Is Randi Rhodes still acting all pissy over Al Franken?

[Tommy_Carcetti]

Or has she grown up?

I loved Randi for 7 years and never missed a show, but halfway through 2008 she really went off the deep end and her show suffered greatly as a result. As such, I stopped listening to her (a decision that didn't come lightly but one I had to make). She just started becoming very petty, vindictive and bitter towards everyone around her. I listened to a couple of her shows since she moved from AAR to NovaM, but she didn't seem to have improved any.

From what I recall, she had some ego spat with Al Franken and would routinely trash him (subtly at times, other times not so much). Her show's tremendous decline just gives me one further reason as to why talk radio is just a ugly medium, even when it's liberal talk radio. It just seems to be dominated with people with narcisstic personality disorders.

So is she still badmouthing Al?

[opihimoimoi]

1. Showing signs of a Prob somewhere affecting Brain to Mouth transmissions

Might be a shift from one Lobe to another....or chem actions in play...who noes?

[tridim]

2. If you tune out her ego issues she's actually interesting to listen to.

She's extremely smart and well spoken.

IMO her Franken/AAR feud is kind of humorous, but nothing more than that.

[Tommy_Carcetti]

3. Don't get me wrong.

When Randi was the best, she was the best. Mid 2000s there was no one better on talk radio than Randi.

I just got sick of her petty and ugly spats, her celebrity name dropping and her growingly rude and impatient approach to her own callers, even when they called to agree with her.

[Mist]

4. I listen to Randi on a fairly regular basis (2-3 times a week) and am not

aware of her being "vindictive and bitter towards everyone around her." Indeed, she's seemed much happier and mellower now she's back working in Florida.

As to her problems with Franken: no, it wasn't an "ego spat," but the fact that Randi was keeping Franken informed of voting machine fraud, and voters being disenfranchised, back in 2004, when Franken was doing election coverage. Franken declined to mention any of the problems Randi brought to his attention, and she's still upset about that. I don't think she's vindictive, however.

[ananda]

8. Yes, Franken was bad on election fraud.

He should certainly know better NOW>

[SharonRB]

10. I agree about the change since she got back to Florida

I still love her. Yes, she can be difficult at times, but that's part of her charm. I think when she left AAR she really mellowed out and Florida has done her a lot of good. It's much easier to live there than in NYC.

[DeeDeeNY]

15. Is that you in the picture with her?

If so, that's great!! Where was this?

[SharonRB]

19. Yes, that's me

She was here in Detroit in November of '07 to receive an award from a local peace group. That was taken at the reception before the dinner. While she was here, she also came and spoke at a fundraiser we had for Nancy Skinner, who was making her second run at a congressional seat. Nancy was one of the first liberal talk show hosts in the 90s, and she and Randi are friends.

Nancy had almost beaten Knollenberg in '06 and was running again, however, there was going to be a primary and she eventually dropped out of the race in favor of the DCCC-backed candidate, Gary Peters, for party unity's sake. She had softened the electorate up and Peters won this time out. If the party had backed her with money in '06, she could have pulled it off.

[DeeDeeNY]

27. Great picture!

Was that the award ceremony when Conyers introduced Randi? I remember her speaking of that event, and how Conyers took her phone number and was the first one off his feet to applaud when she mentioned impeachment, and it got my hopes up.

[SharonRB]

31. Yes, that's the one.

I was sitting at the table right next to Conyers and he stood up and cheered when she spoke. He got my hopes up that day, too. I thought we were going to get inherent contempt for Harriet and Bolton for sure, and we're still waiting.

[Captain Hilts]

5. Air America hosts get pissy over a lot of Dems. I gave them up. nt

[Mist]

6. Randi's working at Nova FM now, not Air America. nt

[ShortnFiery]

7. "So is she still badmouthing Al?" Probably as much as you are badmouthing Randi.

Pot, meet kettle? :eyes:

[tech3149]

9. I've been listening for at least as long

Is Randi pissy about Franken? Effin A and with damned good reason. Franken was more than happy to play squishy middle-ground with the fools that ran AAR and poo-poo real problems that we had to deal with. She never made a point out of Franken's POV but never made a point of badmouthing him.

I'm not sure where you get the idea of her show's tremendous decline, is that based on # of affiliates, market share? I'll admit that she can be hard to deal with at times but she does her homework and can back up her viewpoint with facts. That's better than most can do from any political viewpoint.

Welcome to reality, anyone that gets into the public sphere is going to be a narcissist to some degree. The real question is do they provide a positive public good. If you've only listened to a couple of shows since she went to Nova M, I'd say you didn't listen very well or have a pre-determined bias.

Randi may not be for everybody, but from my perspective and experience, you can't challenge her on facts, only interpretation.

[meowomon]

11. Oh, go bounce your boobies!

[Tommy_Carcetti]

12. Ya Bastids! nt

[Ioo]

13. she lost me about 6 months ago... just f'ing bitch and snap at people that agreed

with her...

Talk about biting the hand that feeds you.

