Looking back, historians may view this week as the week where the #metoo movement fully landed in political Washington.
Consider what has happened in the last week alone (in reverse chronological order):
* Arizona Rep. Trent Franks (R) is resigning from Congress, as the House Ethics Committee announced tonight that it will investigate whether he engaged in “conduct that constitutes sexual harassment and/or retaliation for opposing sexual harassment.”
In a statement announcing his resignation, Franks acknowledged that he learned this week that the committee was looking into complaints from two female former staffers.
“Due to my familiarity and experience with the process of surrogacy, I clearly became insensitive as to how the discussion of such an intensely personal topic might affect others,” Franks said in the statement.
* Minnesota Sen. Al Franken (D) announced on the Senate floor Thursday afternoon that he plans to resign by the end of the year after a series of allegations that he groped and forcible kissed multiple women.
* Michigan Rep. John Conyers (D) resigned his seat on Tuesday following a series of allegations of sexual harassment from former staffers.
* Texas Rep. Blake Farenthold (R) was revealed by The New York Times last Friday to have used $84,000 in taxpayer dollars to settle a sexual harassment claim against him. The House Ethics Committee has established a subcommittee to investigate Farenthold’s alleged actions as well.
And that list doesn’t even take into account the allegations that continue to swirl around Alabama Republican Senate candidate Roy Moore as the December 12 special election to replace Attorney General Jeff Sessions draws ever closer.
That’s remarkable. And there are a few people in Washington who believe the men forced out of office this week due to allegations of inappropriate conduct with and around women will be the last people caught up in this.
Anyone who has spent time covering Congress knows that it is one of the last old boys’ clubs in the country. You’d be forgiven, after spending a day on the Hill, if you had to look at a calendar to remind yourself that it’s 2017, not 1957.
The Point: The reckoning we’ve seen sweep the country regarding men behaving badly has come to Washington in a major way this week. And it’s not likely to leave anytime soon.
Read Thursday’s full edition of The Point.
