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COLEMAN CAMPAIGN HIGHLIGHTS FRANKEN’S JOKES ABOUT GAY BASHING, RAPE, AND ABORTION IN NEW WEBVIDEO
By Michael B. Brodkorb | January 18, 2008
This ad from U.S. Senator Norm Coleman's campaign is very effective. The ad documentation is available after the page jump.
In hindsight, it may not have been the brightest move for Al Franken to have voiced his own books. Reading a quote of Franken joking about rape and abortion is one thing, but hearing Franken say it is another.
Webvideo Backup:
"Q: Do you ever see yourself moving back here (Minnesota)? Franken: "I visit family a lot, but no, I think I'm in New York pretty much permanently. My life is here, my kids grew up as New Yorkers." (Neal Karlen, "Why Not Al?" Minnesota Monthly, November 1998)
Al Franken: "Republicans are shameless dicks. No, that’s not fair. Republican politicians are shameless dicks." (Al Franken, The Truth (With Jokes), Plume, p. 58, 2006)
Al Franken: "But, you know what, I don’t want to get into a whole partisan politics thing here. Not in this book, anyway. We’ll leave that for my next book, I F***ing Hate Those Right-Wing Motherf***ers!, due out in October 2004.” (Al Franken, Lies And The Lying Liars Who Tell Them Plume, p. 107, 2003)
Al Franken: "Limbaugh listeners thought they were the best informed, yet were the least informed. … But why would people so woefully lacking in the basic facts of an issue think they were the best informed? Social scientists call it "pseudo-certainty." I call it 'being a f***ing moron.'" (Al Franken, Rush Limbaugh Is A Big, Fat Idiot, And Other Observations, 1996, p.16)
Al Franken: "Nobody Likes Getting An Abortion. Except, Perhaps, Rape Victims. It’s just that pro-choice people know that sometimes women get pregnant when they aren’t ready to have a child." (Al Franken, The Truth (With Jokes, Plume, p. 124, 2006)
Q:"OK Al, what was your most memorable event of 1992?" Al Franken: "… I’d say it was Pat Buchanan’s eighth gay-bashing reference in his convention address." Q: "First seven didn’t get to you, but the eighth one did it?” Franken: "Yeah, "It was something about the Democratic Party being cross dressers or something. I think that’s what it was. I mean, no one likes a gay bashing joke better than me. But this was serious." ("Crossfire," CNN, January 1, 1993)
"LAUER: And people read that, and then started coming up to you and, because your take on politics was so astute, saying you should run for president. Is that where the idea for this book came? Mr. FRANKEN: Yeah. Well, people actually said I should just run for any public office, they didn't care, because they felt I was obviously interested in politics, I had some celebrity, I've been on television, I'm very good looking. So–and I tried to tell people I would not be a good office holder, because I'm very indecisive and I'd be terrible. So… (Transcript, "Today," NBC, January 12, 1999)
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This post also appears on Blogs for Norm!, an online community and blog covering the 2008 U.S. Senate campaign in Minnesota. The primary goal of Blogs for Norm! is to organize bloggers who support U.S. Senator Norm Coleman.
Topics: 2008 U.S. Senate, Al Franken, Mike Ciresi, Norm Coleman | 30 Comments »
30 Responses to “COLEMAN CAMPAIGN HIGHLIGHTS FRANKEN’S JOKES ABOUT GAY BASHING, RAPE, AND ABORTION IN NEW WEBVIDEO”
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January 18th, 2008 at 4:32 pm
Angry angry Al, just not electable.
January 18th, 2008 at 7:26 pm
This is notable that Norm Coleman is using one of Franken’s gay bashing “jokes” in his ad.
January 18th, 2008 at 7:56 pm
I think a bigger issue is the anti-Catholic hatred that permates Air America. I would like to hear Al address that.
January 19th, 2008 at 10:45 am
The point is, Norm Coleman is going after a set of voters not part of his base – and potentially part of Al Franken’s base here. This isn’t just gay voters (5-10% of the population, higher in Minneapolis), but rather the people who have close gay relatives/friends, who support their relatives and friends.
January 19th, 2008 at 3:28 pm
I think there is a wide gap between “going after” support from gays and being critical of somebody that openly insults them. Republicans are perfectly capable of the latter simple decency, even while opposing some parts of the gay political agenda.
