Al Franken, Minnesota US Senate Race, Talk Radio, Alfalfa

ALFALFA FRANKEN

Is Stuart Having Second Thoughts?







Hey Minnesota: meet Alfalfa Franken!

After trading a multi- million dollar salary, high- profile (and quite comfortable) Manhattan lifestyle and comparatively light talk radio workload for the campaign trail's 24/7 drudgery, we wonder: does Stuart Smalley regret his decision to run for the US Senate?

After looking at today's coverage of his as- yet relatively low- profile campaign, your Radio Equalizer wonders what's going through Alfalfa's mind right about now:

MORTON — He is best known for sketches on “Saturday Night Live,” and best-selling humor books that poke fun at figures like Rush Limbaugh.

But 15 minutes before he was scheduled to appear at a ballroom at Jackpot Junction on Saturday night, Al Franken was huddled with a group of ag producers talking about something other than fame or entertainment.

Alfalfa.

“I just had a meeting about all the background of alfalfa,” Franken said as he stood outside the ballroom, where the Senate District 21’s annual meeting took place Saturday night.

That means using alfalfa as feed, as a counter to overplanting other crops, as a tool against soil erosion.

Things Franken said he’d never thought about before, but issues he realizes he now must begin to understand. Franken has officially entered the race as a DFLer for the U.S. Senate seat currently held by Sen. Norm Coleman. Saturday’s convention was his first campaign visit to southwest Minnesota.

“To me, this is a process,” he told the Independent. “And I have a lot to learn.”

He said meetings like the alfalfa one are important — “smart,” because “I know almost nothing about it, and I will have to learn more about it not only in the next 19 months before the election but hopefully the next six, seven, eight, 12 to 14 years in the Senate.”

He said he doesn’t like to just start talking cold about things he isn’t familiar with.

“But I’m learning a tremendous amount,” he said.

He’s traveled around rural Minnesota in the past year, campaigning for other candidates. But since he hasn’t been in this part of the state before, he was asked if he understood the core issues of southwest Minnesota.

He said he did, listing off renewable energy and transportation — especially for ag products — as top priorities.

He appeared on the “Late Night” with David Letterman show on Thursday night, touting renewable energy. Franken called for an approach similar to the U.S. space program in the 1960s, a concentrated national effort that led to the Apollo moon trips.

“Renewable energy is a very hopeful part of our future and it addresses so many things,” Franken said. “Carbon emissions, global warming, the environment, national security and jobs.

“And I’m a huge fan of wind energy, and a huge fan of any kind of ethanol. I think there’s a lot of future in cellulosic ethanol, not just (corn).”

He said he has heard farmers’ concerns about getting product to market, both with better rural roads and less-expensive, less-complicated rail transportation.

He told the story about his own family’s move to Minnesota from New Jersey when he was 4. His father opened a quilting factory in Albert Lea but went bust. As an adult, Franken asked his father why.

His father replied that he chose Albert Lea because the rail line went through the city, but the business failed because the trains didn’t stop there. Same thing for farmers, he said: When rail lines dictate how much grain can be shipped and from where and when, ag products suffer.

Franken was also asked if he saw his values — he’s often associated with New York City or the Twin Cities — as being similar to rural Minnesotans. He said he thinks he stands up better for the middle class than Republicans have while they held power in Congress and the White House.

“It just seems to me one of the differences we’ve seen in the Republicans in Congress and the White House is that they are much more interested in special interests and big interests,” Franken said. “And I am with the little guy.”

He said his travels around the state in the past year have shown him, “that rural Minnesotans have a lot of the same concerns that every Minnesotan and every American has: Health care and education, jobs and the war. (Dana Yost- Marshall Independent)

Two things stand out here: one, being so far removed from his childhood days in rural Minnesota, it's hard to imagine Al Franken really having a shot at selling himself in the state's most remote corners. His father might have been a decent candidate, however.

In addition, it's truly difficult to believe that Stuart Smalley, he of an ultra- elitist Harvard and Manhattan background, really gives a crap about alfalfa. Did the farmers fall for it?

In the end, Air America's money troubles likely gave Franken no choice but to find something new to do. That doesn't mean he's enjoying this, however.

Alfalfa Franken: David A Lunde
Nice 'N Fluffy: Pete at IHillary


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