ANN ALTHOUSE: “If Democrats care about the future of Kirsten Gillibrand, they need Franken to shut up and go away.” Because:

I’ve already posted today on the topic of the potential for Franken to “un-resign.” He’d always only said he would resign in the coming weeks, so I presume it would be procedurally easy to decline to follow through on his earlier statement. What I’m putting up this post to discuss is the political future of Kirsten Gillibrand, who I think wants to run for President. She chose to elevate her profile over the Franken scandal and she succeeded dramatically — getting an “avalanche of Democratic senators” to join her in calling for Franken’s resignation, which seemed to force him into abruptly acceding to her imperious demand.

If Franken turns around and says he won’t resign, he will be talking about fairness, due process, and evidence-based judgment. Whatever he says will be critical of the way power was exercised under the leadership of Kirsten Gillibrand. This is her signature issue, and she made a grand show of flexing her muscle, and her fellow Democrats behaved as if she were their leader on this issue. If what they did is portrayed as ill-considered and rash, Gillibrand looks like someone who should not be trusted with great power.

Yes, and it’ll undercut her gender-warrior stance, as critics can say even her fellow Democratic Senators think she’s too quick to indulge the man-hate.