Tag Archives: Al Franken

political news

Congress revealing its vulnerability

William Kristol isn’t my favorite pundit, given his sometimes-acerbic conservatism.

However, the Weekly Standard editor is a prolific tweeter and of late he has been on a tear regarding the explosive accusations involving Republican senatorial candidate Roy Moore.

Kristol tweeted this today: Against a backdrop of Trump, of Moore, Franken & Menendez, of abysmal ratings of Congress, of hyper-partisanship & gridlock, shouldn’t every young person of good character committed to public service consider running for Congress in 2018? Could incumbents ever be more vulnerable?

Kristol is no fan of Donald J. Trump, nor of Moore. Sens. Al Franken and Robert Menendez, both Democrats, surely aren’t on Kristol’s gift list. Franken is fending off a groping allegation and Menendez is facing a new trial on corruption charges.

But the conservative pundit does pose a fascinating question about the potential for any fresh-faced young person who could challenge an incumbent. “Could incumbents ever be more vulnerable?” Kristol asks.

It does seem that the atmosphere is well-suited for a challenger with sound moral footing and character to run against an incumbent. Thus, Kristol has delved into an issue worth exploring.

The filing season for running in the Texas primary election has commenced. We haven’t heard of any sexual misbehavior charges leveled against a member of the Texas congressional delegation. Then again, it’s still early in the election season and there well could be something erupting somewhere, involving someone who happens to represent Texas on Capitol Hill.

The landscape across the land, beyond the Texas border, is rife with opportunities for young men and women to seek to hold public service jobs.

Will they step up? Should they step up?

I don’t know the answer to the first question. The obvious answer to the second is a resounding “yes!” 

national news

Oh, brother … now Sen. Franken gets accused

The hits just keep coming.

Now it’s Democratic U.S. Sen. Al Franken of Minnesota who’s been accused of groping and kissing a woman against her will.

She produced a picture of Franken committing the deed in 2006.

See the picture here.

OK, then. It’s reprehensible and disgusting. Franken should be ashamed of himself. The incident occurred when Franken — who was then a comedian — was on a USO tour with news anchor Leann Tweeden.

Franken has apologized for his actions.

Tweeden has leveled some harsh — and well-deserved — criticism at Franken.

Here, though, is a question I think needs to be asked, given the intense fallout from the Roy Moore story and the mounting pressure on the Republican senatorial candidate from Alabama to drop out of the race. Moore blames his accusers of being tools of Democrats and the “fake news” media.

Are there any political considerations to ponder about Leann Tweeden’s accusation?

Suffice to say that a new day has burst all over Washington, D.C., let alone on the entertainment industry, in light of the “Me Too” movement and the hideous accusations that have ricocheted about one-time superstars.

Let’s all stay tuned. My guess is that there will be plenty more of these accusations coming forth.

entertainment news

D’oh! There’s also Al Franken

I have committed an error of omission.

In a previous blog post noting the possible entry of two entertainer/political novices into politics, I forgot to mention one of the more notable former entertainers who’s actually making a name for himself on Capitol Hill.

Al (Stuart Smalley) Franken has served in the U.S. Senate from Minnesota and has become arguably one of the upper congressional chamber’s most eloquent progressive voices

Franken was elected initially in 2008, defeating Republican Sen. Norm Coleman.

Franken’s original claim to fame? He was a comedy writer for “Saturday Night Live” and then assumed the character “Stuart Smalley,” the guy with that strange sense of self-awareness.

He’s also written some political books and was a radio personality on Air America, the left-wing broadcasting network; he quit Air America to run for the Senate.

Has he performed well in the Senate? In my view … yes! Then again, I’m aligned with him politically.

I suppose Sen. Franken can be a positive example of how someone who’s never run for or held public office can rise to the occasion. Franken has done so.

I regret omitting him in that previous blog post. My bad, man.

https://highplainsblogger.com/2017/07/kid-rock-for-senate-oh-my/

 

national news, political news

Hey, didn’t the AG recuse himself from Russia probe?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XVpDT4PyM04

Al Franken knows a lie when he hears it. He wrote a book about “Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them.”

The U.S. senator from Minnesota stood on the Senate floor and offered a point-by-point rebuttal of an apparent lie that Donald J. Trump likely told about a recommendation he got to fire FBI Director James Comey.

