Not only should Northam resign, I believe (unlike most here) that Al Franken did the right thing by resigning as well. The fact that opposition research found things out and produced them in order to harm the pols doesn’t change my mind. Northam was a racist blackface wearer (at best!), and Al, sad as I am to say it, was a groper and needed to leave.

I am sad to say that about Al. I loved the guy since I read Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them, and I was always impressed by his heart and intelligence and thought he was very good at his job. But there were far too many stories about him, some of them told contemporaneously, for me to believe it was all made up by Roger Stone. The fact that Al chose to resign tells me that he knew flat denial of everything would not fly - because at least some of it was true. Bill Clinton got away with groping - a lot of politicians used to. But they shouldn’t have, and now not as many will.

It is true that Democrats resign when Republicans don’t. In some ways this is a weakness, but I think in the long run it is more of a strength. Democrats have to actually care about their most important constituencies (women and people of color) or what are we for? We already have a party to throw crumbs at their base in order to protect the money and power of their actual constituency.

Furthermore, we know, and politicians certainly know, that opposition research is a thing. If they have crappy stuff in their past, they might be able to work though it and get forgiveness - but not by waiting until they are caught red-handed. Forgiveness comes from understanding the harm you did, and changing, and making up for it where you can. (They might also not be forgiven even if they do all that. That is a risk you take when you do crappy things).