Tuesday, January 6, 2009 at 10:20 am
The Loser Now Will Be Later To Win
Another moment of reflection on the occasion of Al Franken's apparent victory in the Minnesota Senate race: This nation has had former star quarterback pols, a pop singer Congressman and a Hollywood actor president. The old counter-culture of the 1960s long ago went mainstream. Even Robert Gates, the man picked by President Bush to lead the Pentagon in wartime, marched with the hippies on the National Mall in a 1970 protest against Richard Nixon's incursion into Cambodia.
But there is still something momentous about a guy like Franken, who spent the 1960s in his teens and the 1970s and 80s trying to mess with our minds, becoming a senator. Set aside the fact that Franken was a founding writer at Saturday Night Live, in the early cocaine-fueled days. Ignore for a moment that he first left SNL after performing a skit called "Limo for A Lame-O" in which he criticized his own boss, Fred Silverman, for commuting to work from Connecticut in a limousine. (At Franken's request, about 5,000 viewers of the show wrote Silverman letters addressed to "Limo for a Lame-O.") Ignore the hilarious Franken scene from Trading Places, posted below, which climaxes with a gorilla raping a man, or the 1995 skit he kicked around at SNL that would have depicted Andy Rooney, of 60 Minutes fame, contemplating what he could do with Leslie Stahl and a bottle of sedatives.
Perhaps the most illustrative moment of Franken mischief comes in 1980, when he agreed to host a series of set-break skits for a Grateful Dead concert at Radio City Music Hall that was being simulcast around the country. The conceit was that Franken would hold a fundraiser for "Jerry's Kids," who it turned out were not ill, but rather stoned and poor, and in need of money for the next show. The "poster child" for the fundraiser was a kid from Asbury Park, N.J., who had taken lots of acid and once tried to hitchhike to Egypt. "Tim doesn't want your sympathy," Franken explained, dressed in a tuxedo. "Tim wants money so that he can get in tomorrow night." At another point in the sketch, Franken plays Henry Kissinger, who gets caught bootlegging a dead show. Here is another highlight of the sketch, in which Franken tries to find out who slipped LSD to Jack Kennedy.
All of this matters because there are constants in the life of the man that Minnesota (Minnesota!!) has now (probably) elected to represent it in the U.S. Senate. Franken has spent his life as a sort of intellectual terrorist, a rebel in open war with the mores and power structures of America. With perhaps one or two exceptions, he has done a brilliant and noble job. Free nations need performers who will mess with our heads. But we are just not used to these performers becoming senators. I don't doubt that Franken will be more staid in his new job than he was in his old ones. But I also find it hard to believe that he will be able to do the job entirely straight, with the same soulless formality that is Congressional convention. He spent a lifetime unmasking the powerful as witless buffoons. Now he is set to become the powerful. It will be fun to see what happens next.
ALSO: Joshuah Bearman finds another jem from the Franken vault.
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Senior Writer Karen Tumulty has been TIME's National Political Correspondent since 2001, and has also covered the White House and Congress for the magazine. A native of San Antonio, she is a graduate of the University of Texas at Austin and Harvard Business School, where her career choice has significantly lowered the average salary of her graduating class. But she gets lots of free magazines. Read More »
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Joe Klein is TIME's political columnist and author of six books, most recently Politics Lost. His weekly TIME column, "In the Arena," covers national and international affairs. In 2004 he won the National Headliner Award for best magazine column. Read More »
Michael Scherer is the White House correspondent for TIME. He previously worked for Salon.com, Mother Jones, and the Daily Hampshire Gazette. A native of San Francisco, he graduated from U.C. Santa Cruz and Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism. Read More » Follow Michael Scherer on Twitter
Jay Newton-Small is the congressional correspondent for TIME. Born in New York, she spent time growing up in Asia, Australia and Europe following her vagabond United Nations parents. A graduate of Tufts University and Columbia’s Graduate School of Journalism, Jay previously covered politics for Bloomberg News. And, yes, despite the misleading name SHE is a she. Read More » Follow Jay Newton-Small on Twitter
Amy Sullivan is a senior editor at TIME magazine, and author of the book The Party Faithful: How and Why Democrats are Closing the God Gap (Scribner, 2008). A Michigan native, she holds degrees from the University of Michigan and Harvard Divinity School. She writes about religion and politics for TIME, but no longer answers to the name "Bible Girl." Read More »
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Tuesday, January 6, 2009 at 10:31 am
Franken has spent his life as a sort of intellectual terrorist...
very, VERY poor choice of words. Simply because Franken defied "convention" doesn't give you, or anyone, a reason to describe him as a terrorist of any sort....
