Al Franken, Seriously

Al Franken, Seriously

Al Franken is a caricature of hate mongering and will not sell with Americans. Limbaugh is a pro at what he does and is not above criticizing Bush and Republican strategies or policies he disagrees with. He is not motivated by hate.

It will be worth watching to see if Franken has any substance beyond 'hate.'

Here's an excerpt from this NYT piece that distorts the truth (can we trust the Times and its journalists?)

"Everyone who knows Franken well remarks on his incessant cheerfulness, which doesn't seem to fit with the anger he holds for those he considers politically duplicitous, but he manages to integrate the two things, toggling constantly back and forth. If there is one event that changed him in recent years -- if not dampening his cheer, then hardening his anger -- it was the 2002 memorial service for his friend Paul Wellstone. The central chapter in ''Lies,'' and one that isn't meant to be funny, is his painstaking examination of how the event became ''a sort of perfect political storm for Republican opportunists.'' Franken teared up as he talked about his friendship with Wellstone, the circumstances surrounding his death and how moving he found the memorial. But some parts of the event were overtly political, and Franken became enraged as he watched these be highlighted and then pumped up by conservatives until the memorial wound up, in the words of Christopher Caldwell in The Weekly Standard, as ''a rally devoted to a politics that was twisted, pagan, childish, inhumane and even totalitarian.''

''The bastards lied about it,'' Franken said. ''They used it to influence the election. And they got what they wanted.'' Republicans retook the Senate in 2002 and added to their margin in the House. Wellstone's seat, for which Minnesota Democrats had hastily put up Walter Mondale, went to the Republican Norm Coleman. "

If Wellstone's memorial service devolved into a political event...and it was... for Franken to criticize the conservatives for pointing that out and winning an election against the hapless Mondale, is akin to crying in his soup. Franken is a committed and irreverent liberal. Why should we have any more sympathy for his rants than those of Limbaugh or any other commentator? Hate is Franken's motivation, it seems. If this is what drives the guy, he's doomed to fail.