MPR’s Kerri Miller had NPR’s Ken Rudin, (a.k.a. “The Political Junkie”), on last Friday morning. Both are plenty hip to horse race politics so the conversation and calls, even with Pledge Week breaks, enhanced my drive up I-35 to Duluth.
They talked up Obama and the presidential slates. The obvious stuff. But it was the discussion of the Al Franken candidacy — to be announced Wednesday, reportedly, as he signs off his Air America show — that caught my interest most.
Miller and Rudin seemed in agreement that Franken’s quest was problematic as a consequence of the vast trove of broadcast “baggage” his primary rivals and Norm Coleman might/will throw at him. He has, after all, made endless outrageous assertions against conservatives, Republicans and Norm Coleman. Miller and Rudin seemed to be imagining Franken’s hyperbole playing endlessly as attack ads against him, pruning his credibility, diminishing his gravitas and keeping him permanently on the defensive.
Its an arguable point, because there’s no question Mike Ciresi would take that offensive if he needed to. Likewise Coleman in the general election, if Franken gets that far.
What was disappointing about the Miller-Rudin analysis — which in fairness to them was brief, what with Bill Kling Inc. pleading for your disposable dollars, (and did you know you can also sign over the deed to your home and your childrens’ college funds to MPR?) — was there was no recognition of an evolved definition of “baggage”.
I admit a certain appeal for Franken. Partly because he seems at least as viable as any other name the Democrats have tossed against the wall to date. But also BECAUSE of his baggage, or I should say, what his baggage is not.
When I think of “baggage” today, in 2007, in the aftermath of the gross manipulation of intelligence, (i.e. lying), that preceded the Iraq invasion, in the aftermath of the Tom DeLay-Jack Abramoff-Duke Cunningham-Dusty Foggo scandals, no-bid contracts, Dick Cheney’s secret energy task force — the one with “Kenny Boy” Lay offering sage counsel — and on and on … and on and on … hours of tapes of a professional satirist making, OK, occasionally sophomoric jokes at these culprits’ expense doesn’t even begin to register as “baggage”.
More to the point, is there a voter in Minnesota who doesn’t think of Franken as a comedian? Some may not think him funny. But they understand he’s in the business of making jokes. And if the jokes started as early as they did, back when Team Bush was riding high and so much of the rest of the pop infotainment/mainstream media illuminati were playing cheerleader, Franken’s jokes/baggage may very well qualify as courageous rather than intemperate.
As far as I know Franken’s “baggage” has nothing whatsoever to do with incidents of deceit, fraud, contempt for the Constitution or lack of “support for the troops”. (I’m sure he’s got tapes of his USO visits if anyone challenges him on that.) His baggage is that of a very well-known, well-understood pop culture icon saying pretty much what he has always said. In other words, stuff that needs very little defending.
I’m reminded of a joke I think Warren Beatty made about all his hedonistic womanizing baggage were he to run for high office. I’m paraphrasing here, but the joke has some reporter asking Beatty at a press conference, “Sir, will you confirm or deny you had sexual relations with [fill in the blank]?” To which Beatty was advised to respond, “I’ve done everything and everyone. Next question.”
Franken doesn’t need my campaign advice, but it seems obvious the trick he needs to pull off is convincing voters the two sides of his personality are not only compatible, but in fact a bona fide asset on the modern, post-Team Bush political stage. Namely, that he is both a guy with a fundamentally comic, satirical nature AND a thoughtful, honest, well-connected student of policy and government. (Everyone who thought his radio show insufficiently funny, was probably reacting to his wonkier moments with government officials and think tankers.)
Also, knowing the kind of flame that draws press moths, Franken’s “baggage”, that element of newsworthy unpredictability, is precisely the sort of thing that may draw significantly more free media than your garden variety political careerist.
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