Tuesday, January 6, 2009 at 10:40 am
It's odd how Scherer remembers Franken.
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I remember the Paul Simon and Pat Robertson impersonations, Stuart Smalley, When a Man Loves a Woman, etc...
Tuesday, January 6, 2009 at 10:40 am
An intellectual terrorist who has done a noble and brilliant job? What do you exactly mean by an intellectual terrorist? Granted that Franken's path to the Senate isn't the conventional one, a healthy dose of satire seems exactly what is needed by the staid old institution.
Tuesday, January 6, 2009 at 10:40 am
I think it's a good thing in the sense that the Senate is too heavily comprised of men and women with a certain temperament that often trumps their world view. Even if Franken is inappropriate and wrong, he brings a balance to the institution that makes it more accurately reflect the tensions of the nation it seeks to govern.
Tuesday, January 6, 2009 at 10:42 am
He loves his country deeply, he's significantly more hawkish than the average blogger and he's built his entire career around calling people liars. He'll be nothing if not refreshing.
Tuesday, January 6, 2009 at 10:49 am
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Scherer: Set aside the fact...Ignore for a moment...
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Then why mention those things at all, Michael?
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Tuesday, January 6, 2009 at 10:50 am
MS -- How come no mention of Franken at the Gridiron dinner in the 1990s? His memorable satirization of a rebuffed Newt Gingrich's attempt to sit in the front of Air Force One because there was a zoo (a Gingrich special interest) in the front of the air craft was made more hilarious, by the stony looks and silence of GOP's elite during his monologue.
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And what about his support of the troops by going on several USO tours of Irag, Kuwait and Afganistan?
Tuesday, January 6, 2009 at 10:50 am
An 'intellectual terrorist'?
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Why couldn't he have just been respectable like that beloved pill popping 'comedian' Rush Limbaugh (who brought us 'Barack the Magic Negro')?
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'It will be fun to see what happens next.'.
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Yes it will be. It could also be great. Senators are going to have to earn respect from Al. It won't automatically be given out of 'respect for the office'.
Tuesday, January 6, 2009 at 10:54 am
Expect the junior Senator from Minnesota to be held "in minimum high regard"* by his Senate colleague for a while.
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*minimum high regard = "I can't stand him" by a fellow US Senator.
Tuesday, January 6, 2009 at 11:00 am
"Intellectual terrorist"? Mikey, you need some more time off. Maybe put down that bong your own self.
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Andy: Depends which colleagues you're referring to. He did a lot of fund-raising and, and his radio show, promotion for Democrats. Including Lieberman.
Tuesday, January 6, 2009 at 11:01 am
Whatever committee assignments he gets, his performance during hearings should be very interesting and amusing (while being substantive, I expect). Stuart Smalley and "RL is a big Fat Idiot" and "lying liars..." as firmly grounded performance pieces are hard to top.
I expect Franken is a serious person, and it will also be interesting to watch how he finesses a transition into his new pretty serious job. Maybe he can be McCain's new bipartisan maverick buddy (shove that phony Lieberman to the side -- don't you think Franken could do a hilarious Lieberman? Can't you easily imagine it?)
Tuesday, January 6, 2009 at 11:01 am
Andy from MA wrote: 'And what about his support of the troops by going on several USO tours of Irag, Kuwait and Afganistan?'
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Excellent point.
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Most people are unaware of the fact that Senator Franken has been one of the most active celebrities participating in USO tours. He has appeared in shows repeatedly in the war zones to entertain the troops. While many chicken hawks pay lip service to 'supporting the troops', Senator Franken has risked his own hide to actually do it.
