Sen Franken's First Turn In National Spotlight

[elchasai]

I wish Franken was my Senator...I do love the Jamie Leigh Jones amendement, but Chuck Schumer is pretty cool too

[godbluffvdgg]

he should have did it like a roast.

[Gonergrat]

Al Franken is doing great already. He is well-prepared, competent, and astute. He is already one of the best Senators. Go Al.

[OzofBorg]

I agree !!

So many naysayers were ripping him before they saw him sit down with his new colleagues and be a serious Senator.

Yea !! he has a sense of humor........and.........??

The Senate needs a little humor at times. He has shown he can be candid, he knows the issues he talks about and he can sometimes lighten the mood in an often tense, often angry Senate.

[StannieDum]

What has he done that's great?

[nela04]

speaking the truth for once, because truth is the one thing missing in politics

[MrPurpleState]

Telling the truth is great? You have low standards. I always thought being truthful was something basic to simple decency. Greatness comes through great achievement and I don't see any achievements from Franken. Besides, I've read Al Franken's books. "Truthful" is not a word I'd use.

[nela04]

i have read them too, and everything he say about ann coulter, bill, rush and fox is true, and he's explains that in a funny way. if more politicians where like al you would not be in this fucking mess where your elected politicians, the PEOPLE YOU PUT IN OFFICE, don't want you to live, don't want you to have a health care, the same guys who send your children to deaths thousands miles away, fo no fucking reason. amercian people should revolt and take back their country

[Gonergrat]

He is smart, astute, and well versed on the problems with the courts. He is already turning into one of my favorite Senators. Go Al.

[amareto35]

Who is next, Flava Flav to be a Senator, I won't be surprised...

[PicklePwr]

Honestly, how hard is it to look bad when your a demacrat in a big demacrat slap on the back fest. Never less proud of being Minnesotan. Al Yanking your chain.

[amareto35]

The veterans looked at him like, how the hek did he get this job.

[juarezrt]

Just like the rest of them. He was elected.

[xhagast]

Or some other nonsense. Like we have been hearing from the rest of his lot.

[xhagast]

Franken is not a great speaker but he says the right things and stands for his party's plataform. He sounds VERY good. I wish Jesse Ventura had gone on with his political career. We NEED voices like this in the government.

[xhagast]

If not best at least he is being thorough and doing his job as it should be done. He is going to be an asset. If only because he insists on doing his job.

[ILoveDogsandHarleys]

Minnesota RULES!!!

MInnesota ROCKS!! I have thought about moving TO Minnesota.. I have heard nothing but GREAT things about Minnesotans!!

[eqsmooth]

Al Franken seems awfully well prepared here people.. Respectful & respectable. Watch out Minnesota, I think he is gonna pull out a can of whip ass. I've always loved his excoriations of Ann Coulter & Rush Limbaugh but this is serious business now and he is getting down to it. He could end up being quite effective. Many called him a failed radio show host and a failed comedian with no backup. This guy plays to win. Can you imagine Sarah Palin being this together, ever? The right man got elected.

[ILoveDogsandHarleys]

I agree I think Al Franken is VERY INTELLIGENT!!

Hats off to Minnesotans for making a GREAT CHOICE!! GO MINNESOTA!

[xhagast]

He IS well prepared and doing his job as he should. He is going places. Maybe we should elect more non politicos. Even Arnold in California is trying hard in a very difficult position. Sarah Palin was elected I don't know WHY. And she quit as soon as it got hard. Yes, he is the right man.

[vampiroangelico]

Franken has raised some great, very direct and important questions that needed to be adressed, as well as some great points.

I am very much an admirer of this man.

[xhagast]

He is asking the questions the GOP should be asking a lot less nicely. He is doing a proper job of it and looking good. The GOP is wasting its time with attacks and looking stupid. Sotomayor is getting to look good and Franken is really helping her.

[vampiroangelico]

Exactly! He is helping her by asking the questions that a person who's applying for her position SHOULD be asked!

Regarding the GOP wasting their time with personal attacks, therefore looking stupid, that is ALL they do, how can you ask them, or even expect them to behave any differently, betraying their petty nature, as with FOXnews, which is nothing but a continuous attempt to steer their viewers away from the issues that are really important for the vast majority of the people?

[xhagast]

It is just that it offends me that they think I will be influenced by that. I mean, do I look like an idiot? Don't answer that...

In any case I am glad they are so stupid. Maybe now the Democrats will have a chance to fix the mess Dubya left. I would feel better if they had a dozen Franken in their ranks, though.

[vampiroangelico]

You completely hit the nail on the head with this last reply to my comment, but in my opinion the Democrats are being excrutiatingly spineless about health care, which was one of the big promises made in the campaign trail, and the one issue that I believe mostly won us this election, and they're not delivering it.

What they might eventually deliver, is a "washed out" version of a somewhat health care reform but it won't be the government-ran health care we so need and most modern nations have.