January 19th, 2008 at 4:02 pm
Republicans may very well be “capable…of simple decency”, but they usually aren’t.
And I find it highly ironic that the party that claims “a man’s home is his castle” puts and asterisk behind that: “* – unless you’re gay.”
Make no mistake – if republicans had their way, it’d still be illegal to be gay.
January 19th, 2008 at 5:15 pm
In the same vein as Al, you guys are morons. You just don’t get it do you. It’s called sarcasm. Do you not see the satire.
Anyways. This whole website is a joke.
January 19th, 2008 at 6:13 pm
This last post above mine is a great example of the waste of good comment space – based on this commenter’s empty space between his ears.
January 19th, 2008 at 7:22 pm
J Ewing:
It’s a notable departure from where Norm Coleman has been in the past on this stuff.
It’s also notable to point out that Coleman voted in favor of the hate crimes bill, and will be interesting to see how he votes on the Employment NonDiscrimination Act and Repealing Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell – neither of which is about gay marriage.
In the past, Norm Coleman publicly picked fights with the gay community for political gain. He had a lit piece about that at the 98 convention when he ran for governor. When I and others met with him – as part of the LCR meeting with him, I had that lit piece – and asked him about the piece. He said he “had to do this”, if I remember correctly. I responded that he made a choice. This was when he ran against Alan Quist.
Now it’s still early in the campaign season, and will be interesting to see whether Coleman goes back to what he’s done in the past about this issue to try to energize the anti-gay activists in the Minnesota Family Council and their ilk nationally:
http://republicansforfamilyvalues.com/2008/01/02/a-stern-warning-to-the-conservative-elites-about-mitt-romney/
January 20th, 2008 at 8:17 am
Confident apparently, that no videos of his youthful escapades as a roadie for the rock group Mountain will surface, Norm seems to want to make an issue of the fact that Al Franken was for many years a successful writer and comedian on one of the most important comedy programs in the history of television. When the alternative is discussing his support for the Iraq War, it’s no surprise that Norm would rather talk about practically anything else. And Al’s videos are entertaining.
Al was a professional comedian. One good thing about that is that people can always tell when he is joking because they laugh. With so many conservatives, too often that’s not the case. When they say something foolish, the common excuse is that “I was just joking” glossing over the fact that there was nothing funny about the original comment. With Al at least, you know when he is being funny and when he is being serious, something of a rare quality among today’s politicians.
January 20th, 2008 at 10:42 am
There is nothing funny about Al’s comments either. Unless of course you are a homophobic gay bashing gay hating leftwing activist who merely caters to this group just to get their votes. Now, what would be shown about Norm when he worked as a roadie that would show him to be so hateful? I’ll wait for your response Hiram…
January 20th, 2008 at 12:16 pm
Al Franken was for many years a successful writer and comedian on one of the most important comedy programs in the history of television.
This made me spit-laugh my coffee.
Thanks! Seems Al Franken isn’t the only one who takes is joke of a career seriously.
January 20th, 2008 at 1:00 pm
Would now be a good time to bring up, “dirt eating pagans”, or do you want me to wait?
January 20th, 2008 at 2:21 pm
Richard, we’ve been talking about Democrats all day so it would fit right in man. Which one you want to talk about, Franken or more national like Clinton?
January 20th, 2008 at 2:29 pm
“Now, what would be shown about Norm when he worked as a roadie that would show him to be so hateful?”
I don’t think you want to go there. I think the voters of Minnesota would be best served by a substantive discussion of the issues, not a series of examinations of the respective personal histories of the respective candidates.
January 20th, 2008 at 3:52 pm
“I don’t think you want to go there.”
Why not?…*you* did.
You think there is footage quoted as saying he “Hates “those” motherf*ckers”? Or were you just flapping your moonbat lips, a-gain, Hiram.
Angry Al is my favorite Democrat candidate right now. If I have to hear the bleating of the moonbat left, I like to be assured that there will be a “Hatch” style meltdown in the offing…just for my own, personal amusement.
January 20th, 2008 at 3:55 pm
BTW, I don’t know any conservative that hates homosexuals. It is no more rational to “hate” homosexuals than it is to “hate” someone suffering with bi-polar, or any other mental disease.
I’m in favor of healthy minds…treatment, not hatred is called for.
