Al Franken—Minnesota
Al Franken is a funny guy. But Norm Coleman isn’t laughing. Why not?
Because Franken’s deadly serious when it comes to unseating his
Republican opponent in Minnesota and returning the state’s standing in
the Senate to the progressive values so laudably espoused by the late
Paul Wellstone. And even with some of the sleaziest shadow support
groups in GOP history backing him up, Coleman’s campaign is in trouble
and Franken’s coming on strong.
Coleman is, of course, a Republican. And not just any Republican. His record proves him to be a hard-core, war-boosting, Bush-lapdog Republican. You wouldn’t know that from the ads the shadow right-wing non-profit groups have been running on Coleman’s behalf, though. They don’t even mention his party affiliation at all. They do try to confuse the viewers by conflating Coleman with the much more popular Democratic Senator from Minnesota, Amy Klobuchar.
Franken, on the other hand, has no problems with calling himself a Democrat. And not just any Democrat. Franken’s a proudly-progressive, classically-liberal Democrat. As he told one interviewer, “In many ways I’m still a Hubert Humphrey Democrat – someone who believes in afflicting the comfortable and comforting the afflicted. A society is judged by how it treats the elderly, the sick, the impoverished. To me it’s a matter of ethics and compassion.”
It’s a pretty clear-cut choice in Minnesota this year. On the one hand, there’s an established Roadblock Republican Senator trying to run away from his record as fast and as far as he can. On the other hand, there’s a well-known Wellstone-style Democrat trying to return Minnesota to its progressive roots. Coleman keeps crying foul when he’s reminded of his past votes and allegiances. But he keeps trying to blame Franken for his past jokes and skits.
Sure, Franken’s been a comedian by trade, an actor and a satirist and radio talk show host who’s never been shy about calling them as he sees them. But he’s also been a strong force in Democratic politics for a long time now. He’s smart as a whip and fast on his feet. And the RR’s can’t have it both ways up there.
Quoting Franken again, “He’s saying, you know, this should be about my record unless I don’t want it to be about my record. This should be about the future unless I want it to be about the past. I’m not tearing my hair out. I think it’s kind of funny and, you know, kind of pathetic.”
Al Franken’s got an ever-lengthening list of people backing him, from labor unions to veterans’ groups to more Dems down-ticket than anybody else. The Democratic Party in Minnesota is solidly behind him. His Midwest Values PAC helped get dozens of federal candidates close enough to win their races in 2006 (including a number that the johnkerry.com community strongly supported as well), and that we’re all going to work together to get even more good Dems elected again in 2008.
No wonder the GOP is nervous about Minnesota this year. They know he’s likely to whip their guy but good in November, and do it with a smile on his face and one hand tied behind his back. They see the handwriting on the wall, and they don’t like it one bit. But we sure do. And we’ll bet you do, too.
Al Franken for Senate campaign site
Al Franken entry on Wikipedia
Al Franken profile on About.com
Midwest Values PAC website