[DeeDeeNY]

14. I still love Randi, but get uncomfortable when she talks about KO

She seems obsessed with Keith and has dropped hints on how she would like to do his show, but then has complained at times that his producers steal all her material. And then when it became apparent she was not going to be asked to do his show, she would say she's heard he's very difficult to get along with, not a nice person, etc.
I also don't understand why she originally said it was just a contract dispute with Air America when she left last year, but has recently implied that it was actually the Clintons who used their influence at AAR to get them not to renew her contract.
But she's funny and informed and fiery, and I enjoy listening to her.

[NYCGirl]

16. Does she actually believe she's so powerful and important that the Clintons

care about her continued employment at AAR?

:rofl:

[SharonRB]

20. I was at that rally in your sig picture

That's when Gore endorsed Barack here in Detroit!

Here are a couple of my pics:









And here's my stuffed polar bear watching Gore on TV:

[NYCGirl]

21. I am so envious! I did attend a town hall meeting on global warming

with Gore here in NYC. But seeing both Obama and Gore together — priceless!

[SharonRB]

23. You're not kidding!

I had actually met Al at Netroots Nation in Austin during the summer -- he made a surprise appearance. I worked in the draft Gore movement for a year and really wanted him to run -- it was so thrilling to meet him.

Then, when Edwards endorsed Barack in Grand Rapids, I said how I wished Gore would do that here and that I could be there when he did it. Little did I know that wish would come true! I was volunteering at that rally and while we were all outside Joe Louis Arena getting organized into our groups, a text message came through on my cell phone: "Breaking: Al Gore to endorse Barack Obama tonight at 8:30 pm EST....."

Well, of course, I knew that meant Al was going to be at the rally that night. I started jumping up and down like a little kid. I was just beside myself with excitement. I never in a million years thought he'd really be there and my wish would come true. It was so exciting!

[Tommy_Carcetti]

28. Personally I think Randi must have gotten bitter at Bill for not inviting her to a function....

....or something like that, because she used to gush about him all the time. When I saw Bill speak down here in South Florida a few years ago, she actually introduced him.

Or maybe Bill's too passe now, so she saw fit to discard him from her celebrity name droppings (Willie Nelson, Melissa Etheridge, some singer from the Bangles, etc.)

I don't know. I loved Randi when she was on her game, but she did a serious nose dive in terms of show quality.

[Liberal Veteran]

17. I really didn't like Al's show that much.

It was okay and did improve somewhat, but it certainly wasn't my favorite.

[Beacool]

18. Well, if she were to look in a mirror.............

she would find a real "big fuc**** whore". Petty, vindictive and bitter is quite an appropriate description of her.

:eyes:

[spiritual_gunfighter]

22. I can't stand her after she trashed Hillary Clinton

What she said was disgusting, and I don't even really like Hillary that much. But it was still uncalled for.

[Beacool]

24. Yes, it was.

It was low class and crass, but then again that's precisely what Robin is herself.

;)

[otohara]

25. Maybe We'll Find Out Today - She Finally Comes Back to Work

she takes more time off than anyone in broadcasting.

[mysticalchick]

26. There was a problem with the studio space ...

... I heard they moved and other shows that broadcast out of that same space all had problems.

[JohnnieGordon]

30. Yes, Malloy was supposed to come back Monday too..

But it was delayed until today because of technical problems with NovaM's new studio.

[SharonRB]

32. I didn't realize they had moved

On the site it says they're having difficulties with their stream. I'm getting it, but it sounds kind of echo-y. I always have trouble with it cutting in and out.

[baldguy]

29. Do we really need ANOTHER round of Randi bashing?

[Lex]

33. Sounds like a legitimate criticism

if she's personally attacking Franken over some spat.

[baldguy]

36. The last 3 Randi-bashing threads were about the same thing.

Fuck, if you don't like it CHANGE THE DAMN CHANNEL!

[bullwinkle428]

34. The answer is "YES" - just turned on the show a few minutes ago,

and heard her say "Tom Davis was the funny one"! (referring to Franken's days on SNL back in the 70's, appearing as one-half of the comedy team known as "Franken & Davis")

[Duer 157099]

35. Randi's biggest fault is that she's a real person

She does not try to hide who she is.

Her biggest appeal is that she is incredibly well informed about topics that are important to many of us.

I agree with her opinion on Al. She doesn't mention so much the early history at AAR (that you might be referring to) but she *does* mention the election fraud issue, and I hope Al is paying attention now.

[daveroller]

37. She sure is!

She's claiming that he'd be a worse senator than Coleman, but she won't say why. Reading the other replies to your thread, the only reason I can see is that Al didn't agree with her about election problems in 2004. PLEASE! Is he so bad just because he didn't agree with her about an issue???

I think it's more likely to be jealousy. I remember her going ballistic on her show after she discovered that Al earned more money at Air America than she did. Now Al is becoming a US Senator and I bet that's burning her ass too, so she's having a hard time containing herself.

BTW, I used to like Randi because she did lots of homework and posted tons of information on her web site about current events, some of which was hard to find elsewhere. She also was good at connecting the dots about different things. But I haven't heard anything useful or interesting from her for a long time. She must be getting a life outside of broadcasting. ;-) That's ok, now I can use my afternoons to read instead of listening to her.

I still like Rachel M. and Tom Hartman on AAR.