Minnesota Senator Al Franken chose the Thanksgiving holiday to try and smooth over the bumps caused by what is now four women accusing him of being a creepy groper dude.

Said Franken:

“I feel terribly that I’ve made some women feel badly and for that I am so sorry, and I want to make sure that never happens again,” Franken said in a Thanksgiving message shared by a reporter with Minnesota Public Radio.

“And let me say again to Minnesotans that I’m sorry for putting them through this and I’m committed to regaining their trust.”

Ok. That was a lukewarm apology, at best.

To begin with, you say you want to make sure it never happens again. It’s not like anything that has happened was by accident.

No, this was planned behavior because you felt your celebrity would allow you to get away with it (and where have we heard that, before?).

To make matters worse, you tried to blow it off as if his accusers were crazy, irrational women.

“I’m a warm person; I hug people. I’ve learned from recent stories that in some of those encounters, I crossed a line for some women — and I know that any number is too many.”

You learned from the stories? So you really did think that what you were doing was fine. Wow. And why did it take being put on blast to suddenly feel remorse?

Franken’s first accuser was Leeann Tweeden, a Los Angeles radio host and model, who claimed Franken forcibly kissed her, and then later took a picture of himself, seeming to grope Tweeden, as she slept, when the two were both appearing at a USO show in 2006.

That was followed by Lindsay Metz, who claimed Franken squeezed her bottom, as he posed for a quick picture with her in 2010.

Two more women stepped forward this week to give similar stories, saying Franken met them at separate events, one that was at an event to honor women.

At least one of those women said Franken suggested they find a bathroom to slip into.

Classy.

The question now is whether Franken will continue or step down. A recent poll of Minnesota voters found that only 22 percent of them feel he should stay.

I’d say, judging by his choice of words, he doesn’t see any reason to leave. It’s going to have to get a lot worse for somebody with Franken’s level of arrogance to see the need to step down.

So let’s start an informal poll of our own.

How many more women do you believe will step forward to say Al Franken took indecent liberties with them:

A: 0 – 2

B: 3 – 5

C: 6 or more