The Importance Of Electing Al Franken

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.

Comments

[janvoght]

okay, alec...let's go with al franken, no doubt! i'll look up al's recent record and tell all my friends in minnesota the new!

obama '08

[levibatgirl]

All true. Coleman needs to go and when he was elected I began to wonder if Minnesota was in fact a blue state. They voted in tim pawlenty as governor. Don't get me started on these two bush poodles. I am voting for Al.

[WmC]

I think Franken's response should be to run a video of George Galloway bitch-slapping Coleman when Galloway was called to testify on the Oil-for-Food "scandal". Galloway made such mincemeat out of Coleman, that even an individual of Coleman's limited awareness realized he had been sliced and diced.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/7885927#7885927

Or if you prefer to read an account.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2005/may/18/uk.iraq1

[MysticInd]

Thanks for the info. We need all the help we can get.

Coleman was democratic as the St. Paul Mayor then switched; An obvious plant from the Republican party. Paul Wellstone's death...Republican Party....just read Confessions of an Economic Hit Man to see how many times it has been done to South Americans' politicans.

Tim Pawlenty won because Mike Hatch was sand bagged and demonstrated his anger. Turned alot of individuals off... And so the saying goes....

Get Out the Repugs NOW!

[bx10475]

Please, oh please let Al Franken win that senate seat. Rush and Billo will have an aneurysm if he does and then I could die a happy man.

[vipersdad]

This is the same state that overlooked Jessie Ventura's past to elect him governor - I think that signals hope all by itself. The People of MInnesota are strong, independent thinkers who I am hoping have seen Norm Coleman for what he is - a chickenhawk and a do-nothing. Al Franken's past comedic moments were brilliant and are even more reason to think of him as a creative force and a brilliant social critic.

Sounds like the kind of fighter that MInnesota is known for.

Send Coleman back to his cottage by the lake...Pleeeese Minnesotans!

[We]

Franken is brilliant. If he's unable to become a Minnesota Senator (his hilarious humor goes over more than a few heads), Obama should find an important key place for him in his administration.

[Dolphin]

It always strikes me as odd that people to the right instead of having ideas of their own tend to hack on those who have - and they are mainly people to the left politically.

It would be better if republicans and others to the right concentrated on leaving a message of their own. They ought to have SOMETHING to tell the world. Maybe that could help the ones who cannot decide who to vote for to pick Obama in November.

In the meantime I will follow Al Franken and his way to the Senate.

That really would make a change.