Al Franken : The Rakish Interview

As a kid in St. Louis Park, when you thought about what you wanted to be when you grew up—did you ever think that you’d be taking on people as big as a sitting president, the entire Republican Party, Ann Coulter?

I don’t think that Ann Coulter’s very big. I think she’s a very small person.

Was there any foreshadowing back then for the life you have now?

Oh, yeah. I mean, it depends how old you’re talking about, but I’ve been doing comedy since I was in second grade and anybody I know who’s become a comedian has been doing it from a very young age.

How did it all turn political for you?

I guess it all turned political for me in high school, when we were going through Vietnam. Nixon and Vietnam sort of did it for me.

How is it that you’ve become an army of one, crusading with humor against the overwhelming tide of conservative bloviators and prevaricators—when most of us lefties are just plain exhausted and demoralized?

Well, I think there is some exhaustion and some demoralization that I wanted to address in the book. And in the book, I wanted to energize people and get them to rally around the idea that we can win this one, we can change the country.

So things aren’t as bleak for Democrats as they might seem?

Not that bleak. We showed last time that when we have a Democratic president, we can improve this country in many ways. You know, Clinton obviously wasn’t perfect and he made some mistakes. But this president took a moment of tremendous opportunity after September 11th, a moment of national unity that was unprecedented, and instead of moving us in a direction of mutual sacrifice and purpose, he used it to try to further his own political ends. He continued giving tax cuts to the wealthiest Americans at the expense of those at the bottom—exactly what he said he wouldn’t do.

Do you consider yourself a wealthy American?

Oh, I am. Yeah. I’m not as wealthy as some, though!

How did Ann Coulter react to your book?

I haven’t heard anything from her. She’s laying low. She’s been laying low since Joe Conason’s book, Big Lies, was published. It came out a couple weeks before mine. He’s very critical of her and she was supposed to debate him on MSNBC or be a guest on a show and she chickened out.

Have people been asking you if you’re going to run for office?

People ask me that all the time.