Al Franken was one of a number of Senate Democrats that went on the offensive yesterday, criticizing Republicans for their constant use of the filibuster in even the most routine situations. Franken highlighted one judicial nominee who was filibustered despite an eventual unanimous vote — 99 to 0 — to confirm her. He noted that the filibuster has become nothing but a crass stall tactic:
It used to be that the filibuster was reserved for matters of great principle. Today, it has become a way to run out the clock.
I’ll take it a step further than Franken. The filibuster used to be reserved for situations when Senators were strongly in disagreement with a proposed policy. Now, it’s used to stop Congress from enacting policy at all. The endless filibusters are a Republican effort to paralyze our government, so they can then claim that Obama has been ineffective.
My job is to protect the interests of the people of Minnesota. Now, how are they to trust you, when you come in and to my face say something that either you know wasn’t true, or you didn’t know, and I don’t know which is worse. How are the people of Minnesota supposed to trust you?
As you can see, Al Franken is not happy about the proposed merger of NBC and Comcast. I can’t really blame him. After all, Comcast, as one of our very few cable companies, is responsible for the fair distribution of content. But they would also become creators of content with their purchase of NBC. It’s hard to see how that wouldn’t become a conflict of interest.
And I would get even more nervous, as Al clearly has, if the CEO of Comcast gave me a reassurance that was the exact opposite of what his lawyers had just argued in front of the FCC.
The whole video (after the break) is well worth a watch. Al Franken is steaming mad at Comcast, and he’s mad because he thinks Comcast is going to take advantage of us here in Minnesota. To be honest, I wish all of our public servants would get so serious about things they think are threats to their constituents.
The blogosphere — both right and left — has been blowing up since late afternoon yesterday, when Al Franken objected to giving Joe Lieberman an extra minute or two to conclude his remarks. Republicans are furious, Democrats are thrilled, but the whole thing really just isn’t a big deal, despite John McCain’s efforts to make it one.
Just like a lot of liberals who have been burned by Lieberman, I can’t say I didn’t relish him being put in his place, albeit on a very minor matter. But according to Franken, this had nothing to do with Lieberman. The Senate is obviously very much pressed for time trying to complete the health care vote, and Franken was asked to keep things moving. So he did.
Anyone who read my old blog (a big thank you to both of you) may remember that I was fairly skeptical of Al Franken. So far, though, I have to admit to being pleasantly surprised and impressed. He’s doing a great job in the Senate, where he’s a reliable progressive vote, but more importantly is willing to speak out on important issues.
For instance, take this video of Franken speaking out against Republican talking points on health care [courtesy of Huffington Post]. A clearly frustrated Franken struck back at Sen John Thune’s (R-SD) ridiculous contention that health reform would institute five years of taxes with no benefits being offered.
“We are entitled to our own opinions. We’re not entitled to our own facts,” Franken repeated after the back-and-forth. “The fact is benefits kick in on day one, and the large majority of benefits kick in on day one. And we shouldn’t be standing up here with charts that say the exact opposite.”
That’s a refrain I’ve been repeating often myself. The whole video is worth a watch:
This is great. Republican Senators Coburn and Vitter apparently thought they had a fantastic trap devised: They introduced an amendment that would force members of Congress to enroll in the public option if it is signed into law. I can just imagine how smug they were introducing this amendment, thinking they were going to force Democrats to admit that they didn’t want the public option for themselves.
Then they ran into a little snag: The bill started receiving Democratic co-sponsors, including Ohio’s Sherrod Brown and our very own Al Franken. Franken said he had been thinking about enrolling anyway.
To me, this speaks to part of the problem we’re having in getting Republican support for genuine health care reform. To Republicans, the idea that the public option could really benefit millions of Americans is completely inconceivable, while Democrats take it as a given. I would much rather have our representatives fall somewhere in the middle — recognizing the opportunity the public option presents, but scrutinizing it carefully to make sure the plan developed in Congress will work. For that reason, I think Coburn and Vitter’s amendment is a great idea.
After such a nasty and contentious election, whoever won was going to have a lot of work to do to gain the support of Minnesotans. As Al Franken pointed out several times soon after the election, he was very much aware that over half of all Minnesotans voted against him.
In the few months he’s been in the Senate so far, he has been a diligent worker, and his approval rating is slowly starting to rise. Here are the findings of a recent Rasmussen poll:
Fifty percent (50%) of the state’s voters approve of the job performance of Franken who took office in July after months of legal wrangling over the election results with his Republican predecessor Norm Coleman. Twenty-four percent (24%) strongly approve of the job he is doing.
Forty-five percent (45%) disapprove of how Franken is doing, with 29% who strongly disapprove.
Not a stellar approval rating, of course, but a step in the right direction for Franken, who won with about 42 percent of the vote. I have a lot of confidence that Franken’s approval rating will slowly but surely continue to rise as Minnesotans see the good work he’s doing.
Not only that, there are still apparently people out there who think this should be allowed to continue. We don’t allow employment discrimination on any other basis, such as race or gender, but there are lawmakers who are actively working to keep it legal to fire someone because of their sexual orientation. I find it absolutely impossible to even conceive that there could be anyone who could think this was a good idea.
