Juliana has already covered the breaking news of Al Franken’s long-delayed, hard fought victory in the Minnesota Senate race, so there’s not much I can add to that. What is humorous to consider is how Franken’s presence in the Senate is going to drive so many people straight into a padded cell at Central State Hospital.
If you thought that conservative pundits and Christian Right activists hated Bill Clinton (which they did), it’s nothing compared to the frenzied, hysterical reaction they’ve displayed to Franken’s election. I’m talking about rolling-around-on-the-floor, foaming-at-the-mouth, speaking-in-tongues craziness. It’s bad enough in their eyes that Franken is an unapologetic liberal – but he’s also Jewish (the horror, the horror!).
Here’s the way one Christian Right website described the possibility that Franken might defeat Coleman in the 2008 election:
As you may know, Al Franken (aka Stuart Smalley of Saturday Night Live fame) is running for Senate. The man is Anti-Christian in the worst way . . . If you live in Minnesota, you’ve got two weeks to prevent his election to the US Senate. Get to work . . . I’m in Minnesota and horrified that Democrats are blindly following their party and plan to vote for this horrible man. I cannot reason with them and have given up. It’s as bad as my Catholic brothers voting for Obama. It makes no sense.
The person who really goes into screaming-fit mode over Franken is Bill O’Reilly, the bullying Fox News host
After last November’s election, when the final outcome was still in doubt, O’Reilly swore that Franken would “never” set foot inside the U.S. Senate. He becomes positively unhinged at the mere mention of Franken’s name, constantly referring to him as a “guttersnipe” or “a vile smearmonger” or a “despicable smear merchant,” and comparing him to a Nazi:
Joseph Goebbels was the Minister of Propaganda for the Nazi regime and whose very famous quote was, “If you tell a lie long enough, it becomes the truth.” All right? “If you tell a lie long enough, it becomes the truth.”
And that’s what Stuart Smalley [O’Reilly has a habit of using the name of the character Franken created on Saturday Night Live], and Michael Moore and all of these guys do. They just run around.
What makes Bill so berserk? It’s partly because Franken cheerfully reminds all who will listen of the sexual harassment lawsuit that O’Reilly paid several million dollars out of court to settle, an accounting that invariably sends O’Reilly over the edge.
As a result of Franken’s Senate victory, you should expect heads to start exploding everywhere in the Fox nation, starting with O’Reilly, whose hatred of the new senator is such that he once filed a slander lawsuit against Franken that was literally laughed out of court when the judge dismissed it.
In fact, you can see video of O’Reilly’s head exploding at this link.
Rush Limbaugh’s cement-filled noggin will also go splooey as the talk show host frantically struggles to explain the myriad links between Franken, President Obama, Jewish financiers, and the elders of Zion. He’ll have to take an extra dose of Oxycontin just to cope with the stress. Every day in every way, Limbaugh confirms the accuracy of Franken’s best-selling book title that includes the words “big fat idiot.”
On a more substantive level, The Hill reports that with the seating of Franken, Senate Democrats have a better chance of moving the Employee Free Choice Act, a major goal of organized labor.
E. J. Dionne of the Washington Post agrees: “With Franken seated, there is a chance for a better health care bill — and also a much better chance to pass the Employee Free Choice Act, aimed at making it easier for workers to join some unions.”
The prospect of workers actually having the opportunity to organize through a card-check law will no doubt cause heads to explode in Chambers of Commerce all over the country, not to mention the executive offices of Walmart.
Franken could even cause heads to explode in the Georgia delegation, especially if he tells Saxby Chambliss that he’ll support legislation allowing animals to sue people.
Here’s a strong indication that Franken is in a position to cause a lot of trouble for a lot of people: Democratic leaders in the Senate, anticipating the court ruling that would ensure Franken’s election, set aside spots for him on four committees, including those taking up the health care overhaul and the Supreme Court nomination. The prospect of Franken verbally smacking down that pissy little racist Jeff Sessions of Alabama is delightful to contemplate.
Who knows? Maybe the seating of Franken will even force Majority Leader Harry Reid to face up to the fact that Democrats actually have 20 more votes in the Senate than Republicans do. Harry continues to act as if he’s under the impression that the GOP is the majority party. If Franken forces Reid to grow a backbone, he will have contributed immeasurably to the progressive cause.
Leave a Reply