Al Franken...is this for real?
 

AL FRANKEN FOR U.S. SENATE
Is this already being discussed somewhere on the Cellar? If not, why not?

Huh?

Well, I'll be damned. I didn't know that. We had Cooter, and Gopher, and Sonny, and Fred Thompson. I guess Al can try it too.

Sure, he's got the time. It's not like Air America really needs him these days.

Why not?

and to be fair he was never a great comedian anyway. Maybe he can do better at this.

A senator from Minnesota? That seems a really unlikely state, to me. I don't know why.

Maybe he figures the voters of Minnesota are looking for somebody to restore the balance lost to Paul Wellstone's untimely death.

He quit Air America months ago to prepare for this run.
They voted for Ventura; at least Franken is a political comedian.
Wellstone is his inspiration, and he's looking to replace Norm Coleman, who was elected when Wellstone died.

Funny, I think I would trust a comedian more than a politician any day.

I haven't heard much about him running since the last time it was in the news, I forget when that was.

Actors seem to make pretty good politicians. Why do I know who Al Franken is? I do. Just don't know why.

Because Franken and Davis "opened up" for the Grateful Dead on that same video where they caught Henry Kissenger bootlegging the concert?

SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE

"Rush Limbaugh is a Big, Fat Idiot"

"Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them"

Love that book.

I'm good enough, I'm smart enough, and doggone it, people like me!

he is the Prince Mongo of the election .

High negatives, though -- he's the sort of guy the voters love to vote against. This will sink him without trace.

Now that if funny as hell. He is a joke. Now he wants to join the longest running comedy show ever. :D

He'll never make it. His IQ is too high to be president (precedent set by president.)

The Onion is running a story right now: "Clinton Blasts Obama for Slamming Edwards Jab" . . . ha ha ha

Shawnee, check Woodrow Wilson's IQ if you're looking for a Presidential precedent.

It is folly to assume that party affiliation either reflects or affects intelligence.

I was assuming neither. He's a pretty smart guy. The current president is a not so smart guy. Party irrelevant. Pretty simple.

But I do like me some folly. ;)

Yeah, I guess this was for real. Some sources have theis race as close as two votes.

and here they are

plus the 'lizard people' ballot

Those are great - thanks BS

Yeah, they actually were very interesting ballots to see. For several of them, you can't get a sense of what the voter intended until you view the pdf of the entire ballot and see the logic the voter was using. Then the craziness actually makes some sense and you can see what the voter wanted. But in an antagonistic system like an election and later a lawsuit, you can see why even when the voter intent is clear, someone is going to dispute a ballot because the rules weren't followed.

Very interesting. stupid, but interesting. if they are supposed to clearly and cleanly fill in the circle or ask for a new ballot in case of a mistake and they could do neither properly, the ballot shouldn't be counted.

Except the Minnesota guidelines for counting votes say that if you can tell the intent of the voter, the neatness of the ballot doesn't matter.

I know that's what it says and that's what they're trying to do. I'm just saying the law should be changed. If you're too stupid to scribble in a circle and barring that, ask for another ballot, you don't deserve to have your vote counted.

I can't argue with that.

Actually, that's not true. I could argue with that, but my heart wouldn't be in it.

It didn't work out very well in the case of Fred Thompson, Ronald Reagan, Arnold Schwarzenegger Clint Eastwood, or Jesse Ventura. Who were you thinking of? Gopher from the love boat? Sonny Bono?

None of these people were very good actors or politicians.

I for one welcome the lizard people as our Minnesotan overlords.:D

Radar, you may not like them, but it would appear that Thompson, Reagan, and Schwarzenegger made the jump to politics with great success.

Lizard People definitely meant to vote for franken.
On every other race, the write-in oval was filled in next to the 'lizard people' write-in. On the senate race, while Lizard People was still written in, the oval wasn't filled, and the filled oval for Franken should definitely be construed as intent.

If you consider irresponsible deficit spending, tripling the national debt, taking credit for things you didn't do, denying the things you actually did, trading arms for hostages, lying to the American people, and condoning attacks on civil rights to be great success I suppose you're right.

Reagan was the second or third worst president in American history behind George W. Bush, and Woodrow Wilson. Schwarzenegger had good intentions, but he can't get any real cuts in spending with the socialist California state senate in the majority so he's pretty much failed as a leader and at crossing the isle. Thompson really isn't even worth mentioning. His acting career has always been more important to him than his political career and he's a quitter. Of the actors who have gone into politics, he's slightly better than the others, but equally crappy as a politician.

I wonder if Obama actually wants Franken in the Senate. Based on his radio nonsense our potential Minnesota overlord is just the sort of touch hole who will send partisanship over the moon.

I never listened to Franken while he was on Air America, but the few times I've read something he's written, I was impressed. He may have acted like a reactionary lefty, but Bush caused a lot of people to do that. What was his 'nonsense' like?

I admit I have a copy of Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right downstairs that I bought last month at the library book sale and haven't opened yet.

It's going to be my 'vacation book'.

BTW, heres a clip of Franken speaking with Ann Coulter

I find him to be very much like Sean Hannity. He wouldn't be able to build an audience of his own, but can roll out the platitudes, and appeal to the bigotries of his side, making the base angry and mobilized, but lacking the talent of Limbaugh when it comes to blending lies with"humor" or actually building a movement.

Griff, that is an exceptional summary of those people.

Hence why Air America was such a failure, not to mention all the financial trouble Frankin and and his buddies got into. Sort of like the way Congress is throwing money out without it being monitored.

Fixed your Limbaughism.

Fixed your Demoncratic way of seeing the world with rose colored glasses.

The Democrats in congress were wrong to trust the Bush administration with a blank check when he was talking down the economy. They will be fully responsible at the end of January, partisan Republicans can start bitching then. Is this a Limbaugh/Rove rewrite you're selling or your own creation?

The Dems are really only back in the saddle because of GOP fuckups, starting with the response to Katrina. As much as I like Obama, had the economy not started fucking up huge late in the race, I don't know if he'd be president in a few weeks.

I'd agree with that assessment.

Not at all. It is a fact that Congress controls the purse strings of our nation. They get the responsibility for the financial failures of the last 2years. This started with the Franks and Clinton and it continues. Controls that were attempted by the Repubs were shot down. Nope. You guys get this one.

Which ones were those?

Those ones. Google is your friend. It has all been hashed out here before.

I'll give you a hand. Start here:


http://cellar.org/showthread.php?t=18176

Wow...you better hope Griff doesn't whup your ass for calling him a Democrat. ;)

I'm not skeered. He is what he is. :D

So there's not even one that comes to mind? It's just a feeling you have that it must have happened?

Google was helpful in pointing out one control on executive pay that was actually in the bill, but was practically eliminated by a Bush-administration-requested loophole. It doesn't say who actually added it to the bill, but either way it certainly doesn't fit your narrative. Is there something that does?
Nope, nothing about "Controls that were attempted by the Repubs were shot down."

Do you have anything?

You have weak search skills. Keep trying. Get back to me next week with a full report. For now you fail.

Start with these three clowns. Barney Frank, Chris Dodd & Bill Clinton.

Those are Democrats. What were the controls that Republicans proposed?

Look them up.

As fascinating as it is to watch you guys go back and forth on this; I looked this up myself and here's a link to it.

:lol2: that is funny as hell.

So Google says the Republicans proposed no controls except in this thread.