It wasn’t surprising when, after seven months of legal wrangling,
the Minnesota Supreme Court declared that Al Franken had won the 2008
Senate race against incumbent Norm Coleman. Still less surprising
(although vastly more entertaining) was the simultaneous breakdown of
nearly all of Franken’s adversaries on the right, whose regurgitated
insults, whining complaints, and exploding noggins revealed nothing
about him or his victory — and everything about them.
Upon learning that Franken had prevailed, the usual suspects on Fox
News and in the Limbaugh wasteland of radio immediately threw up a
barrage of furious invective. Wasting no time on gracious concessions,
they concentrated on two themes.
First: Franken himself is wild, spiteful, menacing, bigoted, and,
most of all, deranged (as must be anyone who voted for him). Second:
Franken’s ascension to the Senate is tainted by the process, which his
opponent insisted on prolonging.
Sadly, the most notorious Franken antagonist, Bill O’Reilly, was
absent from the airwaves on the evening of Franken’s victory. Demure
guest host Monica Crowley seemed bemused by the Minnesota outcome. But
Glenn Beck, in his semiliterate way, heaped on enough abuse to keep
Billo’s fans satisfied for the moment. “It shows how crazy our country
has gone,” he began. “It shows that we’ve lost our minds. It’s like
we’ve slipped through a wormhole. It’s like, this look likes the
country I grew up in, but no — Al Franken would never be a
senator … . We have entered a place to where there isn’t
statesmanship anymore.”
The tenor of the Fox attacks grew more feverish with the ranting of
Brian Kilmeade, who judged Franken “barely sane if you read his books
and quite angry in every facet of his life.” Kilmeade went on to
describe the new senator as “hateful,” “evil,” bitter,” “maniacal,” and
again as “angry.” Sean Hannity echoed Fox’s other amateur shrinks,
saying, “This guy, Franken, he’s not all there.”
Then there was Limbaugh, the capo di tutti right-wing capi, who
warned with pithy brevity that the 60th Democratic vote in the Senate
is “a genuine lunatic.”
Calmer but no less nasty was the assessment of The Wall Street
Journal editorial page, which insisted that the Democrat had
somehow hijacked the Senate seat from the rightful Republican victor.
“Mr. Franken now goes to the Senate having effectively stolen an
election,” said the editorial, without deigning to mention that
Republicans in Minnesota, including the governor, had effectively
vetted the recount and canvassed from Election Day forward, up to the
final Supreme Court decision.
In fact, the most credible assessment of the “stolen election” comes
not from Democrats or liberals but from the Republican conservatives in
Minnesota. Foremost among them may be Sara Janacek, who told
Washington Post readers that those accusations are false. “The
state media — and a majority of the public — do think
Franken’s election was legitimate,” she said. “We had an open and very
public recount process.”
As always, the sneering critics of the comedian turned candidate
underestimated him. Anyone who knows Franken, as I do, sees little of
him in the caricatures that have dominated his coverage in the
conservative media and too often have shaped his image in the
mainstream media. He certainly isn’t crazy. He isn’t mean. He isn’t
frivolous. And he certainly didn’t cheat his way into the Senate.
In fact, Franken is considerably brighter and far more stable than
his enemies, a group whose public behavior and personal conduct are
replete with embarrassment, not to mention disgrace. Unlike many of
them, he has a solid marriage and has raised two outstanding children
who adore him — a personal accomplishment that belies the ugly
nonsense about his “anger” and “bitterness.” It is the Fox loudmouths
who are bitter, no doubt remembering the day their company’s stupid
lawsuit against Franken was laughed out of court (and made a lot of
money for him).
While all the wacky attacks emanate from discredited sources, there
are responsible and decent conservatives in America, as Franken would
be the first to say. He has made plenty of right-wing friends over the
years — including some of the other entertainers with whom he
traveled to Iraq and Afghanistan on USO tours while his blowhard
critics were sitting on their butts at home.
