Franken Transcript Reveals Much About Scandal

Mr. Subliminal Returns!

Franken Borrows From Nealon's SNL Act


Remember Kevin Nealon's classic Saturday Night Live "Mr. Subliminal" character?

He could slip a critical point into the smallest spaces, creating some of the show's funniest moments.

After a detailed analysis of Al Franken's recent public Air America scandal comments, it's clear he may owe Nealon one, for stealing his act.

That's because slipped into Franken's rambling set of excuses over why he and Air America are not responsible for $875,000 in taxpayer funds, diverted from a Bronx-based community center, a key admission is made.

Take a look at this snippet, with a full Radio Equalizer-produced transcript below, (bold emphasis mine):

And he uh, borrowed (laughter) $875,000 from, I don't know why they did it, and I don't know where the money went, I don't know if it was used for operations (softer, faster), which I imagine it was.

Care to elaborate on this, Mr. Franken?

That's a big point to bury in your public statement.

Does that mean you were paid with public money, intended for an inner-city community center?

For two weeks, we've been cautioned to be careful about assuming the $875,000 actually went into Air America's account, funding network operations.

And along comes Franken himself, making it appear to be true!

All in the magic style of Mr. Subliminal.

Don't you feel you've a moral obligation to get to the bottom of this, Mr. Franken? Why not be above-board, rather than misleading and evasive?

Here's the full transcript of his comments, while the original audio is found at Brainster's Blog. A certain amount of stuttering has been removed for the sake of clarity, but it doesn't affect what's being said.

Feel free to compare my transcript to the audio clip:


FRANKEN: Anyway, so here's the deal. So the first guy who was the chairman of the board of of Air America, a guy named Evan Cohen, was a crook, it turns out. I guess that's the only way to put it (laughter) and, but, he got a job.... (interruption)

CO-HOST: let me just add this counsel for a minute, it's not the only way to put it. (ha ha)

FRANKEN: So he let us believe that we had enough funding, enough capital, to go three years, before making a profit, turned out it was three weeks.

And that's when the, and you said you saw the HBO documentary....

GUEST: yeah

FRANKEN: Ok, it turns out he was on the board, or worked for, this Gloria Wise Boys and Girls Club in the Bronx or something.

And he uh, borrowed (laughter) $875,000 from, I don't know why they did it, and I don't know where the money went, I don't know if it was used for operations (softer, especially fast), which I imagine it was. I think he was robbing Peter to pay Paul.

And about three weeks into the life of Air America, I became an involuntary investor. I stopped being paid.

So now, we started to make arrangements, and I didn't know anything about this until late last week, and I'm sorry, Rick, that you have to be here for this.

GUEST: That's okay, I like being here with you...

FRANKEN: So, um, we had to do, forensic, or not we, but the guys who run the thing, the new management, did forensic accounting, and discovered this big loan from this Boys and Girls Club, and Rob Glaser, the new guy, who is the head of this new company Piquant, said OK, we don't legally have to pay it back, because we're a different company I guess, but we morally do, so they start making arrangements to pay it back.

And just as that was happening, the Gloria Wise Boys and Girls Club went belly up, and started being investigated by the state, or the city, or something, and so this all halted that.

Now the Washington Times started making a big deal out of it, and the New York Post, and a woman named Michelle Malkin, (laughter)...

GUEST: So you're getting pretty close to the bottom of the barrel. (laughter)

FRANKEN: Yes, the bottom of the barrel, now and I don't get it because in the Post, they just put my picture up, not only that, they show pictures of the last article they did too, you know how they do that in the Post? (laughter)

So they show a picture of me and a picture of me (laughter)....

So I'm trying to be as responsible as I can, to know as much as I can about this, but I really have nothing to do with it. (laughter)

So, that's I guess the full discussion of it, we're, there's more to talk about with it, but it's boring.

GUEST: So you can see you can see why they're groping for something here. To make some kind of a vague exploitation of children angle...

FRANKEN: oh yeah, oh no, they went right for it.

And that's, of course, why we're paying them back, we put money in escrow, you know, we don't have $850, or $875,000 laying around.

So we had to do it....and then the investigators said, well, you can't pay them back, because we're doing this investigation, so let's put it in escrow.

So that's where it's going. So that's that. If anyone wants to know more about it, we'll talk about it again.

END OF TRANSCRIPT


The Radio Equalizer analyzed this audio in great detail.

After repeated listening, these conclusions became clear:

--- The laughter seems nervous in nature, coming at odd times.

It's used to cover up the particularly touchy aspects of this, toward the end.

--- Franken claims he learned about it late last week, a date that keeps changing.

Al, you've known about it for at least two weeks, if not longer. Nobody really believes you discovered it last Friday!

--- Franken confirms AAR's weak cash position.

--- He's confusing listeners, in saying Department of Investigation offiicals didn't want the money repaid during their examination. The DOI demanded it be placed in an escrow account, one officials could access.

His supporters have consistently twisted this part of the story- it was not AAR's idea and the company hasn't complied with it, anyway!

--- What on Earth gave Rob Glaser the idea the money legally didn't have to be repaid?

Overall, a weak CYA effort by Franken. The real Mr. Subliminal could do it a lot better.

What is Kevin Nealon up to these days, anyway?


AAR Scandal graphic by Darleen Click, City Kid$ by George Adair, Iraqi MPI by Pete at IHillary. Franken Will Work/Limo by IMAO.US

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