In the wake of the Harvey Weinstein sexual harassment/assault scandal, allegedly feminist entertainers are being accused left ... and left. The latest is comedian/Sen. Al Franken. Photographic evidence undeniably proved that he placed his hands over a woman's breasts while she was asleep on an airplane returning from a USO tour in 2006. The woman, KABC radio anchor Leeann Tweeden, added that he forced his tongue down her throat during a rehearsal of a skit for the soldiers.
Now ask yourself: What if Franken's most hated rival, Sen. Ted Cruz, had been pictured doing exactly that to a sleeping woman on a plane, with the same goofy smile? And had tongue-kissed her beforehand? Wouldn't the media/Democrat complex want him immediately purged from the Senate?
Last year, the media demanded Donald Trump's political head when they found old audio of him boasting to Billy Bush of "Access Hollywood" about how he could sexually harass women because he was a "star." NBC canned Bush just for giggling at Trump's boasts on the tape. Trump was only proved to have talked about groping. He wasn't photographed doing it. But Hillary Clinton was quoted everywhere for shamelessly tweeting: "This is horrific. We cannot allow this man to become president."
MSNBC anchor Stephanie Ruhle lectured Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway, saying: "You're a mother. You're a woman. Are you more offended by the phrase 'average Americans' or 'grabbing a woman's genitals'? ... you've got to look at your kids when you go home at night. ... I'm not going to let my kids watch the debate tonight."
As the Franken scandal unfolds, the media and Democrats have insisted that Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore cannot win the seat due to allegations that he had sexual contact with teenagers. There's no photograph here either. There is no admission of guilt like Franken's. But journalists demanded the voters of Alabama tar and feather Moore.
ABC's Martha Raddatz complained: "I don't really know what those voters are waiting for." On MSNBC, John Heilemann lectured Republicans, saying: "Right now, your party ... seems to be divided over the question of pedophilia by its standard-bearer in the Alabama Senate race," suggesting that the Republican Party can no longer be a "plausible party in American life."
Plausible party? Put aside for a minute whether Heilemann -- whose longtime co-author and TV partner Mark Halperin has now admitted gross sexual harassment -- can pass judgment on anyone. Just about every liberal or Democrat who has served in the last 20 years lacks any right to pass judgment on these matters after their decades of tolerance of former President Bill Clinton's sexual harassment and abuse of power. When Trump brought Clinton accusers Paula Jones, Kathleen Willey and Juanita Broaddrick to a conference before the second presidential debate last October, the women were smeared by journalists as "political props," cogs in a "Soviet show trial" and a "twisted version of 'the Last Supper.'"
Only now have they begun to confess their apathy and insults toward Clinton's accusers, and that's only after the Clintons have no clear path back to the White House.
Will this scandal end with Roy Moore and Al Franken both losing a seat in the Senate? Or are we going to see another episode of rampaging liberal hypocrisy on a feminist outrage?
L. Brent Bozell III is the president of the Media Research Center. Tim Graham is director of media analysis at the Media Research Center and executive editor of the blog NewsBusters.org. To find out more about Brent Bozell III and Tim Graham, and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate webpage at www.creators.com.