Should Graham Platner’s personal life matter? 

Remember Gary Hart? He was the clear front-runner for the 1988 Democratic presidential nomination, until a photo surfaced of a woman named Donna Rice sitting on his lap, sailing on a yacht appropriately named Monkey Business. Hart, a married man, was forced to withdraw from the race a week later. 

Remember Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.)? The comedian had to resign from Congress after news broke that he had made unwanted sexual advances on several women.  

At that time, progressives led the charge in calling for Franken’s resignation. For example, Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) said, “I’m shocked and appalled by Sen. Franken’s behavior. It’s clear to me that this has been a deeply harmful, persistent problem and a clear pattern over a long period of time. It’s time for him to step aside.”  

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) a longtime friend of Franken, also joined those insisting Franken had to step down, as did her progressive colleague, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.).

Now, almost two decades later, many of those same people are supporting Graham Platner, who was recently chosen as Maine’s Democratic nominee for the U.S. Senate. They are doing so even after revelations that Platner exchanged sexually explicit messages with several women soon after he got married former partners describe him as “volatile and unfaithful.”

Add to that revelations about his tattoo with a Nazi SS symbol and Reddit posts containing remarks homophobic and critical of sexual assault victims, and one might assume Warren and Sanders would want nothing to do with him. Yet Warren has called Platner her “kind of man,” and so far she is sticking........

© The Hill