Commentary; Posted: 3/7/07
Serious Franken won’t be muzzled
T.W. Budig
ECM Capitol Reporter
By all accounts, it’s his longest audition.
Comedian and former radio talk show host Al Franken announced on Valentines Day his intention to run for the U.S. Senate. It was expected.
And now Franken, who grew up in Minnesota before leaving to find success in showbiz, joins the DFL scramble for the joys of challenging Republican U.S. Senator Norm Coleman next year.
“I’m a suburban boy. I obviously relate (to the suburbs) — that was my childhood,” Franken said on March 2, of growing up in a two bedroom, one bath home in St. Louis Park.
In recent days Franken, a self-described “progressive” with the late Senator Paul Wellstone as a political hero, has been travelling Greater Minnesota — literally talking turkey — and otherwise adding to a knowledge base of the state he believes broadened by hosting his Air American Radio Show.
Franken is the second entertainer to enter big stakes Minnesota politics, the first, of course, former Gov. Jesse Ventura.
Ventura was helped and trapped by his blustery public persona. It got him into the Governor’s Office, but once there pinned him.
Franken’s approach to his celebrity seems more cautious.
Indeed, he has said the public has the right to be skeptical whether he’s ready for the challenges — a frankness Ventura left simmering in himself.
Franken seems eager to draw a line between his “trade,” that of a comedian, and himself as a candidate for U.S. Senate.
Can the public tiptoe around such distinctions when the opposition will, as they have, used snippets of Franken satire against him?
As Franken points out, being a satirist often means saying one thing and meaning another.
It’s highly nuanced.
But Franken thinks the public can tell this from that.
“I think Minnesotans are smart enough to tell the difference,” Franken said of knowing whether he was kidding or not.
Attempts at twisting his lines — fabricating them, he charged — by state Republicans has both been ineffectual and funny, Franken said.
“We’re getting huge crowds,” he said of recent appearances.
“And I think after they hear me speak, they know I’m deadly serious about this,” he said of seeking the Senate.
And no, Franken the comedian is not muzzling himself as he travels the state, suppressing jokes, watching his words.
At least that’s what the candidate said.
Ultimately, if Franken is elected to the U.S. Senate, he’ll have to deal with the same political class that he has been lampooning for years.
Can he work with Republicans?
Does he even want to attempt bipartisanship?
State Republicans argue the answer is “No.”
“Franken offers Minnesotans nothing but polarization and vitriolic personal attacks,” said Republican Party of Minnesota Chairman Ron Carey recently.
Franken insists he can work with the people he’s been skewering.
He considers Arizona Republican U.S. Senator John McCain a friend, Franken said.
The public servant he most admires is former Iowa Republican Rep. Jim Leach, who forbade his national party from running ads against his opponent last election whom he considered a friend, Franken said.
Does the public really know who Al Franken, “Saturday Night Live” writer, Stuart Smalley, best selling author, radio guy, and now candidate, really is?
“I think people who have been listening to me on my radio show for the past three years — that’s pretty much who I am,” Franken said.
According to his campaign, Franken attended more than 50 local DFL events last year and could be seen cutting the rug at the DFL party last election night in St. Paul.
He is campaigning full-time.
Franken met his wife Fanni as a freshman at Harvard University.
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