Then again, perhaps the lie came from the mouth of Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who announced this year he would “recuse” himself from any dealings at any level with the probe into whether Russian government officials sought to influence the 2016 presidential election in the president’s favor.

You see, the president said he got a recommendation to fire Comey from — drum roll! — AG Sessions, the fellow who said he would recuse himself from this matter.

Oh yeah! Then there’s that matter of Comey leading the FBI probe into allegations that the Trump campaign colluded with Russian hackers to sway the election.

Sen. Franken’s statement zeroes in quite cleanly on Sessions’ recusal and he casts doubt (a) on whether the president really got a recommendation from Sessions to fire Comey or (b) on whether Sessions has actually recused himself as he pledged to do.

Man, this Comey firing matter is beginning to get stinkier by the day.

legal news, national news, political news

Sessions needs to talk once more to Senate Judiciary panel

That’s it? The U.S. attorney general won’t have to testify any more to the Senate Judiciary Committee?

That’s the decision of Committee Chairman Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, who said he has no plans to call AG Jeff Sessions back to Capitol Hill to explain himself.

It seems to me that the attorney general has some serious ‘splainin to do.

He told Judiciary Committee members during his confirmation hearing that he didn’t have any meetings with Russian government officials. Then, later, he thought differently about it said, yep, he did talk to the Russian ambassador to the United States.

This ought to be fleshed out a little bit.

What did he discuss? Did he talk to him about big things, such as, oh, whether the Russians were trying to influence the presidential election? Or how about whether the incoming Donald J. Trump administration would take back the sanctions that the Obama administration had leveled against the Russians for — that’s right — trying to influence the election.

Or … maybe it was just a casual conversation. “How’s the weather in Moscow in these days, Mr. Ambassador?”

Sen. Al Franken, a Minnesota Democrat and one of the Judiciary panel members, wants Sessions to come back to The Hill to testify.

I think he should, too. Chairman Grassley surely cannot believe he’s heard all there is to hear from the attorney general.

national news, political news

Al Franken for VP? Let’s think about this

franken

Al Franken for vice president?

Oh boy. It’s almost too hilarious to consider. Then again, so was Donald J. Trump’s presidential candidacy once thought of as a side-splitting joke.

Bill Scher, writing for Politico, thinks the political dynamics have been thrown into the drink with Trump’s frontrunning GOP presidential campaign.

So, according to Scher, Hillary Clinton needs to think seriously about appointing the man who gained fame as Stuart Smalley, the “Saturday Night Live” character who turned melodramatic modesty into an art form.

Franken now has a serious job, as a U.S. senator from Minnesota.

His committee hearing questioning of witnesses can be hilarious. He also makes serious points.

Franken is an unapologetic populist. He’s also backing Clinton, rather than Sen. Bernie Sanders.

Scher’s point in pushing Franken out front as a potential VP nominee is that Trump has changed the political calculus at every level. Franken would be seen as every bit as serious as Trump … which isn’t saying much, given that Trump’s circus act has turned the GOP campaign into a markedly unserious endeavor.

I am not in favor of promoting candidates for high public office for the sake of doing something brash and unthinkable. I like Sen. Franken. He’s a solid family man and a damn funny comedian. He writes great jokes, which he did for many years before becoming an on-camera sensation with “SNL.”

The question keeps popping into my head: Is Al “Stuart Smalley” Franken ready to become president if he is forced to assume that office?

My heart wants to say “yes.” My head says “no.”

As for Donald J. Trump, every fiber of my being tells me he is unsuited at every level imaginable for the office he is seeking.

 

national news, political news

Sen. Franken’s ‘joke’ gets a fresh look

Fifteen years ago, before he was a United States senator, Al Franken was a comedian.

And a pretty funny one at that.

He also hosted a radio talk show on the progressive Air America network.

In 2000, he wrote an essay in which he said this about Sen. John McCain: “I have tremendous respect for McCain but I don’t buy the war hero thing. Anybody can be captured. I thought the idea was to capture them. As far as I’m concerned he sat out the war.”