January 20th, 2008 at 4:20 pm
So homosexuals are mentally ill?
January 20th, 2008 at 8:26 pm
Hiram, as I thought there really is nothing out there on Norm that compares to the hate speech coming out of Al’s mouth. He may have done a lot of things (but would it be worse then anything Obama did?) but I’m pretty sure he never was a gay bashing bigot.
January 20th, 2008 at 8:31 pm
Richard, If you look at the biological makeup of homosexuals, say a gay male, you would have to say there were born a male and are a male, correct? The fact that there is a male and a female of the species would indicate that, even if you don’t believe in God, nature dictated that the two would get together and create additional males and females. Since the body is of a specific sex it means it is a male. If it is a homosexual there is something in the mind that is not working as would be expected of a male of the species. I’ll let you decide if that is mental illness or not.
January 20th, 2008 at 9:46 pm
I think the voters of Minnesota would be best served by a substantive discussion of the issues, not a series of examinations of the respective personal histories of the respective candidates.
I think that substantive discussion should include some background as to why Al Franken is unqualified and incapable of participating in substantive discussion of the issues… primarily, because he is a hateful, mentally unstable, nincompoop.
January 20th, 2008 at 9:48 pm
It’s not that Al is a bigot. It’s that all Democrats are inherently bigots.
January 20th, 2008 at 11:49 pm
Homosexuality isn’t a mental illness, and hasn’t been listed on the Diagnostic and Statistical manual since 1973.
For Tom Swift – aka, Swiftee, the only good gay is an ex-gay, and his unhinged rants about gays on his blog, in comments sections of other blogs, and on the St Paul Issues list and other E Democracy Lists are a matter of public record. There’s definitely hostility from Tom Swift towards gays as a community.
January 20th, 2008 at 11:58 pm
Norm Coleman used an anti-gay lit piece he used in the 1998 Governor’s race, when he was running against Alan Quist (who was known for being rather obsessed with that topic) for endorsement. That lit piece shows up regularly at Stonewall DFL’s table at Pride when Norm Coleman has run for office since then.
Norm Coleman as Mayor of St Paul, made a point of publicly picking fights with gays over signing the Gay Pride Proclamation. His successor, Randy Kelly didn’t follow suit with that one.
Coleman’s voting record on this issue – except for the hate crimes, hasn’t been good. His voting record on AIDS might be better, though I’m sure he’s supported Abstinence Only – condoms don’t work sex education programs – that give dangerous messages. Abstinence is going to be safer than condoms. But use of condoms is safer than not using condoms. A condoms don’t work message suggests that there is no point to using condoms. That’s a very poor public health message.
January 21st, 2008 at 5:22 am
Al Franken joked about murdering homosexuals, and about homosexuals killing themselves.
Pretty sure that’s not on par with opposing gay marriage, or supporting responsible sex education programs.
January 21st, 2008 at 7:20 am
Chestnut, all you humor-deficient republiCons forget IT WAS A (CHENEY)IN’ JOKE.
It’s not as if Al joked about starting a nuclear war with the Russkies, or nuthin’….
Oh, wait:
“My fellow Americans, I’m pleased to tell you today that I’ve signed legislation that will outlaw Russia forever. We begin bombing in five minutes.”
Yet he’s a hero to card-carryin’ republiCons, to this day.
In other words, Chestnut, thank you for demonstrating, once again: “That was then; this is now, and GOP now stands for GreedOverPrinciples.”
January 21st, 2008 at 10:18 am
.. and the Democrats stand for racism, intolerance, hatred and theft.
So long as we’re clear.
February 26th, 2008 at 10:17 am
[...] Michael Brodkorb, who operates Minnesota Democrats Exposed (MDE), has meticulously documented Franken's blunders, from his statement that 'Republicans are shameless dicks' to his gay jokes to his tendency to pull out of debates. [...]
February 26th, 2008 at 10:24 am
[...] Michael Brodkorb, who operates Minnesota Democrats Exposed (MDE), has meticulously documented Franken's blunders, from his statement that 'Republicans are shameless dicks' to his gay jokes to his tendency to pull out of debates.MDE has clearly gotten under Franken's thin skin. The comic has personally responded to the muckraking and his campaign has attempted to stop negative material from being posted. [...]
January 6th, 2009 at 9:17 am
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