Tag Archives: Al Franken

Al Franken at Netroots Nation

Al Franken gave a great closing address at Netroots Nation. In it he discussed the need for the blogosphere to stay engaged to force the government to do the right thing. He also discussed net neutrality, calling it the 1st amendment issue of our time. If you have some time, it’s definitely worth watching.

Yes, ironically the speech was covered by Fox News but not other news orgs. Apparently Limbaugh has been blasting the NN10 conference all week and Glenn Beck called us “weirdos and hippie freaks” on his show tonight.

GOP Temper Tantrum – Al Franken Is So Mean!

If you find yourself with some extra money on your hands (I know times are tight for a lot of people), Al Franken might be someone to send a few bucks to. The fallout from the pro-rape vote of 30 Republican senators is making them mighty cranky. Of course, none of them can come up with an explanation for voting against rape victims and constituents aren’t in a forgiving mood. Instead of rethinking their reflexive corporate butt-kissing, they blame Franken:

Republican senators feel burned by Al Franken — and not by his old jokes.

The Republicans are steamed at Franken because partisans on the left are using a measure he sponsored to paint them as rapist sympathizers — and because Franken isn’t doing much to stop them.

“Trying to tap into the natural sympathy that we have for this victim of this rape —and use that as a justification to frankly misrepresent and embarrass his colleagues, I don’t think it’s a very constructive thing,” Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) said in an interview.

I guess the party of no ideas can’t even imagine that the vote really had nothing to do with embarrassing them, it was to actually help people get justice. Senator John Thune even added this wisdom:

“I don’t know what his motivation was for taking us on, but I would hope that we won’t see a lot of Daily Kos-inspired amendments in the future coming from him,” said South Dakota Sen. John Thune, No. 4 in the Senate Republican leadership. “I think hopefully he’ll settle down and do kind of the serious work of legislating that’s important to Minnesota.”

I’ll proudly proclaim my Daily Kos anti-rape values right now.

Learning The Wrong Lesson

Al Franken’s election was one of the pleasant surprises of the 2008 election. Franken is turning out to be an excellent senator. He’s already made an impact with his amendment that prohibits the Defense Department from contracts with companies that force rape and assault victims into arbitration – an instance when a lawmaker sees an issue (the case of Jamie Leigh Jones) and decides to do something about it. One thing he probably didn’t anticipate was that protecting rape victims is actually a partisan issue:

Thirty Senate Republicans voted against the amendment, and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, liberal commentators and state Democratic Party chairs have been merciless.

Angry letters denouncing Republican senators have appeared in newspapers from Tennessee to Idaho. Unflattering videos of senators trying to explain their votes have gone viral on the Internet, including one of Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) swatting away a hand-held video camera held by a liberal blogger questioning his vote against the amendment.

Of course, what did they expect? Here’s the web ad targeting the 30 GOP senators:

Below is the video of a rape victim confronting Senator Vitter on his vote on the Franken amendment:

Yes, it’s a vote that’s hard to defend. So what did the GOP learn from this completely self-inflicted mess?

Privately, GOP sources acknowledge that they failed to anticipate the political consequences of a “no” vote on the amendment. And several aides said that Republicans are engaged in an internal blame game about why they agreed to a roll-call vote on the measure, rather than a simple voice vote that would have allowed the opposing senators to duck criticism.

Yep, they should have just did a voice vote so that people wouldn’t know who is pro-rape. Disgusting!

More Like This Please

Will Al Franken become the Alan Grayson of the Senate? He’s already gotten 30 Republicans on record supporting KBR over rape victims. In this video he puts a health care reform opponent from the Hudson Institute on the grill:

Franken: I want to ask you, how many bankruptcies because of medical crisis were there last year in Switzerland?
Diana Furchgott-Roth: I don’t have that number for you but I could get back to you.
Franken: I can tell you how many it was. It was zero. Do you know how many medical bankruptcies there were last year in France?
Furchgott-Roth: I don’t have that number for you but I could get back to you, if you like.
Franken: Yeah, it’s zero. Do you know how many there were in Germany?
Furchgott-Roth: From the trend of your questions, I’m assuming the answer is zero.
Franken: Well you’re very good. You’re very fast. The point is I think we need to go in that direction not the opposite direction.

So, can you trust the “statistics” from an “expert” on cancer survival rates when they don’t even know the basics of health care in other countries? To health care opponents, only the negatives of other systems can be discussed, not the positives.

In other health care news, the opt-out public option has risen to the top again in the Senate. Jay Rockefeller, one of the strongest advocates of the public option in the Senate, has now signaled his support. I think it’s probably our best shot for getting a strong public option out of the Senate. The recent CBO scoring of the House bill is definitely helping the momentum of the public option.

