Franken feuds with T. Boone Pickens

[fedupinBushcountry]

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0709/25667.html">Franken feuds with T. Boone Pickens

Five years after he put his money behind the Swift Boat ads that helped tank John Kerry’s presidential campaign, Senate Democrats gave T. Boone Pickens a warm welcome at their weekly policy lunch Thursday.


Or at least most of them did.


Kerry skipped the regularly scheduled lunch; his staff said the Massachusetts Democrat “was unable to attend because he had a long scheduled lunch with his interns and pages.”


Sen. Al Franken managed to make time for the lunch — but then let Pickens have it afterward.

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Franken, who was seated talking to someone else, did not stand when Pickens said hello. Instead, Franken began to berate him about the billionaire’s financing of the Swift Boat ads in 2004.


According to a source, the confrontation grew heated.


Said Franken spokeswoman Jess McIntosh: “It was a lively conversation.”

Thank you Al for standing up to the slimeball, I wish those other so called Democrats had the balls instead of kissing ass to a dirtbag who fueled the dirtiest tactics in history to destroy their Democratic nominee for President. They should be ashamed.

[karynnj]

1. Here's a Daily Kos diary

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2009/7/31/161651/002

I really do not get why some Democrats, who backed every other Democrat - no matter how shabby their actions (ie with interns), fail to defend a man of honor who has always been loyal to them. I'm glad Kerry is there fighting for us, but the Democratic party does not deserve him.

[wisteria]

2. Thank you Senator Franken- this sure won't win you the support of the self serving cowards

who call themselves Dem's, but I am sure there is one true and honorable Democrat who appreciates what you did today.
As far as Pickens is concerned- it should not be business as usually for the Democrats-unless some of them feel he did them a favor and because of Kerry's loss we now have more power after four additional years of Bush.. I am really surprised that my Senator- Casey went to this lunch-I would have though better of him.

[ray of light]

3. Pickens still voted for McCain too. This guy can not be trusted and the Dem party should never

great this guy with anything other than the middle finger and new taxes on his businesses.

[_dynamicdems]

4. Good for Al Franken.

Bill Maher also had something to say about swiftboating in his "New Rules" this week.

[beachmom]

5. "Keep your head down" -- advice from Beltway journalists

There has been this terrible trend for new Senators to follow the Hillary Clinton Model, which was praised to no end by inside the beltway journalists. Keep your head down was supposed to mean be humble. Just because you're a star doesn't mean you should go around grandstanding. Okay, fine, freshman Senators do need to learn the ropes and all even if they're well known "star politicians". BUT, what "keep your head down" REALLY meant was don't DO anything. Don't rock the boat, don't fight for anything that is hard, don't help out other Senators taking on difficult issues. Barack Obama followed the same model as Hillary Clinton, and basically, the whole point was to use your Senate seat as a launching pad to run for President. Translation: use ZERO political capital for your current job so that you can use it to become President. This was why we were all so disappointed in Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama in the Senate. Their strategies made them toothless cautious pointless "liberals" who never fought the difficult fights. They did, of course, do some grandstanding. But only in the service of a presidential campaign, not for the common good. To be clear, I love Barack Obama, but I wasn't in love with Senator Barack Obama. Frankly, we need another African American Senator pronto (and not Burris, who was tainted from the start) who is NOT going to put his or her head down.

So how does this relate to Al Franken? Well, I was absolutely crestfallen to hear one of the pundits on TV say that Al Franken's approach was going to be Hillary Clinton's "Keep Your Head Down" strategy. Ugh, just what we need, I thought. Another liberal doing nothing, trying not to make waves. I think the above story shows, Al is NOT going to keep his head down. He is going to fight for what's right, and be truly independent of the mealy mouthed Democratic leadership. Good for him to skip that godawful strategy that should be retired for good!

Oh, yeah, and the final point on Keep Your Head Down. John Kerry did NOT do that as a freshman Senator. He understood he was elected to be a Senator. Sure he dreamed of being POTUS. But seize the day and all that stuff, John Kerry plunged right in. And he made some mistakes along the way, but at least he didn't pull this "I'll bide my time" crap. Otherwise he never would have become the open government anti-corruption Democrat we all admire him for.

My other reaction is something extraordinary: Al Franken is the first Democrat to truly defend John Kerry's honor where 1) there was no political advantage to Al, 2) it was not to score points in any issue and 3) it wasn't because John Kerry had just done him a favor and was standing right there so gee, maybe the Democrats should say something nice about Kerry. The above 3 scenarios have happened before, and we got the balm of another Democrat saying something nice or defending Kerry:

1. Barack Obama, when Kerry endorsed him (kind of a requirement to say something nice)
2. Harry Reid and Ted Kennedy (when Kerry announced he wouldn't run for President to the relief of the Dem leadership)
3. Barbara Boxer and Dick Durbin (during the General Betray Us Moveon fiasco, but this was to score political points against a Republican amendment)
4. When someone testifies in front of Kerry's committee. Again, these niceties are expected.

Al Franken was different. Now sure, JK helped him out with his campaign and for the lengthy recount battle afterwards. But JK has done favors to LOTS of elected Dems without getting this kind of defense. This was basically Al speaking his mind, and selflessly doing this in the name of honor. This shows incredible classiness and strict adherence to principle. Frankly, I am never going to forget Al Franken did this. I don't say this lightly: this is the nicest thing a Democrat has done for John Kerry since his electoral defeat in 2004.

[MBS]

6. yes, yes, yes!

for most of Al's senate campaign (by that I mean the pre election campaign : )), I wasn't all that wild about what I saw (I for sure wanted Al to win, but wasn't in with both feet, you know?) But watching Al handle the post-election recounts (and recounts and recounts), including Coleman's @#$%, my respect continued to grow. And NOW: he's on my A list forever.

A big :thumbsup::dem::toast: to Al AND to beachmom!