I prefer to call the big fat idiot Lush Dimbulb..just sayin'

let's just hope obama hasn't changed the zeitgeist so that guys like franken come off looking like has-beens whose moment ended 3-4 years earlier.

he should have run in 2004, when michael moore was riding high and we were all pissed and angry at Bush.

"Though it doesn't get nearly the attention his political activism does, Franken was participating in USO tours long before it was fashionable among Democrats..."

Gee I wonder among which Democrats was it unfashionable to go on USO tours and when was that?

Is Josh Green saying that all these people:

http://www.uso.org/whatwedo/entertainment/2006tourschedule/

http://www.uso.org/whatwedo/entertainment/2007tourschedule/

http://www.uso.org/whatwedo/entertainment/2008tourschedule/

are fashionable Republicans?

I read one of his books and it was very, very good-- I was surprised. I didn't know that much about him-- I'd seen him on Saturday Night Live years before, of course, but I can't remember if I knew he was the same guy-- but I expected the book to be dumb and a bunch of immature jokes. It was very funny but it was also very well researched and a great critizue of the Republicans. He's certainly qualified to be a Senator.

and a great critizue of the Republicans.

Uh, sorry, "critique."

Does some immature Republican have a "back orifice" program installed on my computer and want to fuck with me? I can't really be this bad of a speller.

Just kidding.

This is the Al Franken Decade.

I like Franken. I haven't listened to Air America much since he left. His show hit a sweet spot, similar to the Daily Show, where humor meets political insight. Or something like that...

I kinda lika critzue

Its like 'criticise you' with a text messaging slant

Critzue

As well we view could be vue

Critzvue

Criticise your view.

I miss Stuart Smalley.

Oh, geez, it sounds like exactly the kind of campaign we've been longing for Democrats to run, especially on the presidential level. I sure hope he's successful with it. It will make a big difference if he is, I think.

"I'd vote for anyone who wrote Rush Limbaugh Is a Big Fat Idiot,"...and Other Observations!

Please. Franken is a dolt.

He also "believed Colin Powell" and supported the Iraq War, just like every other schmuck in our media apparatus, before it was cool to oppose it.

He's still a much better choice than the Republican for that seat, but damn.

I live in rural Minnesota; last weekend our DFL (Democratic Farm Labor party, which is what we call Democrats in Minnesota) county convention sent eight out of ten delegates supporting Franken to the state endorsing convention. He beat out Jack Nelson-Palmeyer, a perfectly good guy and a bit to Al's left, in large part because he's running a hell of a good campaign. Amy Klobuchar showed that the way to win in Minnesota is to get out early, visit party regulars and stage events all over the state. Al has done that. Not only has he shown up often, but when he does, he makes a good impression.

It helps that Norm Coleman, his incumbent opponent , is an empty suit opportunist and a complete phony.

Ah yes, Stuart, Critz his own view Smalley.

Al Franken is a serious thinker about the issues of the day, and one of the smartest as well. Don't let his SNL career or the silly titles of his books fool you. He belongs in the U.S. Senate, in a way that 99% of the phonies who get there do not (I'm talkin' to you, Norm Coleman!). Some day he will run for president, with Jon Stewart as his running mate. And I am not being the least bit facetious when I say that I would vote for that ticket.

Al is a smart guy, willing to accept truth when it comes along.

Mr. Franken is able to voice publicly what so many on his side of the electorate want to hear from Democratic politicians, who shy away from polemical confrontation. During this time of a war/occupation of choice era, conservative messages have been allowed to become platitudes without a vocal political opposition to them.

Al Franken keeps asking me for money to beat Norm Coleman, and I keep sending it to him. Politics with some self-awareness and wit and even - yes - satire is great. And the GOP, those big pretentious blow-hards, have no answer to it.

Speaking of Rush - check out this animation of him:

http://thumbsnap.com/v/iHXucq4Z.gif

He is what everyone says!

And speaking of Mr. Franken, recall that it was in Rush Limbaugh is a Big Fat Idiot and Other Observations that Franken schooled our press corps.

Newt Gingrich and Congressional Republicans had been flaying Bill Clinton for calling their planned Medicare funding a "cut." Franken alone was able to puzzle it out:

At one point [Robert] Novak was extolling Gingrich's "masterful" speech, and I objected, especially to the patronizing crap about the $4800 versus the $6700. So I turned to [Al] Kasich:

"By the way, are those constant dollars?"

Margaret [Warner] jumped in. "Of course they're constant dollars. They wouldn't be that dishonest."

"Sure they would," I said. Turning back to Kasich, "Are those constant dollars?"

"Al..." Kasich's voice has a touch of annoyance, "we're increasing funding for Medicare."

"But the $4800 to $6700, has that been adjusted for inflation?"

"Al, the dollars are going up."

"I just want to know if those are constant dollars."

"Al, we're going from 178 billion [total Medicare budget in 1995] to 283 billion [total Medicare budget in 2002]." Kasich gave the others an exasperated look. When will this guy stop?

"Look. Gingrich is going like, 'Hey, you're a fucking moron if you can't see that 6700 is more than 4800.' I just want to know how big a moron am I. Are those constant dollars?"

A pause. Then. "No, Al, they're not constant dollars."

Kasich slumped in his chair and admitted, "I guess we're being a little intellectually dishonest about this one." And I took a few victory laps around the table.

Margaret was slightly embarrassed and begged me not to repeat the part about her assuming it was constant dollars. I knew she was kidding, however. She's a terrific journalist and she knows a good story.