[xhagast]

If we don't get the single payer, government-run hospitals what we will get is medicare fraud like you would not believe. 17% GNP? Make it 25%!!!! Already hospitals charge insurance companies more than they charge walk-ins!!! It is either the Canadian model or we are better off with NOTHING. Because you can ruin the country this way.

[vampiroangelico]

What we desperately need is socialized health care, payed for by the government, like in European countries. When a person goes to the hospital, it should be payed for by the government, that is why Europeans pay taxes, and that is what we should do with the tax increase to the top 2% of wealthy americans (which they get back with all kinds of loop holes anyway). The Democrats are just afraid of going against the big corporations, and that is the sad, bottom line, disgusting reality of it all.

[BlackRonin2917]

Why do socialists like yourself want us to pay for socialized healthcare? Answer: your ass is too damned lazy to pay for it yourself!!! Furthermore, the USA cannot afford it!!! It's easy for someone who doesn't own anything to say "Tax the rich"!! I'm not rich, but I paid (not payed) for everything I needed! Notice that the europeans are trying to get away from univ health? Last thing: if Social Security, Medicaid/Medicare are going bankrupt, how are we going to pay for univ health? Sad!

[vampiroangelico]

"Damned lazy"? Who do you think you are to pass cheap insults to people you don't even know? You could not be further from the truth: I don't like giving personal info on the net, but I busted my ass all my life and I am self employed, and you just made an idiot of yourself with that insult.

FYI, Europe is not trying to get away from "univ health", and a Republican certainly wouldn't know the first thing about Europe to begin with. If you tax the rich, they'll get it all back with loop holes.

[BlackRonin2917]

Look, you can live in a Bizarro World fantasy that socialized medicine will solve our nation's problems. If American universal healthcare is going to be anything like the VA hospital, count my Black ass out!!! Ask any vet about VA, he or she will tell you it is worse than hell. The only country in Europe that I respect is Switzerland. They require their citizens to PAY FOR THEIR OWN HEALTH INSURANCE W/OUT GOV'T HELP!! I noticed that you didn't answer the last question because you couldn't.

[vampiroangelico]

The fact that you jump on conclusions on people you don't know personally, makes you look like a very superficial individual, arrogantly judgemental.

The fact that I "didn't answer" it is because I had already answered it previously (RAISE TAXES to the top 2% wealthy americans) and I, unlike you, am not a redundant repetitive person.

[Rennpanzer]

If this is any indication of the type of congressional service we can expect from Mr. Franken, the folks in Minnesota have given this nation a real gift. Congratulations Senator Franken.

[wojosmith]

Sessions look like he needs a Zantac! THis must be the worst day of his life. I hope Frankin chases him down every day and smiles and says Good Morning. Let the old goat eat crow!

[iamavet]

It is like watching Saturday Night Live all over again.

This guy is a talented clown like Chuck Schumer.

[geoffds]

Yeah, well, your mind was already made up even before you watched the video, so your observation is irrelevant. Those who have also concluded that Franken is the "greatest" before viewing this are irrelevant. The only minds that matter are the open minds...

[pgk7285]

Excellent opening statement by Franken, and right on the money, esp. regarding the nature of judicial "activism." Bravo.

[freaaa1]

i concur - activism runs both ways, yet it's been spun as a pejorative exclusive to liberalism.

[pfcstehman]

and really, after the way the 2000 election was decided, republicans have no right to whine about judicial activism.

[avatar723]

But that would be assuming they have any sense of shame, irony or hypocrisy.

They don't.

Remember "get over it?" in 2000? And how long did they drag out the Franken fight...?

[mssedmebich]

Avatar. If your profile is correct then you are not a Minnesotan right? In the senate election we counted votes that did not exist in any physical form in one Franken leaning precinct and in another democrat area we counted 170 more paper ballots than their were signatures on the voting rolls. In your opinion; Would that be fraud if a Republican had won?

[Rennpanzer]

It also speaks volumes about him that he made specific reference to his oath of service to our nation's Constitution. That's not something we hear much from Republicans.

[avatar723]

Well the WAS that one guy who called the Constitution "that goddamned piece of paper"... but I guess that's a little different take on the "oath of service" ...

[mssedmebich]

He can't get off himself. I think he'll support cloning just so he can blow himself.

[geoffds]

If you can name a single senator on either side of the aisle who isn't full of themselves, you will have told a lie.

[mssedmebich]

Most Senators haven't spent the previous 20+ years already in the spotlight. This day is about her, not him. He can toot his own horn later when he's milling around the water cooler or something.

[twasyourdad]

just glad you won't get cloned.

[tria68]

I love this man!!! Go Al !!

[wvu05]

@tria68 Franken for President 2016!

[biantai888]

The other boards have this massive spike is conservative spam. Will it happen here?