Posted on 04/03/2007 8:23:40 AM PDT by seanmerc
Senate candidate admits he has much to learn between now and the next election, and isn’t shying away from the challenge.
MORTON — He is best known for sketches on “Saturday Night Live,” and best-selling humor books that poke fun at figures like Rush Limbaugh.
But 15 minutes before he was scheduled to appear at a ballroom at Jackpot Junction on Saturday night, Al Franken was huddled with a group of ag producers talking about something other than fame or entertainment.
Alfalfa.
“I just had a meeting about all the background of alfalfa,” Franken said as he stood outside the ballroom, where the Senate District 21’s annual meeting took place Saturday night.
That means using alfalfa as feed, as a counter to overplanting other crops, as a tool against soil erosion.
Things Franken said he’d never thought about before, but issues he realizes he now must begin to understand. Franken has officially entered the race as a DFLer for the U.S. Senate seat currently held by Sen. Norm Coleman. Saturday’s convention was his first campaign visit to southwest Minnesota.
“To me, this is a process,” he told the Independent. “And I have a lot to learn.”
He said meetings like the alfalfa one are important — “smart,” because “I know almost nothing about it, and I will have to learn more about it not only in the next 19 months before the election but hopefully the next six, seven, eight, 12 to 14 years in the Senate.”
He said he doesn’t like to just start talking cold about things he isn’t familiar with.
“But I’m learning a tremendous amount,” he said.
He’s traveled around rural Minnesota in the past year, campaigning for other candidates. But since he hasn’t been in this part of the state before, he was asked if he understood the core issues of southwest Minnesota.
He said he did, listing off renewable energy and transportation — especially for ag products — as top priorities.
He appeared on the “Late Night” with David Letterman show on Thursday night, touting renewable energy. Franken called for an approach similar to the U.S. space program in the 1960s, a concentrated national effort that led to the Apollo moon trips.
“Renewable energy is a very hopeful part of our future and it addresses so many things,” Franken said. “Carbon emissions, global warming, the environment, national security and jobs.
“And I’m a huge fan of wind energy, and a huge fan of any kind of ethanol. I think there’s a lot of future in cellulosic ethanol, not just (corn).”
He said he has heard farmers’ concerns about getting product to market, both with better rural roads and less-expensive, less-complicated rail transportation.
He told the story about his own family’s move to Minnesota from New Jersey when he was 4. His father opened a quilting factory in Albert Lea but went bust. As an adult, Franken asked his father why.
His father replied that he chose Albert Lea because the rail line went through the city, but the business failed because the trains didn’t stop there. Same thing for farmers, he said: When rail lines dictate how much grain can be shipped and from where and when, ag products suffer.
Franken was also asked if he saw his values — he’s often associated with New York City or the Twin Cities — as being similar to rural Minnesotans. He said he thinks he stands up better for the middle class than Republicans have while they held power in Congress and the White House.
“It just seems to me one of the differences we’ve seen in the Republicans in Congress and the White House is that they are much more interested in special interests and big interests,” Franken said. “And I am with the little guy.”
He said his travels around the state in the past year have shown him, “that rural Minnesotans have a lot of the same concerns that every Minnesotan and every American has: Health care and education, jobs and the war.
“We’re really talking about the same stuff. About being able to afford send your kids to college.
“The risking of life, being one major (health) crisis away from bankruptcy. Losing your jobs. All of these kinds of things have made middle-class life harder to maintain.”
While he’s an entertainer, he said he is sincere about his candidacy, believing he can help do good things for people from the Senate.
He still found some time to crack jokes Saturday night, including reviving a “Saturday Night Live” skit about “beef-fed-beef.”
Given his success as an entertainer, Franken was asked why he would put himself through the gruel of a U.S. Senate campaign.
“I love it,” he said, then paused. “I don’t love every aspect of it — I spend a lot of time on the phone asking for money. But I am (comfortable) with that, too. I believe in what I’m doing.”
He said he found confirmation in his quest in a visit he made to troops in Iraq.
“I had to do a gut-check to see if I wanted to put myself through this for 20 months,” he said. “I was in Iraq, seeing kids serving for 16, 18, now 22 months.
“And after that, I said, hell, (campaigning) ain’t nothing. I get to travel around with my wife, meet nice people and hopefully make a difference.”
Well now that he’s studied Alfalfa, perhaps he could espouse his knowledge of Spanky and Buckwheat.
He found out alfalfa is nothing to sneeze at.
Uhhh, he’s best known for being an a55hole.
Classic! Of course, he looks more like Petey.
“It just seems to me one of the differences we’ve seen in the Republicans in Congress and the White House is that they are much more interested in special interests and big interests,” Franken said. “And I am with the little guy.”
When I hear a politician talk about being for the little guy, I brace myself for the inevitable nanny state/class warfare legislation to immediately follow.
Thats because he never was funny.
To Dems/Libs an actor, even a previous Senator like Thompson, is unsuitable for elected office.
A failed comedian with a shrill shtick is just fine though.
This guy may have come from here (minnesota) originally, but he is still a carpet bagger without a clue.
“And I’m a huge fan of wind energy”
....why am I not suprised when Franken said that?
Heaven knows he generates enough of it.
I'm Good Enough, I'm Smart Enough, and Doggone It, People Like Me!
“We’re really talking about the same stuff. About being able to afford to send your kids to college.”
Yea! all those Republican Professors and college administrators are just driving college education prices through the roof. (sarc)
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