{"id":2732,"date":"2008-06-18T06:32:44","date_gmt":"2008-06-18T11:32:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=2732"},"modified":"2008-06-18T06:32:44","modified_gmt":"2008-06-18T11:32:44","slug":"no-there-there","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=2732","title":{"rendered":"No There There"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’m not one of the people who’s especially exercised about Franken’s record as a comedian or writer.\u00a0 It was his career.\u00a0 He was certainly successful at it; at times he was quite good (although he certainly faded into being a “satirist” over time).\u00a0 And, as is the fashion among comedians these days, he certainly worked blue at times, saying and doing and writing some things that wouldn’t be advisable for a future politician (although to be fair he was <\/em>able to count on a complicit media to keep all of that on the down-low up until the past five years or so).<\/p>\n

It’s getting to the point where a potential politician has to sense by about age 12 that they want to be an elected official – and then start living their lives entirely <\/em>with an aim toward avoiding future opposition research.\u00a0 Which will leave us with a raft of politicians even more worthless than most of what we have in office today.<\/p>\n

(Of course, while I don’t much care about Franken’s Playboy article or SNL skits, I think his tax problems are very <\/em>legitimate issues, and his complicity<\/a> in the looting <\/a>of the Gloria Wise center is a genuine red flag).<\/p>\n

Against this, and Republican incumbent Norm Coleman, the DFL has really only two points:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. “We really really really really really hate Norm Coleman”<\/li>\n
  2. “You should vote for\u00a0 Franken because he’s audaciously hopeful and he’s not Norm Coleman and you really really totally should, because you just should<\/a>, and Paul Wellstone would want you to if he were alive but for whatever reason not seeking a fourth term”<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    More seriously?\u00a0 His career as a comic, entertainer, “satirist” and failed pundit are all fair game, because it’s the only record he has<\/em>.\u00a0 I went over Alec Baldwin’s spate of logorrhea<\/a> in support of Franken last week; in and among the ad-homina and the platitudes, there was not one single reason based in policy or experience that Baldwin could give…<\/p>\n

    …because there are none.<\/p>\n

    Norm Coleman has a fourteen year record in elected office – six in the Senate, eight as mayor of Saint Paul.\u00a0 There’s plenty of things to take your shots at, no matter what side you’re on; Coleman’s votes on ANWR, the surge, and other bills drew conservative ire; the fact that he’s an apostate DFLer (he was in the party into the first part of his second term as Mayor, and even placed Paul Wellstone into nomination at the DFL convention 12 years ago), which is one of those things the DFL never, ever forgives.\u00a0 For better or worse, his record’s out there; you can judge Norm, yea or nay, according to whatever criteria you choose – if little things like “records” and “experience” mean anything to you.<\/p>\n

    So here are a couple of questions for you Franken supporters:<\/p>\n

      \n
    1. If we’re supposed to leave his comedy, “satire” and freelance writing careers out of how we gauge Franken for office, what can <\/em>we use to try to figure if Franken is someone we want in office?<\/li>\n
    2. Please give\u00a0 me\u00a0 some affirmative <\/em>reasons – one, two, three, whatever -why anyone should <\/em>vote for Franken.\u00a0 Caveat; these reasons need to relate to Franken; “he’s not Coleman”, or “he’s not in bed with the Administration”, or “”Halliburton Cheney Wide Stance Bush Brought Down The Towers Duke Cunningham” don’t cut it.\u00a0 In other words, leave out the reasons not <\/em>to vote for Coleman (because those would apply to Ciresi or Nelson-Pallmeyer or Jerry Janezich for that matter, any of the people you DFLers could have, but didn’t, nominate); they have to be reasons to vote for <\/em>Franken.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      Can y’all do it?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      I’m not one of the people who’s especially exercised about Franken’s record as a comedian or writer.\u00a0 It was his career.\u00a0 He was certainly successful at it; at times he was quite good (although he certainly faded into being a “satirist” over time).\u00a0 And, as is the fashion among comedians these days, he certainly worked […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2732","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-campaign-08","category-democrats"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2732","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2732"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2732\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2732"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2732"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2732"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}