Tuesday, January 6, 2009 at 11:03 am
On the word terrorist, I've used it before to describe the art of satire and sarcasm, which when it is good can have a violent and revolutionary effect on what things mean and how we see the world. (For example, after Tina Fey did Sarah Palin, it was hard to see Sarah Palin as anything but a Tina Fey sketch. Fey effectively hijacked Palin, exploded her meaning.)
For more on how I think this works, see here.
http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2006/05/01/colbert/
I think it is pretty clear from the context that I am not suggesting in any way that Franken is in league with Al Qaeda, or that my own praise for Franken's career means that I have any sympathy for the terrorism that actually hurts, terrorizes or kills people.
Tuesday, January 6, 2009 at 11:07 am
...and no mention of his torrid affair with Jeanne Kirkpatrick back in the Studio 54 days, as revealed in the introduction of the second edition of "Rush Limbaugh Is A Big, Fat Idiot"?
Tuesday, January 6, 2009 at 11:10 am
Harry Reid = Mike Myers.
Tuesday, January 6, 2009 at 11:13 am
In what lexicon does satirist=terrorist?
Tuesday, January 6, 2009 at 11:20 am
Well, Michael answered before my question appeared. But I'm still not buying.
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The satire=terrorism equation might work in some academic setting where everyone agrees you meant it only in the most intellectual of ways. That ain't this place.
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In this very public forum, terrorism means people who blow up soldiers and children's schools. Maybe MS meant well or was exercising his literary muscles. It sure didn't come off that way.
Tuesday, January 6, 2009 at 11:21 am
Jim, FL: If preview had been my friend, I would have written Republican senate colleagues.
Tuesday, January 6, 2009 at 11:23 am
Michael - the fact that you've used the word terrorist before to describe the art of satire and sarcasm does not make it a good word choice. Don't step on your own point with this kind of distraction. It's perfectly adequate and accurate to suggest he's a rebel and has promoted a revolutionary view of how we see things.
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What's the point of suggesting somebody's a terrorist but not the kind that "actually hurts, terrorizes or kills people?" Um, that's what a terrorist is. You can say a little kid is a terror, you might even be able to say he terrorizes the neighborhood, but you can't call him a terrorist. That's a reserved word, now. And when you use it of an elected official you're way outside the permissible boundary for that word.
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Otherwise I agree with how fascinating this is. Though I think we laugh at Franken and his ilk mostly because something similar has occurred to us and we wouldn't say it. Our unedited thoughts wouldn't befit a whole lot of settings. It will be interesting to see if Franken can curb his public expressions of that humor. Bet it livens up the cloakroom though.
Tuesday, January 6, 2009 at 11:23 am
davemc 321 perhaps those literary muscles have atrophied a bit since MS came to Swampland.
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MS based on your own definition would you stipulate that when Newt Gingrich first came to Washington he was a political terrorist?
Tuesday, January 6, 2009 at 11:24 am
Prior use doesn't justify bad writing or shallow thought. Guerrilla comedian, perhaps? No reason at all to use the 't' word here other than laziness, sensationalism, and/or lax editorial standards.
The faux controversy over that Rooney joke is interesting to read, given how the election turned out. Would Fox News and the Republicans accuse Franken of being in favor of eating people, and insensitivity to Jeffrey Dahmer's victims, if the putative skit were about cannibalism? Of course not. But anything, anything to find the slightest deviation from politically correct stereotypes and demonize someone. Humor is humor, no more and no less.
Tuesday, January 6, 2009 at 11:30 am
The "intellectual terrorism" comment was perfectly clear. If you didn't get it, that's your problem not MS's.
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Roger Ebert's beautifully written post on the new "Age of Credulity" touches on this issue (MS, I suspect you'd really appreciate it): http://blogs.suntimes.com/ebert/2008/09/this_is_the_dawning_of_the_age.html
Tuesday, January 6, 2009 at 11:38 am
MS, I will save my ire for a more appropriate subject. I get it now.
Tuesday, January 6, 2009 at 11:39 am
yes, rose. fine column.
Tuesday, January 6, 2009 at 11:55 am
Franken has spent his life as a sort of intellectual terrorist, a rebel in open war with the mores and power structures of America.