No senator has been more enthusiastic in his support for the public option that Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.). And so it came as something of a surprise yesterday when he acknowledged that he’s open to a compromise proposal that’s been making the rounds.

“I think there’s one way that could work very well and could pick up some of the moderates,” Rockefeller told reporters. “I’m looking very much now at this opt-out public option.” Under the alternative proposal, the public option would be available nationwide but individual states could decline to participate.

Democratic Sens. Tom Carper (Del.) and Chuck Schumer (N.Y.) — himself a big cheerleader for the public option — have been working on that proposal for the last few weeks and the idea has received tentatively positive reviews from some liberal and centrist Democrats.

Rockefeller’s purported interest in this compromise is notable given his staunch support for the liberal gold standard for the public option: a nationwide program that would pay medical providers based on Medicare rates, a proposal Rockefeller said would save the government more than $50 billion over 10 years. “An opt-out would still save money,” Rockefeller said.

Rockefeller specified that he’s talking about the opt-out measure, not the opt-in. “So you start out with a public option, and if you don’t like it you can opt out,” he said, adding, “That has a sense of freedom.”/blockquote>

One advantage of opt out? It might make some grandstanding governor blowhards put their money where their mouth is. Even secessionist-sympathizing governor Rick Perry has taken stimulus money (and asked for more). It will be interesting to see these governors go against the popular will of the people (Texas has the highest uninsured rate in the nation – 24%!!!).

Pawlenty Will Sign Franken’s Election Certificate

A real, open question in the never-ending Minnesota Senate battle is whether probable 2012 presidential candidate Tim Pawlenty would sign Franken’s election certificate or hold out for another possible battle in the U.S. Supreme Court. Pawlenty indicated today on CNN that he would sign the certificate once the Minnesota Supreme Court rules.

Pawlenty told CNN that he would abide by whatever ruling the Minnesota Supreme Court makes in the contest, where Democrat Al Franken appears to have an upper hand.

“I’m prepared to sign [the certification] as soon as they give the green light,” Pawlenty said. “I’m not going to defy an order of the Minnesota Supreme Court. That would be a dereliction of my duty.”

Signs are pointing to this battle being over soon. Some of Coleman’s top aides have already landed other jobs. This doesn’t mean that Coleman won’t appeal, although there’s been signals that he won’t. We’re going to need all the senators we can get to get this health care bill passed. All we need is for the frickin’ Minnesota Supreme Court to rule!

The Never-Ending Coleman-Franken Saga

There are lots of new developments in the Coleman-Franken race? Could it really be over soon, or are they just teasing us?

Norm Coleman’s name is being mentioned for the governor’s race, now that Pawlenty has announced he’s not seeking a 3rd term (and is probably running for president).

What interest Coleman might have took immediate center stage after Pawlenty’s announcement, along with speculation about whether Coleman’s extended push in the ongoing Senate race against DFLer Al Franken might work against him politically.

David Strom, an influential conservative and senior policy fellow at the Minnesota Free Market Institute, said that the governor’s office would be an “attractive prospect” for Coleman but that the former U.S. senator would face a bruising challenge for the Republican nomination.

Daily Kos also reports that everyone’s favorite kooky conservative, Michele Bachmann is being mentioned for the governor’s race. It’s definitely one to watch!

Are Republicans signaling an end? Pawlenty said he’d sign the election certificate if ordered to by Minnesota’s Supreme Court, unless a federal court decides to intervene. Pawlenty was interviewed by Neil Cavuto:

“So you could be signing a certificate that would turn that Senate seat over to the Democrat Al Franken?” Cavuto asked. “And that would probably not suit you well.”

“Well, I hope not, but you know I have to follow the law,” Pawlenty responded. “You know, Neil, if the Minnesota Supreme Court says, ‘You sign the certificate’ — and there’s not an appeal or some other contrary direction from a federal court — you know, that’s my duty.”

RSCC Chair John Cornyn is now indicating that the race could be over soon:

The head of the Senate GOP’s campaign committee said Wednesday that he would not press Republican Norm Coleman to mount an appeal in the federal court system if the Minnesota Supreme Court rules that Democrat Al Franken won their Senate race.

“I think it’s entirely up to him,” said John Cornyn, chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee … Cornyn said Wednesday that he was “not in the position to predict what Sen. Coleman will do because he’s undecided” but that the NRSC would continue to support Coleman as long as he wishes to continue his legal challenge.

“His hope is that he’s the winner in the Minnesota Supreme Court . . . so I don’t know what happens after that,” Cornyn said. The court heard oral arguments in the case June 1.

Previously, Cornyn has said it could take years before the race was resolved. The possibility of Coleman running for governor certainly changes the incentives. Coleman will want this to be over as soon as possible if he’s going to raise money and repair his reputation.