But They Can’t Take It

Politico reported Wednesday that some Senate Republicans are none too happy with Sen. Al Franken (D-MN):

The Republicans are steamed at Franken because partisans on the left are using a measure he sponsored to paint them as rapist sympathizers — and because Franken isn’t doing much to stop them.

“Trying to tap into the natural sympathy that we have for this victim of this rape —and use that as a justification to frankly misrepresent and embarrass his colleagues, I don’t think it’s a very constructive thing,” Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) said in an interview.

Citing Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK), Politico notes that some senators were not “convinced that Franken was staying above politics.”

[Perform spit-take here.]

The point of contention is Franken’s amendment to a Pentagon spending bill:

Sec. 8104. (a) None of the funds appropriated or otherwise made available by this Act may be used for any existing or new Federal contract if the contractor or a subcontractor at any tier requires that an employee or independent contractor, as a condition of employment, sign a contract that mandates that the employee or independent contractor performing work under the contract or subcontract resolve through arbitration any claim under title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 or any tort related to or arising out of sexual assault or harassment, including assault and battery, intentional infliction of emotional distress, false imprisonment, or negligent hiring, supervision, or retention.

The amendment was inspired by the case of Jamie Lee Jones, a former KBR employee in Iraq who alleged she was drugged, gang-raped by fellow KBR employees, and locked in a shipping container under armed guard. She tried to sue her employer and its employees, but was prevented by a contract clause requiring arbitration of disputes.

The Franken amendment passed on October 6 by 68-30, with three out of four Republican senators voting against the amendment. But with the appearance of satire sites like RepublicansforRape.org and a string of unfavorable editorials in their local papers, the GOP senators who voted against the amendment are feeling some heat and have gone into full-throated whine. You’d think Franken made them side with federal contractors over rape victims:

“I don’t know what his motivation was for taking us on, but I would hope that we won’t see a lot of Daily Kos-inspired amendments in the future coming from him,” said South Dakota Sen. John Thune, No. 4 in the Senate Republican leadership. “I think hopefully he’ll settle down and do kind of the serious work of legislating that’s important to Minnesota.”

Spoken like Karl Rove’s apprentice. This has been another installment of “They Can Dish It Out, But They Can’t Take It.”