Posted on 05/30/2008 8:38:54 AM PDT by MNJohnnie
enate candidate Al Franken's satirical and explicit take on virtual sex and other topics, published in Playboy magazine eight years ago, is drawing concern instead of laughter from some Minnesota Democrats.
Rep. Betty McCollum, who supported the comedian's rival Mike Ciresi until he dropped out of the race for the party's nomination for the Senate, complained Thursday that she and other Minnesota Democrats will be on the same November ballot as a candidate "who has pornographic writings that are indefensible."
"Do they spend all of their time defending him, or do they spend their time talking about issues that are important to this election?" McCollum told The Associated Press in an interview. "The whole story was a shocking surprise."
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Obama will be in the same boat. The leftist kooks overplayed their hands and now are stuck with candidates that will have a real difficult time winning.
Too bad McCain is such a weak candidate.
Why even bring it up? It was 8 years ago, and I’m sure most people have completely forgotten about it, despite buying the magazine for the articles. ;p
(Unless, of course, someone on the Dim side is trying to scuttle Franken.)
I don't know, seems as though they would just be playing to their base...
I think before the convention enough Democrats will start sweating the lower end of the ticket to the point that Obama will wish they had just made him sit on the back of the bus.
And here I thought any kind of sexual peccadillo was a resume enhancer for a RAT politician.
Al and his FrankenFriends are all saying this is no big deal, just a comedy schtick.
Ok, why don’t they just reprint it on his campaign website so we all get the joke?
Al has many things to be concerned about. This is a blip...
New York Observer, by George Gurley [4/26/04]
Half-Baked
The two goals of a bake sale benefiting the left-wing grassroots organization MoveOn.org on the afternoon of April 17 were to “bake back the White House” (in other words, regime change) and to make it into the Guinness Book of World Records as the greatest bake sale ever. Three hours into it, a line was still stretching around the block from Teany, Moby’s vegan café on the Lower East Side, and by the time it was over, 1,500 customers had purchased $10,000 worth of baked goods at simultaneous bake sales nationwide. A total of $750,000 was raised. (Since that day, the powers that be at Guinness have decided not to designate anyone for the “biggest bake sale” category.)
Among the celebrity draws on Rivington Street were Al Sharpton, Janeane Garofalo, comedian David Cross, glam-rock star Rene Risque, John Cameron Mitchell of Hedwig fame and restaurateur Rocco DiSpirito, who were all toiling under a sign that read “A Village in Texas is Missing Its Idiot.”
But getting the most attention was Al Franken.
“Tell the truth, Al, keep telling the truth!” someone hollered at him as he licked some more frosting off his fingers. According to two sources (event organizer Laura Dawn and investigative reporter Greg Palast), Mr. Franken had at times that day eaten more than he was worth.
But the satirist and liberal radio host was working hard, selling cupcakes, brownies, cookies, shaking hands, signing autographs. So he took a breather across the street and crouched down outside a bodega. There, he was asked about President Bush’s recent press conference.
“I was shocked,” he said. “The emperor has no clothes. This is a guy who could not talk on his feet. Obviously, he has no depth of knowledge.”
He continued on about his latest U.S.O. tour to Iraq, but something was distracting him: a guy nearby wearing a Saddam Hussein mask, an oversized “Ace of Spades” shirt and a sign that read “Save Me, Vote Democrat.” Mr. Franken, who was wearing a button that read “Re-defeat Bush,” heard the man say something about Jamie Gorelick, the controversial former Clinton Justice Department official serving on the 9/11 commission.
“Uh, I gotta argue with this guy for a minute,” Mr. Franken said, getting up.
“I just want to say hi to this guy. Hi, how are you? You want to discuss Jamie Gorelick?”
“Well, I want a Jamie Gorelick muffin, but I want it grilled, not half-baked,” said the man, who sounded a lot like sleight-of-hand artist and Mamet-movie regular Ricky Jay. (It wasn’t him; the man identified himself as Raoul.) Mr. Franken gently placed a hand on his shoulder.
“Would you like to discuss—”
“Uh, keep your hands off me, please. You have no right to put your hands on people, Al.”
“O.K. Would you like to discuss Jamie Gorelick?”
“I want a Jamie Gorelick muffin grilled, not half-baked,” Raoul said again.
By now, there were several dozen people encircling the two men. Cameras were clicking and videotape rolling for a documentary on Mr. Franken, who explained to Raoul that Ms. Gorelick had “simply codified rules that were already in place during Reagan and Bush I, and that John Ashcroft had reaffirmed those same rules.”
“So you’re asking for a Jamie Gorelick—”
“Grilled muffin,” Raoul said. “Grilled Jamie Gorelick muffin. Not half-baked.”
“You can say that over and over again, but it’s not responsive to my point.”
“I want a Jamie Gorelick muffin grilled. I don’t want a half-baked Jamie Gorelick muffin. A half-baked Jamie Gorelick muffin is hazardous to your health. Your Jamie Gorelick must be grilled.”
“Hey Al, I read your book—it was great!” someone yelled.
Mr. Franken thanked Raoul for his time and started walking over to his fans.
“Al, Al!” Raoul yelled. “Your audience just tripled. Air America’s ratings have doubled!” But Mr. Franken didn’t hear him. With the crowd following him, he’d moved on to go sell some more cupcakes.
Considering blacks are about 35% of the Democrat base, good luck to the Dems should they try something. I think it is fair to say the Democrats are in a quagmire.
Is Franken the candidate, or can the DFL still pull a Toricelli/Lautenberg-type switcheroo?
BTW, I will take bets from all and sundry that Frank Lautenberg will not be the one on the NJ Senate ballot in November. He will be the ‘Rat nominee after next week’s primary, but he will not be the nominee on Election Day.
I fully expect Franken to announce: I’m a gay American.
Oh yeah, that is going to play really well...even if it was meant to be a sarcastic joke.
Would really like to see the text of this article posted or linked to if it’s inappropriate content.
“Porn-O-Rama” posted in Playboy sometime in 2000. I’ve searched dozens and dozens of search hits today and no news stories have the text. With so much widespread coverage you would think someone would defend the text or try to explain it “in context”. Just google “al franken article” and you will see the news frenzy.
Why is this man even running for the Senate? What makes anyone think he would make a competent legislator?
Home of incompetent legislators such as off-the-charts lefty Paul Wellstone, Jessie "The Body" Ventura and Keith Ellison, first Muslim elected to Congress.
Minnesota...Land of 10,000 Conservatives (out of a population of 3 million).
What are the odds the Dems pull a Toricelli on failed talk show host Al Franken.
The guy’s always been a jerk. Wasn’t he the one who wrote the nasty book about Rush Limbaugh a few years ago? This doesn’t surprise me that he would do something like this.
January 2000 issue. I subscribed back then so I will go through my back issues and scan it to post.
It's a fact.
I would be "creeped-out" by Al Franken even if he were a conservative Republican, Minuteman, veteran.
As it is, he's a repugnant, hate-speech mongering, military-disparaging, income tax-evading, mendacious Marxist blame artist - - so I'm offended to the highest level of revulsion by his candidacy for the Senate.
Love your tag line (from a Marine and Navy Dad).
It’s amazing that Democrats have rallied around this vulgar, self-important clown. I suppose I should be thankful that they may be forfeiting the race.
The only question now is whether Jesse Ventura will throw this race into turmoil.
Either way Al Franken is a guranteed loser, but a Ventura candidacy could pull enough disgruntled voters from the right and left to make the race a tossup between him and Coleman.
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