Al Franken jumped the shark when he was twelve...

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

He shines from time to time and his heart is usually in the right place...

But he's just not as great as he thinks he is.

Al... If you run... call me. You need help.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

1. I have to re-post something I wrote the other day about Al

and you can take it for what it's worth:

I'm not all that crazy about the radio show -- sometimes he interrupts serious guests with wisecracks when he'd be more effective if he'd just be quiet and listen -- but he has done great work supporting progressive media like AAR, as well as progressive candidates. I met Al shortly after Paul Wellstone was killed -- a bunch of us volunteers were frantically phone-banking for Mondale in this shabby little office in Minneapolis -- and this was right after Wellstone's memorial service and all the wingnuts were going on about how "inappropriate" and "political" it was.

So anyhow, Al had flown in from New York for the service, and after that he spent a few days helping the Mondale campaign. And while he was in the office he got after this evil Republican beeyotch Sarah Janacek who'd been trashing Wellstone's service and claiming the closed captioning on TV was really instructions to the audience to applaud. He was calling in to a local right-wing radio talk show to rip her a new one, and he was really fired up. I thought he was terrific, and he was very serious and very intense. Al is no fool; he's smart, committed and well-informed. I hope he does run for the Senate in MN in '08. I think he'd hand that weasel Norm Coleman his ass on a plate.

[babylonsister]

5. ocelot! Thanks for that. Maybe Al will be a better politician than

a comedian. I don't listen to his show, but he is informed, does have a sense of humor, and has some Dem passion that seems a bit lacking in a lot of current Dems.

[October]

2. Agreed. He is over-rated.../nt

[Autonomy]

3. He's no Jon Stewart

but I like his books.

[NYCGirl]

4. Of course one might say that since he originated "Weekend Update" on SNL,

Franken paved the way for The Daily Show.

[maxfisher]

7. we need more al Franken's by god!

[gully]

6. He's awesome

IMHO.

[tularetom]

8. He jumped the shark when I was twelve

and I'm probably eleven years older than he is. Nevertheless I often listen to his show because he has great guests.

[ComerPerro]

9. Why when he was twelve?

Was that the season where the last member of the original cast left, and they started doing episdoes where people came to visit from other dimensions?

Those were lame...

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

11. I'm pretty sure he was in his 20's at least in your example...

[ComerPerro]

12. Well, yeah, that was season 20 though. The show had run its course

[Gregorian]

10. You must be "This high" to become a Senator.

Maybe someday a Kucinich or a Shirley Chisholm can be elected on grounds other than their appearances. (That's not me speaking. That's what I sense Americans feel.) See- Arnold Swdofnweorfoeornnegger.

[Webster Green]

13. He's not one of my favorite comedians, but I do like his show...

He shreds the neo-cons on a daily basis. He has great regular guests on his show (David Sirota, Joe Conason, David Brock, Tom Oliphant, and others) and they debunk the right wing talk machine very nicely.

[Phredicles]

14. But what IS the point of the anti-Franken spam?

[Marr]

15. I like him- what's the point of this?

[applegrove]

16. I love his books. He never was a radio person..he got involved because

he cared and knew the progressive radio voice needed help. Showed up every day to do a tough, tough job he was not trained for. He now takes the next step and may be running in 2008. That is public service. He could have made lots of money doing something else. If more people had his mentality - we would not be in this mess. He knowns the meaning of public service. I usually get a kick out of him. He's a story teller..not so much a one liner. He's a personality not a radio pro. I think he gets to the heart of the issues and then works his butt off to get the message out in various ways.

Case in point: He wrote about Clinton's plan for attacking bin Laden in Afghanistan years ago in Lying Liars 4 years ago..and today finally it is news that Clinton handed a plan for attack on Afghanistan (to get at bin Laden) over to Bush...what? 6 years laterafter the fact? Al had the intel 4 years ago.

So we'd do good to listen to him. Jon Stewart is an amazing comedian but who are we if we cannot listen to the voices of people fighting the fight just because they are not brilliantly hilarious every second? What does that say about us? I don't think Jon Stewart's book was as good as Al's. To each his own.

[raysr]

17. How would you like to see

Al debate Coleman? Man, that would be GREAT!