I live in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
Thanks for your condolences - trust me, you don't know half of it. My city sits on one of the most beautiful pieces of real estate the New World has to offer - Pike's Peak, Seven Falls and Garden of the Gods, just to name a few spectaular sites, are within a short drive. I wouldn't trade growing up here for anything... but the political leanings of my compatriots leave a little to be desired.
El Paso County is one of the most conservative in the entire country. Focus on the Family is a scant three exits north on I-25 from the house I grew up in. I was raised knowing that the majority where I lived thought I was going to Hell (and taking America with me) because I didn't believe in God. From taunts in the schoolyard to horrifed looks from friend's parents (my mother told me not to make a point of telling people, but what did I know? I was a kid who didn't know what people expected him to be ashamed about - I guess I still am in a lot of ways), I knew where I came from was different than most my age in this town. I didn't know anything about politics at that time, entering sixth grade - just that I felt differently than those around me.
And when I was eleven years old, Al Franken opened my eyes.
I grabbed a book my mom was reading off the kitchen table and stuffed it in my backpack. I was getting bored at school, finishing up assignments quickly and having nothing to do for the rest of the day. I didn't know what the book was about, whether it was fiction or nonfiction, and I had never heard the name in the title. I brought it in to algebra, and my teacher, a rancher named Mr. Reed (cowboy boots, belt buckle and bolo tie were his standard wear - his wife taught 3rd grade at the elementary school I went to), asked to see it. He looked at the title, puzzled, and then smiled. He asked me if he could read it while we took a test. Sure. Within twenty minutes, tears were rolling down his eyes while the rest of us solved for x.
The book was Rush Limbaugh Is A Big Fat Idiot and Other Observations. The first political book I ever read.
The scene in 1995, believe it or not, was worse than it was in 2005 for Democrats. Yeah, Clinton was there - but that was looking more and more like a Perot-induced fluke after a lackluster first two years. The Budget Deficit Reduction Act may go down as one of the most successful pieces of legislation in the history of man, but it didn't make for good campaign commercials (can you say 'tax hike?'). Oh yeah, and health care. And gays in the military. Not a real vote winner back then - and in a masterpiece of triangulation gone bad, President Clinton managed to piss off both sides of a wide chasm. Impressive, if nothing else.
A forty year House majority - read that again. A forty year House majority. I'm 22 - that's an unimaginable dominance. I thought the Republicans were there forever - and that was 12 years. Forty years. Gone. In (arguably) thegreatest midterm ass-whupping in our nation's history.
We lost 54 seats. Every Republican incumbent won. Tom Foley - Speaker of the House, one of the most powerful men in Washington - out. Newt Gingrich was to take his spot. It was a bloodbath. It was a nightmare.
And Rush Limbaugh was named an Honorary Member of the 104th Congress. The 'majority-maker.'
20 million weekly listeners - the most heard man in America. A demonstrable liar was the carnival barker for the world's finest democracy. And for all the available facts, all the ways in which Rush was wrong and we could prove it, all it got us was a big fat shit sandwich. Strom Thurmond was president pro temp of the Senate - for fuck's sake! Who would be a liberal in that climate?
And it is in this environment that Al Franken penned this book. The balls on this guy.
How prescient was he? Have you heard about the Phil Gramm softcore porn investment? Me too - when I was eleven. An executive at one of these MSM networks (hell, more likely an intern somewhere) must have picked up the book and thumbed to "Phil Gramm - Everybody's Favorite Bastard." It's actually the 'ace' he plays at the end of making the case that Phil Gramm likes to look at boobs. Al calls it a 'boob fetish'. I call it 'liking boobs'. Too long to blockquote here - but it's a fairly compelling case (complete with a woman who, after an interview with Gramm, discussed his wandering eyes with her husband).
A choice example of debunking shitty, untrue right-wing anecdotes:
Gramm's respect for Dickey Flatt [a constituent of Gramm's from Mexia, Texas] is so great that he's devised a philosophy of governance based on the man. Gramm claims that he won't support any government program which fails the "Dickey Flatt test"; namely, "Is it worth taking money from Dickey Flatt" to pay for this program?
Back in 1994, Gramm-watcher David Segal actually called Dickey to ask whether several programs Gramm had proposed or supported passed the Dickey Flatt test. Dickey's responses ran from "No, that would not pass the test" to "That is just an awful idea, absolutely awful."
He also called the Dole-Kemp ticket more than a year before it was official and provided live commentary on Comedy Central of Pat Buchanan's speech to the 1996 Republican National Convention that was more accurate than any mainstream reporter. His book (along with lousy performances by Rush, who was unable to factually refute a single charge within its pages ) received no small amount of credit for the cancellation of Limbaugh's TV show and the re-election of President Clinton. It got him a gig at the White House Correspondent's Dinner, he pissed off Newt Gingrich something fierce - you know what, this isn't a book report. But you ought to go out and get it - it is fucking hilarious. I've read this book countless times.
I have a bookshelf full of similar fare now.
All thanks to Al.
Al Franken has officially won the nomination of the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party, setting him up for a showdown with current Senator and former St. Paul mayor Norm Coleman, who got his seat by defeating Walter Mondale in 2002. Mondale was drafted as a last second replacement after the tragic death of Paul Wellstone in a campaign plane crash. The memorial service for Paul Wellstone in 2002 was ghoulishly lied about by right-wing commentators from Peggy Noonan to Sean Hannity - the boos of a couple of hundred partisans when Trent Lott's face was shown on a screen inside the University of Minnesota's Williams Arena amplified to mean '20,000 people booed', making it seem like the entire crowd was treating the exercise as a floor-stomping partisan barbeque. Coleman reaped the rewards by not saying a word.
It was sickening. It was wrong. And Al Franken devoted an entire chapter to Wellstone's legacy (and the subsequent besmirching of it) in Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at The Right. His words alternatingly drip with a deep love and admiration for Paul (whom Al knew personally) and a scorn for those who dared to use him to score political points that is hard to picture coming from such an affable fellow. He meant every word of it.
He was telling a story all but the most hardcore political junkie didn't care about. But it was a story that had to be told, a legacy that had to be protected, and Al Franken did it when no one else did. I have an enormous amount of respect for the man. He's the kind of liberal Franklin Delano Roosevelt was and we should all aspire to be - the kind that welcomes the hatred of the right wing as a compliment. In fact, if they aren't furious with you, you're probably doing something wrong.
For these, and many other reasons, I love Al Franken.
Here's my point. I've read a lot of posts by worried Minnesota Democrats in the last few months. Worried about polls that show Barack Obama leading the state by as many as 20 points while Franken trails. Worried about the botched and 'too far' jokes that dot any serious comedian's career (and, apparently, John McCain has his campaign brag about - unlike Al). Worried that, even though a solid 45% of Minnesotans are currently ready to elect a man with no previous experience in public service (which is, quite honestly, less of an obstacle now than that fateful 1994 election) to the United States Senate, they won't be able to convince a few more who are already voting for Obama. Worried the Rush's of the world will win. Worried we'll lose.
Worried about blowing an opportunity to pick up a Senate seat because they nominated the wrong guy.
Trust me, Minnesota. You nominated the right guy.
Update: Courtesy of TriangleNC, the link to OrangeToBlue- help Al Franken escort Norm Coleman's Bush III agenda out of the United States Senate (and send this diary to your friends - I want more comments, damnit ;-)