Every Rose Has Its Thorn

I gave up long ago on keeping track of all of the unscrupulous males who were caught making sexual advances and exhibiting other forms of improper behavior toward women, from assault to rape, but what caught my attention was Charlie Rose getting caught with his pants down . . . literally.  Rose always came off as the thinking person's talk show host, a gracious, mannered Southern gentleman . . . and it turns out that he has a dirtier mind than Howard Stern.  And Howard Stern, potty mouth that he is, is actually a family man and a nice guy. 

Al Franken, meanwhile, apologized for improper behavior toward a woman while on a USO tour before he was elected to the Senate, and many commentators were quick to note the difference between Franken, who admitted his deed and apologized, and Roy Moore, the Alabama U.S. Senate candidate who has been accused of pedophilia and whose accusers are credible despite his denials.  Then it turned out that Franken groped other women as a U.S. Senator.  Meanwhile, Detroit congressman John Conyers is facing charges of sexual harassment, which he denies, even though he paid a settlement to save everyone involved from going through a legal process.  This isn't a Democratic or Republican issue or white male or black male issue . . . it's a male American issue, and it makes American men look like bigger louts than the rest of the world thought they were.

I believe that Franken and Conyers should resign from their seats in Congress.  And I believe so because of Roy Moore.  Alabama being Alabama, Moore, barring a major disaster, is likely to win the special election for the state's open Senate seat despite every Republican in Washington taking the side of Moore's accusers.  With Moore, who's backed by Trump, likely to be an embarrassment for the Republicans nationwide as a U.S. Senator, and with pressure to do something about him, Democrats should set an example by dissociating themselves from their letches to prevent charges of hypocrisy and take the lead against mistreatment of women.  Franken is inconsequential - he's an entertainer, for Pete's sake, and his home state of Minnesota isn't likely to put a Republican in his place - and Conyers is too old anyway.  Conyers is part of the Democratic gerontocracy that has hobbled the party for too long, and even though there's something cynical to get him to quit the House so that younger House Democrats can finally move up to higher positions of responsibility, that wouldn't be a bad thing.  The 88-year-old Conyers did quit his position as ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee.  Not good enough - he should just leave the House, period.  Good grief, he was first elected to the House from Detroit in 1964, the same year the Supremes recorded their first big hits there.  Give it up, dude, you're through.

As for Charlie Rose, who lost his jobs at CBS, Bloomberg and PBS, I've heard that PBS is looking to replace his program with a new talk show.  Some, I have been led to understand, have suggested getting Oprah Winfrey to replace him.

Republican efforts to defund public television suddenly look attractive . . .