'It Was Clearly Intended to Be Funny but Wasn't'
Al Franken’s apology—in response to the accusation that he groped a woman—deployed, in part, a "joke" defense often used to explain misbehavior.
The picture the radio host Leeann Tweeden included with about Al Franken, U.S. Senator from Minnesota, kissing and groping her without her consent on a 2006 USO tour is straightforwardly damning. Tweeden, wearing a helmet and a flak jacket, sits sleeping on a plane during a 36-hour trip from Afghanistan to Los Angeles. Franken (at the time a radio-show host, famed for his years working on ) looms over her, his arms outstretched, grabbing at her breasts, his faced turned and grinning at the camera. “I couldn’t believe it. He groped me, without my consent, while I was
