Somebody Warned Some State About This
By Mitch Berg
Al Franken? Treating the Senate like a comedy club?
Go figger:
Franken, who was presiding over the chamber from the dais, gesticulated and made faces while McConnell explained his opposition to Kagan, according to witnesses.
The television cameras broadcasting the speech on C-SPAN remained fixed on McConnell, missing Franken’s antics from the Senate president’s chair.
McConnell grew increasingly angry as Franken made fun of him before a crowded public gallery and Senate aides lining the chamber walls. Senate aides said they were shocked that Franken would flout the decorum of the chamber during such a solemn occasion.
After McConnell finished his remarks, he walked up to the dais and rebuked him.
“This is not ‘Saturday Night Live,’ Al,” McConnell said, making reference to Franken’s career as a writer and actor on NBC’s long-running comedy show, according to a witness who overheard the exchange.
While Franken offered his apologies, I can’t imagine that it’s even occurred to most of the thousands of people who’ve served in the Senate over the centuries to even think about mocking another speaker.
But we tried to warn you. Yes, we did.
August 6th, 2010 at 12:40 pm
Another embarassment to our state. The morons and useful idiots that elected him, should be equally embarassed, but in their utopian world, they are too blind to see it. I guess that it takes much longer for buyer’s remorse to set in.
August 6th, 2010 at 12:47 pm
I am old, and I remember when the legislature voted to make the loon our state bird. Who knew it was a prophetic moment?
August 6th, 2010 at 1:22 pm
Waiting patiently for Dog to come in and justify this sophomoric joke she (presumably) voted for.
August 6th, 2010 at 1:32 pm
You may know the Peggy Noonan story. She writes that when President Reagan was in office, he had so much respect for the physical Oval Office, that when he was in there by himself, he would not take his suit jacket off.
She wrote this towards the end of the Clinton administration, and then noted, now when people think of the Oval Office, they think of Bill Clinton getting off with Monica Lewinski.
August 6th, 2010 at 1:56 pm
I can’t imagine that it’s even occurred to most of the thousands of people who’ve served in the Senate over the centuries to even think about mocking another speaker.
Please. Preston Brooks beat Charles Sumner with a cane on the floor of the senate. But this is worse, I know.
August 6th, 2010 at 1:56 pm
Chuck;
Funny stuff!
Your point is a good one, though. Lefties have no respect for either their position or their constituents.
August 6th, 2010 at 2:24 pm
In recent memory, DiscoStoo.
Duels in 1815 don’t count.
August 6th, 2010 at 2:36 pm
Hey Stoo, Preston Brooks was a Democrat! It’s nice to see Carpetbagger Al carrying on a proud tradition.
August 6th, 2010 at 3:27 pm
1856, but Brooks was a Congressman, not a Senator. Not an inter-Senate fight. And over slavery.
The slavery part makes some sense. Just like in 1856, the Democrats are trying to spread involuntary servitude (mandatory public service) across the nation. Looks like Franken has (to use Sumner’s language) taken a mistress of that peculiar institution again….
August 6th, 2010 at 6:05 pm
Senator-for-life Franken thanks you for your concern. Now bugger off.
August 6th, 2010 at 6:09 pm
The horter Discostooj:
“It was better than if he had beat him with a cane!”
Guess I know who voted for Carpetbagger Al on this thread.
Seriously, I wouldn’t be surprised if Stuart Smalley declined a second term. This has been a vanity deal for him. I bet it’s not as fun as whatever he was doing in NY, and that being the junior senator from a Midwest state does not impress his friends as much as being an SNL alumn from its wonder years.
August 7th, 2010 at 3:18 am
Are you saying it wasn’t better than beating him with a cane?
Guess I know who voted for Carpetbagger Al on this thread.
Guess again.
August 7th, 2010 at 3:33 am
Duhhhhokay, Mitch.
most of the thousands of people who’ve served in the Senate over the centuries
Thousands of people have served over the centuries “in recent memory?” That is quite a feat.
1856, but Brooks was a Congressman, not a Senator.
But he beat up a Sumner for mocking another senator in a speech. Which means Sumner, a republican, was mocking another senator! Sweet ceiling cat, it’s the end of the Republic!
Franken shouldn’t have been making faces and such. But let’s not pretend it’s the worst behavior in the history of politics.
August 7th, 2010 at 8:32 am
No, B.J. Clinton still has that honor.
August 7th, 2010 at 8:51 am
Powerline guys weigh in:
http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2010/08/026940.php
Sounds like Al has a brain problem.
August 7th, 2010 at 9:54 am
But he beat up a Sumner for mocking another senator in a speech. Which means Sumner, a republican, was mocking another senator! Sweet ceiling cat, it’s the end of the Republic!
Well, that incident was not quite the end of the Republic, but it was a precursor to the Civil War.
So, was Al doing the Chevy Chase exaggerated lip-syncing and mugging while McConnell was speaking? I always loved that one.
August 7th, 2010 at 11:46 am
That’s what I don’t get about Disco’s analogy. He had to go back almost two hundred years to find an example of a senator behaving worse than Franken? And this is supposed to make Franken look better? Or make people who think that what Franken did was unacceptable feel foolish?
August 8th, 2010 at 3:42 am
I didn’t have to go back that far. I just knew that one off the top of my head. There was also the more recent story of the President of the Senate who told a senator “fuck yourself” on the Senate floor.
You guys can keep getting the vapors over everything a democrat does, though.
August 8th, 2010 at 8:34 am
VPresident of the Senate who told a senator “fuck yourself” on the Senate floor
To be fair to VP Cheney, Leahy had it coming, and Cheney was right.
August 9th, 2010 at 8:10 am
Using intemperate language to rebuke a colleague is one thing.
Abusing the power of the podium as a platform to mock a colleague is quite another.
If you see no difference, then you’re a Liberal.
.
August 9th, 2010 at 1:07 pm
If someone, anyone, beats Senator Smally to the floor of the Senate with a cane, I’m guessing the question of who gets the spare slot on Mt. Rushmore would be over.
August 9th, 2010 at 4:49 pm
I always thought Franken had been beaten about with a cane. I thought that explained his being such a curmudgeon. In retrospect I guess it could be due to the Coke.