Far too many times, people such as Franken begin their march to the political forum with noble intentions and high ideals. When they arrive there, they realize very quickly that the American system cannot be changed overnight. When faced with that dilemma, said politicians are forced to determine for themselves the proper path to take. Some get sucked into the politics of Washington and their high ideals are lost in the process; others take a more noble approach of keeping those objectives close to their heart and work toward a day when they can be realized by slowly chipping away at the Washington establishment tactfully and respectfully. Franken on the other hand has chosen a third approach. He appears to be using his position to act as a cowardly twit arrogantly flaunting his position in the face of any and all who disagree with him. His little display with Senator Lieberman was shameful and democrats across the nation should be ashamed. After playing the “we have no time” card, he then waited for over an hour for his own Majority Leader to make an appearance. Such hypocrisy makes his true message – if there really is one there – lost in the shuffle of his antics.

Franken made his first appearance in the Senate during the Sotomayor confirmation. Given the weight of that process, he still chose to use the moment to make jokes and share colorful anecdotes from his childhood. While that may come across as endearing to some, it was lost on me and if I were Justice Sotomayor I would have felt disrespected – even though his vote was in the bag. I sincerely appreciate your fondness for Senator Franken, but I cannot share in your position. I think he is an intelligent man – who may very well have a genuine desire to do great things – that appears more committed to acting like a child in the most prestigious chamber in the world than he is to furthering any goals or objectives.

Thank you again for your comment.

At the conclusion of his 2005 book, The Truth (with jokes), Al wrote a letter dated October 2, 2015 to his three, yet-to-be-born grandchildren:

“Both my parents worked hard and had to overcome adversity in their lives. Like almost everyone does. My Mom developed rheumatoid arthritis at an early age and was in constant pain most of her life. She was married on crutches. Still, she told us, “It’s a great life if you don’t weaken.” And she didn’t. After my brother and I were old enough, she became a real estate agent. At dinner, she made sure we had meat and always – ALWAYS – a fresh vegetable. At the table she would tell us about business and things like “redlining.” Banks wouldn’t lend money to black people who wanted to buy houses in certain neighborhoods. She told us this was wrong. And that’s why your Granddad works so hard [in the Senate] to make sure that banks continue lending money to the poor, to minorities and to women, not just to buy homes, but to start businesses.”

Now that’s what I call real moral values. That’s the kind of person I wouldn’t mind representing me in the Senate (Nothing personal, Chuck). By the way, in that same letter he predicted, not only his own career in politics, but also the two-term presidency of Barack Obama. This was a year-and-a-half before Obama even announced his candidacy. How’s that for prescience? Not bad, Al! Not bad!

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Tom Degan