Franken Seeks Advice on Bid for Senate

Associated Press ^ | Tue, May 04, 2004 | FREDERIC J. FROMMER

[presidio9]

As Al Franken considers challenging Sen. Norm Coleman, R-Minn., for re-election in 2008, the comedian and liberal radio host is looking to his hometown senator for advice: Hillary Rodham Clinton (news - web sites).

"I asked Hillary, 'Can you give me some suggestions about running for Senate in a state you haven't lived for in a while, or in your case, ever?' " Franken recalled, laughing heartily. "And she said, 'This will be a long conversation,' so we agreed to have a long conversation about it."

Clinton, D-N.Y., moved from Washington to New York to run for the Senate. Franken was born in New York City and lives there now but grew up in the Minneapolis suburbs. He put the odds of running against Coleman at better than 50-50.

"I've thought about it and discussed it with my family more," Franken said. The only holdout, he said, is his 19-year-old son, Joe, who is worried he'll see less of his father.

Coleman declined to comment. Minnesota Republican Party chairman Ron Eibensteiner asked, "This is a joke, right?"

Franken said he probably would not take political action committee money but also would not put any of his own into a race.

"Absolutely not," he said, laughing. "If the staff went out for beers, I'd pick it up."

A month after the debut of his show "The O'Franken Factor" on the fledgling Air America Radio network, Franken said he is happy with the direction of the program. But he acknowledged that it is harder to be funny in the talk-radio format.

"It's certainly difficult to be funny for three hours, because you talk about very serious things," he said. "I'd like to loosen it up a little bit, and try to write a little bit more comedy for it, maybe make it a little less guest-heavy."

___

David Brock, the one-time conservative journalist who singled out liberal politicians, is helping to launch a Web site that will highlight what it considers inaccurate claims in media reporting by conservatives.

The group, called Media Matters for America, plans "to correct conservative misinformation in the media."

The 41-year-old former journalist and author wrote pro-conservative books in the 1990s on Anita Hill and her allegations against Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas (news - web sites) and President Clinton (news - web sites)'s sex scandals. But six years ago, Brock abandoned the conservative cause and says he understands how the well-financed conservative manipulation of the media works.

Brock said "the nation is awash in conservative misinformation," adding "viewers and listeners are bombarded by conservative misinformation presented as fact." He cited the popularity of conservative talk radio and its hosts such as Rush Limbaugh and of Fox News Channel, which has several popular conservative commentators.

A Limbaugh spokesman said he had no comment on the group's efforts. Brent Bozell, founder and president of the conservative Media Research Center, scoffed: "If they focus on commentators, what are they going to say, that they're opinionated? If anything, the left is far better organized on this."

Slightly more people in a recent poll by the Pew Research Center said news organizations were biased in favor of Democrats, than thought they were biased toward Republicans. But Democrats have become increasingly sensitive to what they perceive as media bias against their party.

___

The year was 1978 and George W. Bush was trying to persuade Texans to send him to Congress. Among those he won over in his failed bid for office was his new wife, Laura.

"By the end of the campaign, he even convinced me to vote for him," the first lady told several hundred people during Bush's bus tour stopover in Niles, Mich. As they laughed, she added, "And so far, anyway, he hasn't done anything to change my mind."

Laura Bush, a librarian back then, was new to the political system. On Monday, she was making a rare joint campaign appearance with her husband as his campaign bus rolled through Michigan.

The president, in turn, praised his wife. "Probably the best reason to send me back," Bush told the crowd, "is so Laura Bush will be the first lady for four more years."

___

Bush and Democratic rival John Kerry (news - web sites) were running very close in an Oregon poll released Monday.

Kerry had the backing of 48 percent of likely voters and Bush had the backing of 46 percent, with 6 percent undecided. In 2000, Democrat Al Gore (news - web sites) beat Bush by half a percentage point. Ralph Nader (news - web sites), then a Green Party candidate, got 5 percent.

The Research 2000 poll of 600 likely voters was taken April 25-29 for the Portland Tribune and television stations KOIN, KDRV and KEZI. The poll had a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.

[Spok]

I take it Al's new job isn't working out.

[stuck_in_new_orleans]

"I've thought about it and discussed it with my family more," Franken said. The only holdout, he said, is his 19-year-old son, Joe, who is worried he'll see less of his father.

and in '08 his son will be 23? And hes gonna miss DADDY? wtf? Talk about the DUMBEST future cop-out excuse!

[Eric in the Ozarks]

Any sign of Joel Sebastian ? Gary Gears, doing a Mr. Norm live commercial over a recorded jingle...

[BillyBoy]

VS.
Stuart Smally vs. Senator Coleman
Because he's good enough, he's smart enough, and doggoneit, liberals like him.

NORM'S ACHIVEMENTS
-- Student Body President, Hofstra University
---J.D. from University of Iowa Law School, graduated with highest honors
--Campus organizer for civil rights in the 60s
--Successful prosecutor for the Minnesota Attorney General's office in the seventies
--Solicitor General of Minnesota
--Mayor of St. Paul, Minnesota' capitol and second largest city, 1993-2002
--saved St. Paul taxpayers tens of millions of dollars.
--received the U.S. Conference of Mayors’ highest award recognizing excellence in public-private partnership.
--engineered the return of a National Hockey League franchise to Minnesota.
--crushed Hubert Humphrey III in gubernatorial race and narrowly lost the top slot in a three way race.
--Polled ahead of two-term incumbent Paul Wellstone and THEN went on to defeat his replacement, former Vice President Walter Mondale
-- Chairman of the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee on Investigations, an assignment once held by Harry Truman and rarely occupied by a freshman Senator.
-- Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere
-- member of the Senate Small Business and Entrepreneurship Committee.
--Americans for Tax Reform honored the Senator with their Hero of Taxpayer Award
--Family Research Council’s True Blue Award
--U.S. Chamber of Commerce with the Spirit of Enterprise award.
--American Chiropractic Association honored Coleman with their Health Care Leadership Award.

AL'S "ACHIEVEMENTS"
-- Was actually funny as Baggage handler #1/Bobo the Chimp in Trading Places (1983)
-- "SNL: The Lame Years". Left SNL in 1995 after his request to be the Weekend Update news anchor was promptly turned down.
-- Wrote "Rush Limbaugh is a Big Fat Idiot", (beloved by liberal readers) and now, ironically, weighs more than Rush and does dumber radio shows
--Wrote and Starred in "Stuart Saves His Family", now honored with the unique distinction of "crappiest film to ever be adapted from an SNL skit" ... a record that will be incredibly difficult to break
--Failed liberal radio talk show host who hosts "The O'Franken Factor" -- yuk, yuk...oh, you meant that was SUPPOSED to annoyed us, Al?

[Eric in the Ozarks]

Add to the list above, "Norm has a better sense of humor."

[Northerner]

This state should have been with Canada years ago!
Did you know that?

The St.Louis River was the boundary at one time. It was a close negotiation-- and at one point-- Minnesota would have been split-- Imagine that!



Beautiful river-- rapids and small waterfalls-- very gorgeous river.

I was born to the North of the River. I imagine time that my friends weren't KILLED FROM THE FUCKING WAR, and we could have medicine and food.

It could have been a Grand Time-- To the
North--