The statement is getting some added attention these days in light of what Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump said of his fellow Republican’s service record.

http://www.politico.com/story/2015/07/al-franken-criticize-jon-mccain-captured-donald-trump-120359.html?cmpid=sf#ixzz3gS3qJiW9

Franken was elected to the Senate in 2008 in a razor-thin margin. He has become a leading progressive Democrat in that body. According to his spokesman, he made the statement about McCain as a joke. He told McCain that very thing when McCain was a guest on Franken’s Air America radio show.

Well, whatever Franken’s motives were in his pre-Senate days, I don’t find a single thing funny about what John McCain endured for five-plus years as a prisoner of war in North Vietnam.

Yes, he’s saluted his Senate colleague since then. I’m sure the tributes have been sincere.

But here’s an example of how one’s words never disappear.

media news

More ‘lies’ from O’Reilly

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Bill O’Reilly is a serial liar, according to one of his former colleagues at Fox News Channel.

OK, that doesn’t surprise a lot of folks. What’s a bit surprising to me is that the allegation of lying comes from Eric Burns, who was a host of “Fox News Watch” for a decade until 2008, when the network let him go.

I’m not sure if Burns is spitting out some sour grapes here, but he did tell CNN’s Brian Stelter that O’Reilly long has been known to embellish his credentials, if not lie outright about what he reported on.

The clip attached to this link is about 8 minutes long. It’s a highly interesting critique on O’Reilly’s time at Fox and whether his bosses and colleagues at the network expect much from him. Burns said no, they don’t.

http://www.rawstory.com/2015/03/ex-fox-host-tells-cnn-olbermann-was-right-all-along-fox-is-a-cult-and-oreilly-is-a-liar/#.VPy5tRDsw1s.twitter

Why is this such a big deal? Well, maybe it’s not huge. But in the media world, O’Reilly has become cable the biggest star on cable “news,” although I use the term “news” guardedly where it involves O’Reilly or, for that matter, Fox News in general.

About the time Brian Williams got suspended by NBC for fibbing, er, lying, about being shot down in Iraq, O’Reilly came under criticism for his reporting from the Falklands War “front” in 1982 when, in reality, he never set foot on the island territory when British forces landed to take it back from Argentine forces.

Williams got suspended — and likely won’t get his news anchor job back — while O’Reilly’s ratings have soared, as Burns told Stelter on CNN’s “Reliable Sources.”

That seems to be the aim at Fox: ratings. Burns said the network is giving O’Reilly a pass because the more he comes under fire, the more his rating soar. Burns suggested to Stelter that’s a likely consequence of the audience that tunes in to Fox. He calls Fox News watchers “cultish.” Watch the clip and listen for yourself to what he says.

It’s interesting that in all the discussion, I didn’t hear a mention of what now-Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn., has called O’Reilly over the years. Back when he was a mere political humorist, Franken would refer the Fox News host as “O’Lie-ly,” which enraged O’Reilly so much that to this day he refers to Franken by his former “Saturday Night Live” character, Stuart Smalley.

Whatever the case, the interview with Eric Burns is worth your time.

Well, at least was worth my time.

Uncategorized

Paychecks still roll in for lawmakers

I am holding out hope that the government shutdown is close to being ended and that the bickering parties will strike a deal to raise the nation’s debt limit.

Before all that happens, I want to vent one more time against those lawmakers — and even the president and vice president — who continue to draw their pay while taking measures that send other federal employees home without pay.

Some of our members of Congress have done the right thing. U.S. Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn., for example has donated his salary to food distribution organizations in his home state. He declared that Americans shouldn’t go hungry while a portion of their government has been shuttered.

There have been others of both parties and I salute them all for doing what I believe is the noble thing.

My own congressman, Republican Mac Thornberry of Clarendon? He’s still getting paid. Hmmm. I am guessing a man of his means isn’t exactly living off his $174,000 annual salary.

I am acutely aware that House members, senators and executive branch leaders surrendering their salaries for a brief period of time won’t balance the budget, it won’t bring us closer to good fiscal health and it won’t settle this dispute between the parties.

However, I’ve long respected those who lead by example. We elect these people to lead, to make tough decisions on our behalf and to demonstrate that they are men and women of their word.

One way to demonstrate their commitment is to share in the pain their decisions are having on others.

Giving up a few weeks’ pay is one of those ways.