"Intellectual terrorism" was the stock in trade of Neoconservatism, and they owned think tanks fueled buy billionaires, with the ear of every Republican president since Reagan. Here's Irving Kristol:
Yup. So give me your money corporate billionaires, sez Kristol, or the hippie commies take over.
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Here's Paul Krugman commenting on Perlstein's Nixonland:
As David Roberts wrote, "Beware the Dirty Hippies!" Be terrified. Be very terrified.
Tuesday, January 6, 2009 at 11:55 am
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Heh...if Frankin's satire is 'intellectual terrorism', then Scherer's blog offerings are...?
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Tuesday, January 6, 2009 at 12:00 pm
Intellectual terrorism is a good thing. The victim is the establishment.
Tuesday, January 6, 2009 at 12:04 pm
My favorite old "Franken and Davis" routine was their parody of a mud slinging local campaign. I think Franken's character was "Pete Tagliani" or something similar. The sketch featured campaign commercials the continually got sleazier and sleazier.
Tuesday, January 6, 2009 at 12:05 pm
Since we appear to be voting, I also think the word terrorist was inappropriate in that context. That word, more than any other has been hijacked to mean 'anybody deserving of death'. I've noted several times that whenever Iraqi casualties were reported in American media, they were ALWAYS referred to as terrorists. Until such time as we have a new synonym in place for 'demon' we will be stuck with 'terrorist' remaining off limits.
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PS - I like the Dylan reference.....
Tuesday, January 6, 2009 at 12:22 pm
How interesting that in Michael's post on Franken yesterday I commented that Franken has a unique ability to defuse verbal bombs (Limbaugh and the like), and in today's post MS calls him a comedic terrorist. My point was that Franken's humor has seemed a useful tool for deconstructing what (at least some) people are typically terrified about - being ruled by a wealthy, neocon, militaristic society. But I guess if that's what you want then Farnken's humor would be a threat.
Tuesday, January 6, 2009 at 12:23 pm
I agree that terrorist is a poor choice of words. And "intellectual terrorist" could mean tons of things. You could say Oscar Wilde was an intellectual terrorist (writing plays with wisecracks to stir up uptight Victorians) but it doesn't seem appropriate.
Tuesday, January 6, 2009 at 12:38 pm
I mean--Jonathan Swift, provocative satirist or "intellectual terrorist"?
Tuesday, January 6, 2009 at 1:03 pm
Maybe not "intellectual terrorist", but rather "intellectual revolutionary" would've been better?
Tuesday, January 6, 2009 at 1:05 pm
"All of this matters because there are constants in the life of the man that Minnesota (Minnesota!!) has now (probably) elected to represent it in the U.S. Senate"
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What does that even mean?
Tuesday, January 6, 2009 at 1:17 pm
Paul-no,
1. Mischief making is a constant in Franken's life, which will matter when he gets to the Senate.
2. Minnesota is not (with the possible exception of that wrestler governor) a state known for mischief making.
3. Franken's victory could be overturned on a court review of ballot counting, though this is unlikely, so he is now the probable victor, not the certain victor.
Tuesday, January 6, 2009 at 1:26 pm
Don't suppose MS or anyone else at Time will mention all the names Franken has been called by the unholy trinity of rightwing blowhards, Limbaugh, Hannity and O'Reilly. Didn't think so. By the way, MS, did it occur to you that Franken did what the blowhards refuse to do: put up or shut up, by running in a state-wide election. Just in this post, MS has been more negative toward Franken than he has been toward the above-mentioned trio. I wonder why that is.......
Tuesday, January 6, 2009 at 1:28 pm
Okay thanks, I figured as much.
Tuesday, January 6, 2009 at 1:53 pm
You know mischief making is good clean fun in politics, as long as you're a Republican.
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The difference is that Republicans have been much more secretive about their merry pranking. This didn't seem to have been a problem for Pat Buchanan when he ran for office. Rick Perlstein has more on that...
Tuesday, January 6, 2009 at 2:19 pm
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MS: Mischief making is a constant in Franken's life..
