Al Franken, the Saturday Night Live writer and host of the Air America (liberal radio) show named after him (12-3 weekdays), is an interesting character. I myself was familiar with his work before he started the radio show last year, work which was somewhat diverse even then. Franken has a self-improvement character named "Stuart Smalley" that reflects his actual interest in self-actualization and such. For instance, he co-wrote the serious film When a Man Loves a Woman, the story of Meg Ryan's character fighting alcoholism.
So, he doesn't just do jokes though I still recall his quite good take off on Pat Robertson in a presidential debate (you know, before he started promoting killing foreign leaders and such) in which he tried to explain how darn he was qualified -- including his stint as a babysitter. He also had a short-lived show that was a take-off of Nightline like new shows. Think a truly behind the scenes look at FYI (Murphy Brown's show). So, signs of his interest in politics and news also popped up early.
But, it was interesting that he became the face of the Air America Network, and now is thinking of running as senator in Minnesota (2008*). Still, time has shown that Franken is a pretty good choice -- he has the wonk thing down. He's clearly intelligent -- Harvard and all -- and quite personable. Franken is too self-indulgent and too many of his comedy bits on the show are apparently just for his self-enjoyment (does a great Cheney and Rummy though). Still, he knows and clearly cares about the issues.
Franken is something of a stereotype of a midwestern Jewish liberal. He fits into the mold of the Jewish liberals who supported civil rights in the '60s (see, Going South, the book) because it followed the theme of their religion -- doing justice. He cares deeply about typical liberal values and thus is truly outraged about current events. And, he is very sentimental: when reading a touching story about his dad's death, he repeated broke down -- the chapter was an ill-advised pick to read at the event since Franken comes close to tears when bringing up the issue on the radio show, which he did various times.**
Franken, however, is one of those middle of the road sorts -- his outrage suggests how far gone life has gone -- those who felt Kerry was such a wonderful character and just KNEW he was going to win (yes, Al, "fears, smears, and queers" helped him to lose, but one can blame him as well -- it was close; imagine if a better candidate ran ... 2000 or 2004). This was shown by his trust in Powell, supporting the war early on until the WMD evidence was shown to be crap. But, Al, I could have told you that even when Powell gave "the speech" to the UN. In fact, I said so on the Slate fray. [I too respected Powell ... but not THAT much ... I knew crap when I heard it.] And, sometimes his analysis is a bit skin deep -- it's not just that we didn't send enough troops ... the troops we need simply was not really available!
Still, Franken does a fairly good job promoting the progressive point of view with the right amount of outrage at the administration and usual suspects. He helped emphasize -- a couple years too late actually -- a particularly outrageous move by Tom DeLay to block application of worker rules to Saipan -- the American protectorate, even though it later turned out that firms there did things like (ah the irony) forcing workers to have an abortion to keep their jobs. As noted in the book, DeLay blocked even conservative Republicans who wanted to reform the rules. His book on Rush Limbaugh and another on conservative talk show hosts generally was a bit too over the top (Franken has this ongoing feud going on with Bill O'Reilly, who unfortunately is loved by someone close to me -- probably because she finds his act on some level amusing). But, his most recent -- The Truth (with Jokes is more serious.
Good call. Franken was in the City (New York ... the Second City celebrated later) last night, so I decided to attend his book event at a Barnes and Nobles that I sometimes go to. The book covers topics he generally covered on his talk show and the appearance had a familiar ring. Franken looks like a nerd (though he did wrestle in high school) with old fashioned plastic glasses that my father used to wear, but one with a mission. Actually, it was a good thing that I went, since his beloved wife Franni (sic) was there ... darn if she looked like what his wife probably would look like (she's from Maine and a Protestant, but she had that Minnesota midwestern look). And, it was nice to see him do his impressions in person.
I got there a little early -- which was good, since it was so crowded that we were given wristbands -- so I had a chance to peruse the book. Seeing that it covered ground that his daily shows dwelt on, I decided not to buy the darn thing -- anyway, as the blog suggests, I have my reading supply covered lately anyway. As to questions, there were four ... pretty standard: (1) Why aren't you running for office in NY (2) How can you be against Bush when he saved Iraq from that awful dictator [brave man ... tedious question all the same, giving Franken time to supply the usual talking points] (3) Bill O'Reilly shot (4) How our side can promote our point of view, including to the other side, in a rational and moral way. This last question also gave him the chance to show how honestly passionate he is about all of this.
And, that is why -- even though he is a bit much a bit too many times -- you got to respect the man. Still, how else can one think given the times? On the way to the subway, I passed the wall in the Union Square station filled with tiles of the dead from 9/11. Recently, the 2000th death from the war that the event helped encourage occurred. One can go on. But, one need not. Troubling times for sentimental progressives ... might even justify one more self-indulgent unfunny comedy routine or shot at Bill O'Reilly. Whatever it takes, you know?
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* Franken was very close to Paul Wellstone, who died in a tragic plane crash three years ago, helping Norm Coleman (Republican flunky disguised as centrist) to clinch the Republican re-capture of the Senate. I note the NYT has an article on how a ton of firms helped to game the UN Oil For Food program but only focuses on other countries. The U.S. countries involved are not even mentioned! What crap. Sen. Coleman, who is using the issue as a way to target the U.N., must have smiled.
In his last book, Franken passionately discusses the death as well as how various members of the Right cynically used his memorial service to smear his supporters. You see, a few booed some conservatives who attended, which appeared to suggest that the memorial service was some kind of partisan maneuver. As I said at the time when some idiot brought the matter up in a critical fashion, do we expect those mourners to be saints? Put aside the trivial nature of the "outburst" -- those who promoted everything a recently killed (no, conspiracy theorists, not by "them") beloved senator stood for -- have a trivial amount of compassion and understanding.
But, for some, this seems impossible. Unfortunately, they are now in power.
** The chapter also sentimentally mentions his two children. One comment is fitting for me as well. Franken noted that when his son (Joe) was complimented as a good person, Joe mentioned (this was when he was 8, mind you) that it probably had something to do with the grandfather that he was named after. Well, I was named after my maternal grandfather, but that's probably true for me too. Unfortunately, I never knew the man, but from what my mom says, I wish I had.