One more Democrat in the Senate sounds good. Let's hope Al, should he get in, has the balls to defund the Iraq War. Support single-payer health care for all, as well.

For what it's worth, running confrontational campaigns in Minnesota has worked for a while, for candidates of both parties and at least one independent as well.

A lot of Minnesota voters define themselves in terms of their distaste for and opposition to other Minnesota voters: evangelicals against secular liberals, outstate vs. the Cities, and sometimes independents vs. party regulars. Campaigning to "unite" Minnesotans wouldn't get you anywhere; what successful statewide candidates there have done in the past is campaign hard against what and who they don't like, while hoping the substantial number of Minnesotans who follow politics only on a casual basis like them personally and agree with some major point of theirs.

This is how Rudy Boschwitz won in 1978 and 1984, how Paul Wellstone won in 1990, how Rod Grams and Norm Coleman and especialy Jesse Ventura got elected later. I'm not surprised Franken is campaigning the same way. It's what seems to work in his state.

"It helps that Norm Coleman, his incumbant opponent, is an empty suit opportunist and a complete phony."

Oh yeah, that's old Normie in a nutshell. When the Dems took over the Senate and there was speculation of GOP defections to the Dem side, I always thought he'd be a possibility, because he's a spineless worm who'd sell out his own mother to get ahead. But he's remained loyal to Bush, which is pretty much a death sentence in MN these days. Good luck, Norm. (However, to disagree with the Atlantc article, he's not the most vulnerable incumbant; John Sununu has that dubious honor).

Margaret was slightly embarrassed and begged me not to repeat the part about her assuming it was constant dollars. I knew she was kidding, however. She's a terrific journalist and she knows a good story.

Wow. I suspect one B-list pundit is not gonna be happy to see Mister Franken come to Washingong.

We all know all Franken is a better guy than every Republican in the Senate...

Someone already mentioned him upthread, but Franken is running against a gentleman named Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer who is really the spiritual heir to Paul Wellstone's Senate seat that Franken is running for.

Nelson-Pallmeyer is mentioned dismissively in the Atlantic article. Click here for a sample of his writings. While Franken has the money and name recognition to send the smarmy piece of crap Norm Coleman into retirement, it is a pity that intelligent, compassionate men like Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer can't be in government.

Al Franken keeps asking me for money to beat Norm Coleman, and I keep sending it to him.

In fact, that is my only complaint about Franken; those perky kids call me every single night, even after I told them over and over that two donations were all I could do given everyone else I'm supporting this election year. I finally had to block his campaign's numbers tonight. I don't wish him anything but a glorious victory, though!

Here's Franken's comment in the recently distributed 35th anniversary report of the Harvard class of 1973:
"I'm now running for the U.S. Senate in my home state of Minnesota. It's been a terrific experience, except for the constant pressure to hit up my friends for money. Sometimes, I even ask for $4,600, which, I should point out, is the legal maximum. In fact, I was going to 'make an ask' here, but I think, if the Harvard Alumni Association published such an 'ask,' it would be running afoul of federal election law. So, I guess I'll have to call each of you individually. Talk to you soon!"

I'm with Cragie and have been sending him money, too -- more money than I'm sending to my own Congressional candidate, Neil Abercrombie, who's a pretty damn good guy as well.

I liked the Rush Limbaugh book, but it wasn't nearly as good as "Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them." He is the best writer I've found when it comes to deconstructing and demolishing the talking points generated for the Republican noise machine.

Franken's a smart guy who knows a lot about policy. He'd make a terrific senator.

I lived in Minnesota for a few years back during the fight for the Boundary Waters Canoe Area and loved it, everything except the winters. I admit I am basically a Northwest coast marine climate wuss, and just don’t have the character to stand up to a Minnesota winter. Every year when the snow banks at the bus stop slowly melted to reveal 4 months worth of cigarette butts I went into deep depression, unlike Tacoma where the dark gray days are only mildly depressing. Still I saw Hubert Humphrey’s last senate race, where his campaign ads consisted of him and Muriel working through a field of flowers by a burbling stream. It has been truly troubling and depressing to see liberal progressive Minnesota sending Republicans to DC. Come on DFL’ers, make it right!

I have a primitive, brain stem, gut level revulsion for Al Franken; but then I felt the same way about Hillary until Bush made everybody else look good by comparison.

Anyone who listened regularly to his Air America show knew that few are better on the issues than Franken.

Personally, I´d vote vor any good friend of G. Gordon Liddy!

One excellent Al Franken story is when he challenged Rich Lowry to a fight after Rich Lowry said that Democrats had "feminized" and "sissified" politics while on CNN. Franken writes "I was just a decent high school wrestler, but I was convinced I could take him down, then basically punch his ears till he called 'uncle'."

Lowry declined to fight but he also dropped the "Democrats have feminized politics" line.

A lot of Minnesota voters define themselves in terms of their distaste for and opposition to other Minnesota voters: evangelicals against secular liberals, outstate vs. the Cities, and sometimes independents vs. party regulars.

Don't forget Swedes vs. Norwegians.

The "you want to fight me" thing is one of my favorites of Franken. Rock on, Al!

I'd never heard that Franken fight story. Outstanding!

The only bad thing about Franken running for the Senate is that he's off the radio. Tom Hartman (his drive-time replacement on local "Commie radio") can't hold Al's jock strap.

I love Al. We need more scrappy progressives that aren't afraid to call out the blowhard Repub talking heads like O'Reilly and Limbaugh and point out how full of BS they are.

And if REpublicans from Bush on down are going to insist on calling it "the Democrat party", I think we should start calling them "the Repuglican Party".