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And here I thought Franken was a comedian. Guess that means that Pat Paulson was trying to subvert the US government.
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You do know that Franken isn't listed as a writer on Trading Places, don't you, Michael?
Tuesday, January 6, 2009 at 2:41 pm
"But there is still something momentous about a guy like Franken, who spent the 1960s in his teens and the 1970s and 80s trying to mess with our minds, becoming a senator." Um, not really. Not after a President who made a living acting with a chimp. Or Cher's ex-husbad serving in the House. Or a governor (from Minnesota) who was a professional wrestler.
Franken just didn't spend that much time "messing with our minds" or else you'd be able to find better examples than the ones you're coming up with. He was a comedian first and foremost, and a political commentator second. It's not that momentous.
And by the way, no matter how you spin it, "intellectual terrorist" was out of line.
Tuesday, January 6, 2009 at 2:41 pm
"Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them"? I don't see Franken getting much done in the Senate, particularly if anyone expects him to work across the aisle. That said, I'm looking forward to enjoying CSPAN MUCH more in the coming years ...
Tuesday, January 6, 2009 at 3:11 pm
Norm is speaking at 3 (Central) this afternoon. I wonder if Laurie will fly in to be by his side?
Tuesday, January 6, 2009 at 3:26 pm
A hatchet job, even coming from Scherer. Have you ever actually listened to him or seen his work? It's impossible to imagine why the people of MN would have elected him, based on this highly subjective review. Very disappointing. My primary objection is you get the proportionality wrong. Yes, Franken's intellectual and heady humor at times toyed with the edges, but he was no Carlin, Hicks, or even Belzer. Thank god Mike is not in charge of writing obits.
Tuesday, January 6, 2009 at 4:00 pm
No surprise, Norm is contesting.
Tuesday, January 6, 2009 at 4:25 pm
Franken is far more Carlin than Cosby, Todd. One more comment: the debate over the word terrorist aside (i used the word in a complimentary fashion, though I understand the critique) this is the latest in a long line of comment threads where I am kind of shocked by how much you all just miss the point of what I mean. I am praising Franken as a great intellect (albeit a subversive one) who will make a welcome addition to the soulless senate. (Funny, but i also felt this happening in the campaign too. Like when I wrote about lil wayne and Obama; many assumed I was attacking Obama, even though I was, in fact, praising lil wayne.) I think this has something to do with the context: The political internet discussion is so combative that every piece of writing is quickly categorized as either pro or con, an example of right wing hackery or left wing hackery, bad journalism or good journalism, etc. It doesn't much matter if something doesn't fit neatly into these combative categories. People read as if everything does.
Tuesday, January 6, 2009 at 4:50 pm
"this is the latest in a long line of comment threads where I am kind of shocked by how much you all just miss the point of what I mean."
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If there is a long line of threads where so many people miss your point it may have something to do with your writing.
Tuesday, January 6, 2009 at 4:58 pm
yes i have considered that. But am not convinced.
Tuesday, January 6, 2009 at 6:00 pm
"Franken has spent his life as a sort of intellectual terrorist, a rebel in open war with the mores and power structures of America. With perhaps one or two exceptions, he has done a brilliant and noble job. Free nations need performers who will mess with our heads."
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And yet you left off the list of his accomplishments the books he's authored on politics and the media (hmmmm), at least one of which, Lies And the Lying Liars Who Tell Them, was a #1 New York Times bestseller. If you can't tell from the title, in one book he revealed more truth about the lies being perpetrated on the public than you and all of your peers have for the past 30 years. For that alone, he deserves his seat in the Senate, at the very least, over the miserable liar Norm Coleman.
Tuesday, January 6, 2009 at 6:14 pm
At least he ain't Rush Limbaugh, the oxy-addled purveyor of racial hatred. And, MS, I might point this out:
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"...which climaxes with a gorilla raping a man..."
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But. Butt!
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At least he's not one of those Republicans raping the treasury...
Tuesday, January 6, 2009 at 6:17 pm
An intellectual terrorist?
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Wow, MS. This takes the cake. You are traipsing awfully close to that moral ditch marked "mind control", aren't you...