I watch this stuff on YouTube about Al Franken and I am sick to my stomach. Norm Coleman, a former Democrat who had the unusual luck to run against a retirement-age Walter Mondale in order to fill the seat vacated by the tragic death of Paul Wellstone, is busy digging up clips of Franken's old SNL and other satirical work in order to dirty him up for their Minnesota US Senate race.
Let's make one thing crystal clear. Paul Wellstone was a great man. His death stunned and saddened progressives around the world. I stood next to Paul at a fundraiser in Minneapolis two weeks prior to his plane crash. Paul's career was everything one could want to emulate in public service. He was smart, decent and brave. Paul could never be replaced. Ever.
But to fill that seat with a hack like Coleman? I can see states like Texas having not one but two hack Senators. People who never propose or cosponsor any significant legislation while in office. People like Hutchinson and Cornyn, who are the worst type of go-along-to-get-along lackey for the Bush administration. People who view their role as doing anything to preserve their own power and who never have an original or courageous idea while in office. But Minnesota?
Coleman becoming a US Senator from that great state was a travesty. Now the time has come to correct that mistake. Coleman, who makes Mitt Romney look like a visionary, is so far from the best that state has to offer, it is unbelievable to imagine that he is even in the running for reelection. An uninformed and weak-willed apologist for this awful administration is being challenged by one of the best progressive minds of his generation. I don't care how much ribald and salty humor he has dished out during is entertainment career. Judge Al Franken by what he stands as today: a searingly intelligent and abundantly caring son of Minnesota who has returned home to attempt to lend his voice to our nation's political discourse on the most formal of levels. No blogging. No books. No comedy sketches. Putting his career and his opinions on the line on behalf of serving the people of Minnesota.
And what does Coleman do? He trots out old SNL material to grade one of show business' most respected satirists and judge him as insensitive or inappropriate.
Voters of Minnesota, your choice could not be simpler. Coleman is a pathetic hack who will do as little as possible in a US Senate office other than cover his own ass and protect his power. Meanwhile, Al Franken is everything you could hope for in a candidate to represent your state in the world's most august deliberative body. Smart, caring, brave. That's the choice. Mitt Romney light. Or a return to someone special in the US Senate from the great state of Minnesota.
I like Al Franken but on Air America he supported drilling in the Alaska Wilderness Reserve. He was not in support of ending the US Military occupation of Iraq. He may have changed those views by now.
Even so, he is a prince compared with Coleman. What a bitter historical joke to have Coleman replace Paul Wellstone.
As a college kid he was a socialist/communist drug using opportunist, he got offered a government job so he moved to Minnesota and joined the DFL because it would help his ambitions, then he quit that party and became a Republican because they had money and power, now he insists he is an “independent” voice in Washington because the GOP has turned America into a massive cluster fuck.
Norm Coleman will say anything, join any group and do anything he has to do for personal power. He is the worst that politics has to offer and an insult to the state of Minnesota.
It’s funny how the republican base is so intent on voting against their own best economic interest. Kind of like a chicken voting for Col. Sanders. Us Hollywood types aren’t any better though. Being part of the 96% bill paying public, most of our ranks continue to vote for Democratic policies and initiatives, many of which increase our taxes and give massive breaks and increased funding to people like you, the 4% bill payers.
Al Franken paid all of his taxes. Due to bad advice from his CPA, he paid taxes only to the states where he resided: Minnesota and New York. Due to some states and cities taxing performers and atheletes on their earnings, some of those taxes should have been paid to other states. This results in a refund from Minnesota and New York of the amount he overpaid them and payment to the other states. This is not not paying your taxes. This is a mistake based on bad advice. You're welcome.
I posted an interview with Franken here last Friday you might be interested in:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/chris-weigant/interview-with-al-franken_b_105593.html
-CW
I'm a Minnesotan, and I think the way Al is being treated is is typical of politics. I agree with you totally (and miss Paul Wellstone more than I can say...He was an excellent example of a fine human being). I only wish I knew quite what to do to help Al.
I'll keep reading your blog.
the Lamb
We should all contribute to Franken's campaign no matter where we live. He's brilliant and compassionate and would make a fearless Senator.
The importance of electing more progressive Democrats to the Senate in 2008 cannot be overstated enough. http://www.alfranken.com/
Franken was a comedian
Coleman is a joke
I don't recall much of a followup of Norm's "investigation" after this session.
I dont care for any politician, but some are worse than others...especially when they govern their career instead of our country. But then again, dont most of them? We shouldnt accept that as the way things ought to be, but most people probably see it differently.
More satire, right?
my hi link to Al when he was on Dave Letterman, had Dave and myself in stitches!
Spirited Dona says-- I have an interesting Al Fraken story!
I blog with Al, and his daughter, Thomasin, at the Democratic Party's official blog, Party Buider. ( I will tell all to look for your Al Fraken Blog subject ; it's good to help a fellow blogger!)
Al is alphabetically at the top of most of the bloggers' mate lists, including mine, because doggone it, it just looks cool! My main topics are humor with politics and decency with politics! I can not tell you how many times I have been chastised for doing potical humor, by my Al Fraken Blog mates! It keeps me in giggles. I tell everyone my Democratic blogmates are Al Fraken and Darth Vader, ( a blogger's screen name, there), but nobody believes my joke! Tell Al to keep up the humor with politics, so I don't take as much of a verbal beating! Thank you! Politics needs more humor, and real people compassion, would create more decency in politics!
He is a carpet-bagger from New Jersey who will say and do anything to get elected anywhere he can.
He came to St. Paul from New Jersey and made himself a Democrat to become the city's mayor, and a VERY liberal one at that. Once the tide of opinion turned slightly in the state, he suddenly was a VERY conservative Republican. He is a do-nothing senator who has produced no bills of any relevance and his chairmanship of the committee he ran was a total joke and whitewash of the Bush administration. All he has done is create a few sound-bites for the state while pushing the Bush agenda. He has voted for 95% of the Bush agenda and has NO THOUGHTS OF HIS OWN.
He isn't even running his own campaign. That is being completely co-ordinated by the RNC from out of state (and almost wholly financed by out-of-state money.)
This just shows the sorry state of the Republican party in Minnesota that this is the best they could come up with? It ALMOST makes me long for the days of that idiot Rudy Boschwitz. At least he was BORN HERE (like Al Franken was.)
obama & franken 08
Paul Wellstone is still the well-spring from which most politicians dare not drink from less they turn to stone. I’ll have to take your word on this one Alec.
You’ve updated your photo.
Really did you actually, say that? you admit that he is smart, irreverent, and informed and yet you hesitate, because perhaps, you don't find him charismatic.
Why is it that a persons manner of speaking is more inspiring to us, than what they are saying! It's this same attitude that keeps people like Bush and Rush Limbaugh popular.
I think it's great to be a fan of charismatic people, i myself am attracted to them, however, we as an intellectual people need to train ourselves to listen and hear the wisdom in the bland.
note: just makin' a point and am neither maintaining that al franken, is bland nor without charisma
He was the only man that spoke truth to power consistently...and we by-passed him. I hope Obama will use him in his administration and we can yet benefit from his wisdom and drive to Restore Constitutionality.
Lucky for Al, we've known him for a long time, thank you SNL, and have watched his emergence as a political figure with great delight.
We already know he isn't afraid to say sh*t if he had a mouthful , we've seen that and laughed a lot.
Now when he gets to the Senate, he can call it like he sees it...and we will hear one man steering debate and investigations into territory long blocked behind Executive malfeasance and congressional corruption.
Glad you wrote this Alec, Al deserves support.
What is this world coming to?