O'Reilly Factor - Left-wing "reporters" met with John Kerry in Al Franken's apartment

03.22.04

[kcvl]

In an effort to galvanize the message Kerry wants to deliver in the time remaining, he convened a powerful roster of journalists and columnists in the New York City apartment of Al Franken last Thursday. The gathering could not properly be called a meeting or a luncheon. It was a trial. The journalists served as prosecuting attorneys, jury and judge. The crowd I joined in Franken’s living room was comprised of:

Al Franken and his wife Franni;
Rick Hertzberg, senior editor for the New Yorker;
David Remnick, editor for the New Yorker;
Jim Kelly, managing editor for Time Magazine;
Howard Fineman, chief political correspondent for Newsweek;
Jeff Greenfield, senior correspondent and analyst for CNN;
Frank Rich, columnist for the New York Times;
Eric Alterman, author and columnist for MSNBC and the Nation;
Art Spiegelman, Pulitzer Prize winning cartoonist/author of ‘Maus’;
Richard Cohen, columnist for the Washington Post;
Fred Kaplan, columnist for Slate;
Jacob Weisberg, editor of Slate and author;
Jonathan Alter, senior editor and columnist for Newsweek;
Philip Gourevitch, columnist for the New Yorker;
Calvin Trillin, freelance writer and author;
Edward Jay Epstein, investigative reporter and author;
Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., who needs no introduction.

We sat in a circle around Kerry and grilled him for two long hours. In an age of retail politicians who avoid substance the way vampires avoid sunlight, in an age when the sitting President flounders like a gaffed fish whenever he must speak to reporters without a script, Kerry’s decision to open himself to the slings and arrows of this group was bold and impressive. He was fresh from two remarkable speeches – one lambasting the PATRIOT Act, another outlining his foreign policy ideals while eviscerating the Bush record – and had his game face on. He needed it, because Eric Alterman lit into him immediately on the all-important issue of his vote for the Iraq War Resolution. The prosecution had begun.

[kcvl]

Feb. 15, two and a half weeks after Al Franken put a heckler in a wrestling hold on the eve of the New Hampshire primary

The story of Franken's lunge was big news here, and when the theater president and the (Democratic) mayor heard the comedian was being accused of ''body slamming'' in the media, they decided to get involved. Result: the mayor reads a proclamation naming this Al Franken Day, to thunderous applause, and hands Franken the key to the city.

[Kryptonite]

''The bastards lied about it,'' Franken said.

No. They emphasized the "overtly political" nature of Wellstone's funeral.

They used it to influence the election. And they got what they wanted.

Yep.

. But the biggest thing any politician needs is a thick skin. He'd have to develop that or perish.

Franken is a smarmy satirist who will never connect with voters, regardless of how thick his skull becomes in the future.

[nopardons]

Just DAMN!

I know all about Franken's idiotic body slam, but did NOT know about the rest of the story. :-(

[Ditto]

I hear he is on hillarys speech writing team now too LOL!

Franken has a gift for comedy that pisses 50% + of the population off.

Hillary has a gift to piss 50% + of the population off with her mere existence.

Combined, that sounds like a potential spontaneous combustion.

Burn Baby Burn. (Just 60s rhetoric --- no harm meant)

[lorrainer]

We sat in a circle around Kerry and grilled him for two long hours.

They did SOMETHING to him for two long hours....the mental image is devastating. :<P

[Finalapproach29er]

Bttt

[kcvl]

Rich on Bush, "The Divider"


In an unusual video commentary posted on the Times website, Frank Rich answers reader mail. By what surely is sheer coincidence, every single reader agrees with Rich's take on whatever issue is in question, praising Rich's support for gay marriage and his foaming dislike of Mel Gibson and "The Passion."

Near the end of segment six, he sniffs: "One of the sad things about the Bush administration is, the president did talk about wanting to set a new tone when he came in and indeed he was in a good position to do so, because he not been caught up in the Clinton wars, he had been away from Washington, he had been a governor in Texas, and had not been an antagonist in all that really, and there was an opportunity there that I think he lost, because he's turned out to be as much a divider as a uniter, if not more so."

Apparently, it's not "divisive" to talk of "right-wing bloviators" and comparing supporters of traditional marriage to George Wallace.

http://www.timeswatch.org/topicindex/R/rich_frank/welcome.asp

[HowlinglyMind-BendingAbsurdity]

No Christians among the journalists?

Curioser and curioser...

[SevenofNine]

OH isn't that special NOT

I think Al Frankin not that funny at all
IT KNOWN Fact that dude was high thourhg his years at SNL

[Finalapproach29er]

You noticed?

You may be close to committing a thought crime.

[Finalapproach29er]

Speaking of color....

