(From the diaries – promoted by James L.)
Today, it is with great excitement that I am able to announce that Al Franken has been added to the Blue Majority Act Blue page that is collectively maintained by Dailykos, MyDD, Swing State Project and Open Left.
Last month, in a post on Open Left, I wondered if Al Franken was the best example of a progressive movement candidate we had seen to date, given that his campaign is overwhelmingly people powered (over 45,000 donors so far), he passed the “bar fight primary” with flying colors (more than willing to take the fight to Republicans), he comfortably and repeatedly self-identifies as a progressive, and that he came into politics as an outsider, specifically from progressive media. The response I received to that post was almost universally positive, and while I don’t know if he is the very best example, he clearly is an excellent case, and so I urge you to contribute to Al Franken on the Blue Majority Page. Let’s build the progressive movement together by supporting a first-rate movement candidate.
Today is a particularly appropriate time for us to make this endorsement because, as Jonathan Singer has noted, George Bush is in Minnesota raising money for endangered Republican incumbent Norm Coleman. Tying himself further to George Bush will only push Coleman’s already low approval ratings in the state even lower, and make him more vulnerable than he already is. Progressives in the state are countering Bush’s visit through a variety of actions, including protests coordinated by Americans Against Escalation in Iraq, and by the Franken campaign itself looking to counter Coleman’s big money fundraiser with small donor, people-powered energy:
Let’s be a part of this effort. With his connections to George Bush, there is an opportunity to knock Coleman all but out of the race in 2007, the way Rick Santorum was all but defeated by a progressive swarm against him in 2005.
As a final note, I want to mention that while Al Franken is involved in a competitive primary in Minneosta, this endorsement comes entirely because Al is so fantastic, not because his primary opponents are clearly defective in any way. Al is a Democrat who I believe will never let us down, and always make us proud. He comes from the progressive movement, and will take the fight to Republicans. He is exactly the sort of candidate many of us have looked for these past few, and we are happy to reward that with our support in and of itself, not just relative to other candidates in the campaign. It certainly is great to make an endorsement for someone, rather than against someone else.
I was (like a lot of people) worried at first that he would be too polarizing to win a Senate election in a state that’s not, say, Rhode Island. But he’s really proven that he’s in this to win, and that he fully has the capacity and the support to do so. Plus, I think his so-called polarizing nature works very much in his favor in an environment where more people than usual are going to be drawn to his progressive positions.
Ciresi could take out Coleman, too, but with Franken, the Santorum v. Casey comparison might be more apt than almost anyone would have thought at the beginning of this cycle.
Following this train of thought, Jeff Bingaman shouldn’t have ever been considered for his Senate seat (born in El Paso, Texas), Hillary Clinton shouldn’t be the Senator from New York (while I don’t support her for President, I stand by her being a very good senator), Mark Warner should be disqualified from running for John Warner’s seat (if memory serves he’s not originally from Virginia). I’m getting really tired of this train of thought.
And by the way, before you start with how it took Al Franken a year before he figured out Bush was a lying son-of-a-bitch, I’d like to remind you that half of the Democratic Senators at the time voted to authorize the war (including but not limited to Clinton, Reid, Kerry, Edwards, Rockefeller, and ) and many of them it took much longer to acknowledge this fact (hell, Clinton still only says she was only wrong to give BUSH the ability to wage war, not necessarily that it was wrong to give the authority to anyone).
God I’m getting sick and tired of these purity tests everyone seems to want, it’s just like the Club for Growth, we’re eating ourselves from within.
…the DSCC holds tons of fundraisers in NYC. It’s a flush money market, so a serious Senate candidate is going to tape those funds. Sherrod Brown did a fundraiser in NYC on June 19th, 2006, for instance.
Holding a fundraiser outside of your state is morally reprehnsible. My o my you must spend your entire life in a state of shock and dismay. Really, can you tell me what is morally offensive about a fundraiser in NYC? It cheapens the entire debate to throw around terms like that. If this is morally reprehensible what do you call Abu Gharib?
I don’t yet have a dog in this race, and I agree that there are some problems with Franken’s candidacy. But there’s a slight exaggeration in implying he’s never done anything for the Party except suddenly run for the Senate. He started a PAC last cycle that raised money for a number of Democratic candidates including the under-funded Walz campaign:
http://midwestvalues…
The other point I’ll make is that he seems to have the most aggressive Senate campaign of anyone running in the 2008 cycle. I hear from his campaign constantly by phone, e-mail, and post.
I’ll watch for about information Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer if he files and for further developments that clarify whether Ciresi or Franken is the better choice before I devote any money to this race, myself. I gave to Franken’s PAC last cycle but it’s not on my list for 2008, because he ended up supporting more centrists than I’m comfortable with – but that wouldn’t make it a bad choice for others with a different approach, and in a battlegrond state like Minnesota, it’s not a demerit, I wouldn’t think.
Al Franken is by no means a true progressive. He has not been out there fighting the good fight for Democrats his whole life. His books are funny, his radio show humorous, he has NEVER turned his popularity and fame into any actual Democratic gain in politcs but merely as a means to entertain. If he cares so much about the issues and is such a true liberal progressive, where has he been? It certainly wasnt door knocking or raising money.
His 45,000 donors are not from MN, Id say about 40,000 of those are from out of the state. It is people powered in a sense but not in the good sense. I hate that this race has become a national race. It isnt, it is a Minnesota race and while I certainly wont object to getting contributions from out of the state, the fact that not even half of them do come from within the state severely bothers me. He has held fundraisers in LA and NYC and I find that so morally irreprehensible. Of course he had these fundraisers at the very beginning to jump start his campaign so that he had some money to get going. He certainly didnt start his campaign by any grassroots methods, he merely asked his rich friends to get it going for him. Pathetic.
He supported the war in the beginning and it took him until the end of 2003 to realize it is complete crap. If he could believe that idiot Bush for that long, whose to say he wont believe some other idiot for even longer. (Granted that wont happen until 2012 because the presidential election is nearly in the bag)
The true liberal, progressive, and grassroots organizer in this race is Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer. And if he decides not to run (my sources say he will be announcing quite soon), Ciresi deserves the shot to take out Coleman over Franken by far. Hell, Ciresi is actually from this state.
Of course Franken would be a huge improvement over Coleman but is he the best DFL Canidate? I’m not sure. IMHO there is not a lot of differnce on the issues between Mike Ciresi and Al Franken and Ciresi does not have all the baggage Franken does. As a Minnesotan I may end up supporting Franken but I am not going to give any money until after the nomination is decided.