I understand there are those who oppose gay marriage, but to support overt discrimination against gays is just shocking. I can’t think of a single valid reason to ever support discrimination, in particular because this bill does not apply to religious organizations. It does not apply to any organization “that is exempt from the religious discrimination provisions of title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.”
Our own Al Franken pointed out at a hearing last week that Minnesota is one of the states where workers are protected against discrimination, and after over 15 years, the sky has yet to fall. Watch his remarks below [via MN Independent]:
that is exempt from the religious discrimination provisions of title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964
The Senate Judiciary Committee recently held a hearing on the topic “Medical Debt: Can Bankruptcy Reform Facilitate a Fresh Start?” MyDD has posted a fantastic clip of our very own Senator Al Franken in action at the hearing.
Franken took on Diana Furchtgott-Roth, a Senior Fellow at the conservative Hudson Institute, over her claim that a universal healthcare system would somehow increase medical bankruptcies in the United States [conservative readers, feel free to chime in if you think that conclusion is in any way justified, because I can’t possibly imagine how anyone could reach that conclusion.] Faced with such an illogical argument, Franken broke out a weapon that he has used successfully throughout his career: facts.
FRANKEN: I think we disagree on whether health care reform, the health care reform that we’re talking about in Congress now should pass. You said that the way we’re going will increase bankruptcies. I want to ask you, how many medical bankruptcies because of medical crises were there last year in Switzerland?
FURCHTGOTT-ROTT: I don’t have that number in front of me, but I can find out and get back to you.
FRANKEN: I can tell you how many it was. It’s zero. Do you know how many medical bankruptcies there were last year in France?
FURCHTGOTT-ROTT: I don’t have that number, but I can get back to you if I like.
FRANKEN: Yeah, the number is zero. Do you know how many were in Germany?\
FURCHTGOTT-ROTT: From the trend of your questions, I’m assuming the number is zero. But I don’t know the precise number and would have to get back to you.
FRANKEN: Well, you’re very good. Very fast. The point is, I think we need to go in that direction, not the opposite direction. Thank you.
As Megan wrote yesterday, Al Franken will be the keynote speaker at the Harkin Steak Fry. Franken was quick, though, to disabuse notions that he was considering a run for higher office:
I guess that most people who speak at the Steak Fry eventually run for president. I guess that’s been the history but I’m not interested in running for president. I’m coming because I like Tom Harkin and I like steak. [Radio Iowa, via Political Wire]
The momentum in the Senate race between Al Franken and Norm Coleman shifted when the Franken campaign aired an ad exposing Coleman’s dishonest attempts to pain Franken as angry. The Coleman campaign NRSC took benign footage of Franken telling a story about Paul Wellstone and took it out of context to make Franken look like he was raging.
If you’ve never seen Franken’s ad, it’s still worth a watch.
The GOP, though, apparently doesn’t care about being honest. Shockingly, even after being discredited for these sleazy tactics once, they’re back at it with another ad showing the exact same footage of Franken.
I really like it when Al Franken gets into policy wonk mode. Yes, he can get boring and pedantic. But isn’t that really what we want in a Senator — someone who can get boring sometimes because he’s focused on policy details?
Here’s Franken speaking at a press conference yesterday about what’s important to Minnesotans. As Vin Weber has said, I think Minnesotans will be pleasantly surprised by Franken.
Franken teared up when he talked about people’s concerns that the protracted Senate race was taking an emotional toil on him and his family.
“What we’ve been through is just nothing, especially when compared to what so many Minnesota families have been going through during this same period. When you win an election, what you really win is a chance to go to work for working families who need a voice in Minnesota,” he said.
Al invoked Paul Wellstone and his philosophy to explain how he would work for Minnesotans:
“Paul looked at his job as improving people’s lives and that’s what I want to do,” Franken said Tuesday
This was a nasty campaign on both sides. But Al seems to be humbled by his opportunity to serve Minnesotans, concerned about the challenges we are facing right now, and aware that he has a lot of work to do to win the support of all the Minnesotans who did not vote for him. I hope all Minnesotans will give him the chance to earn their support.
After eight months of waiting, Minnesota will finally have full representation in the US Senate. The Minnesota Supreme Court ruled today in favor of Al Franken, confirming that he won the recount and is entitled to the Senate seat once occupied by the late Senator Paul Wellstone. Today we start the process of moving forward, of tackling the work of governing this state, starting a new day of progressive values and protection of our most needy citizens. Today we can rest easy knowing that our election system was tested and came through shining. Today we can let out a collective deep sigh, and know that the waiting is over.
Congratulations Al Franken, and congratulations to all the staff, interns, volunteers, voters, donors, lawyers, students, moms, dads, first time voters, absentee voters, college students, folks from Albert Lea to the Northwest Angle, from the north side to the lakeside, from the Iron Range to the Twin Cities - congratulations Minnesota.
The fundraising committee for Senate Republicans has invested heavily in Norm Coleman’s ongoing battle in Minnesota, including about $938,000 last month alone.
Considering that Senate Republicans have another rough election year ahead of them, you’d think they would recognize the writing on the wall and start saving that money for Senate candidates in 2010. It’s absolutely sick to me that they’re willing to throw away $1 million per month just to keep Franken out of the Senate for another month or two.
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