Did you know the Clinton's live in the whitest neighborhood, in the whitest county in New York?

[Stakka Skynet]

Howard Fineman fair? That's almost as funny as the original post.

[kcvl]

NO PRIVACY

THERE'S one big problem with the Heinz House, where Sen. Snowboard, John Kerry, rests from his alpine adventures. The $4 million mansion outside Ketchum, Idaho, is clearly visible from the main road, Route 75. "This morning there are three Suburbans in front of the house, plus a huge Sheriff's Department white trailer and six or seven other vehicles," said our operative in the field, adding, "The temperature all week is a balmy 70 degrees out here." The buzz is that should Kerry become president, he and wealthy wife Teresa will swap Heinz House for former Ambassador Allan Blinkin's place, which is much more secluded and secure.

Halfway down the page...

http://www.nypost.com/gossip/pagesix_u.htm

[kcvl]

Monday, March 22, 2004 10:32 a.m. EST

Hillary's Secret Speechwriter: Al Franken

If U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton's rhetoric sounds a little overwrought from time to time, it might be because she's an an intriguing new speechwriter: potty-mouthed comic Al Franken.

After interviewing Franken, Sunday's New York Times Magazine reports that Franken and his family "were regulars at the Renaissance Weekend retreat the Clintons made famous during their years in the White House; he counts Bill and Hillary Clinton as friends and has helped Hillary Clinton and Tom Daschle, the Senate minority leader, with speeches."

So, when Hillary Clinton says loudly that she's "sick and tired" of the Bush White House, or attempts to blame the president for the August 2003 blackout, is she just repeating lines penned by comic Franken? The angry comic isn't saying.

But he did deliver some disappointing news for liberals hoping that his debut later this month as the anchorman for the Democratic Party's new radio network will permanently change the talk radio landscape.

"I'm doing this because I want to use my energies to get Bush unelected," he told the Times. "I'd be happy if the election of a Democrat ended the show."

[kcvl]

New York Times, which recently endorsed Kerry, Democrats once again take center stage and are showcased as the party of supposedly take-their-word-for-it credibility by the media elite – juxtaposed to The Times’ liberal slant of routinely manufactured GOP improprieties.

In effect, Times reporter Jim Rutenberg actually paints Kerry as the consummate victim, who supposedly felt compelled to “immediately” respond to Bush’s alleged “attack ad:”


The move seemed intended as much to push back against Mr. Bush as it did to signal to Democrats — and potential donors — that Mr. Kerry will not hesitate to respond to attacks, as Democratic candidates have done in past presidential campaigns.

In his latest smear-a-thon against Bush, Kerry repeatedly claims that Bush is “misleading America,” while Kerry is actually the very one who consistently hoodwinks the American people about his pathetic voting record and anti-war background.

Entitled “Kerry, Focus of Attack Ad, Reacts With One of His Own,” Rutenberg should have re-named his March 13 headline: “Kerry, Who Has Consistently Attacked Bush, Reacts With One Of His Own, After Whining Like a Big Cry Baby About Bush’s Alleged Attacks.”

What The Times fails to realize is that there’s nothing wrong with the Bush Administration telling the truth about Kerry’s misleading record, despite the fact that Bush has remained silent all this time. Kerry continues to lie about and distort Bush’s record – thanks to questionable funding from his very rich wife, Teresa Heinz, heiress to the Heinz ketchup fortune. Teresa Heinz recently spearheaded Peaceful Tomorrows, a Far Left group of 9/11 families that John and Teresa Heinz Kerry financed – and reportedly coached – to work the media circuit in a feeble attempt to stop Bush’s ads.

Undoubtedly, the Kerrys are getting a lot of free publicity from their Democratic friends in the media, who will likely never expose Kerry’s campaign ties to soft money.

http://www.intellectualconservative.com/article3239.html

[kcvl]

Al Franken has received a seven-figure advance from Dutton for a book about the election of 2004 that will come out early in 2005...

[kcvl]

Monday, March 22, 2004

Guam businessman Rex Sorensen and former Guam resident and businessman Evan Montvel-Cohen are key backers of a new, liberal radio network that plans to launch its programming in several large cities across the nation at the end of this month.

[kcvl]

"We are going to put it to Bush," says Al Franken, who will host one of the shows on the new network. "Bush is going down in November, and then we're putting it to the rest of the right-wing media."

[Fledermaus]

Liberal circle jerk Ping!

[kcvl]

MoveOn.org has already financed about $1.9 million in Bush-bashing ads in key battleground states. Another group calling itself the Media Fund, run by former top Clinton White House adviser Harold Ickes, announced it will begin running about $5 million worth of ads in key states this week. Another organization, Americans Coming Together, funded primarily by billionaire financier George Soros, has vowed to spend millions to defeat the president this year.