small business was sponsoring a local radio booth, and she spent the day meeting various elected officials, political candidates and celebrities and taking photos with them as they stopped by the booth.

When Franken walked in, Menz and her husband, who also spoke with CNN, said they recognized him right away. Menz said she had a brief and cordial exchange with the senator.

Then, as her husband held up her phone and got ready to snap a photo of the two of them, Franken "pulled me in really close, like awkward close, and as my husband took the picture, he put his hand full-fledged on my rear," Menz said. "It was wrapped tightly around my butt cheek."

"It wasn't around my waist. It wasn't around my hip or side. It was definitely on my butt," she said, recalling that the brazen act lasted three or four seconds. "I was like, oh my God, what's happening."

"He reached around her and kind of pulled her into him," said her husband Jeremy Menz, who didn't see what happened behind his wife. "He pulled her in and pushed his head against her head. It was over pretty quick."

Lindsay Menz told CNN that she walked away as soon as the photo was taken, without saying anything to the then-first term senator. When she reconnected with her husband moments later, she told him: "He totally grabbed my butt." Jeremy Menz described that conversation the same way to CNN.

In a statement to CNN Sunday, Franken said he did not remember taking the photo with Menz and that he felt "badly" that she felt disrespected.

The American Spectator reports that, when on tour in the 70s and 80s, Al Franken and Tom Davis used to do a "sketch" where they'd invite two pretty young girls to the stage and slow-dance with the, groping their buttocks the entire time, Because Funny, I guess?

They each stepped off the front of the stage and into the chairs and picked out two comely young college girls and brought them up to the stage. The lights dimmed. Soft, romantic music began to play. Franken and Davis wrapped their arms around their partners and pressed their bodies close. The girls complied.

They danced. They swayed...

His hands began fondling her ass.

Same with Davis.

Ha ha ha. There was laughter from the assembled voyeurs, excuse me, spectators.

The girls both reached behind and moved the roving hands up.

After which the hands slid back down to cop another slow, sensuous feel. Over and over and over.

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I didn't laugh. I kept waiting for a punchline, as though the ass grab was a setup. But it wasn't a setup. Fondling the fanny was the whole point.

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These two successful entertainers put two girls on stage, in front of maybe two hundred people, in roles of dancers, and began fondling them. Straight and simple as that. Maybe Franken and Davis whispered instructions into the girls' ears, I don't know.

In any event, the ass grabbing continued for the duration of the song.

Meanwhile, a couple hundred people watched. Or leered. Or laughed uncomfortably.

He seems to have a pattern.

Oh, and before this latest accuser, Franken said he wasn't resigning, but would just spend a day or two reflecting with his family or something before getting back to the job he was elected to do, which turns out to be groping.

posted by Ace at 12:43 PM

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