Al Franken's Candidacy Now Threatened On Many Fronts

STUART CAN'T SAVE THIS

Widespread Franken Dissatisfaction Sinks Campaign







Right about now, Al Franken the candidate could use some real advice from Stuart Smalley, his onetime Saturday Night Live alter ego.

But all of the daily affirmations in the world may not be enough to save his candidacy from repeating the fate of "Stuart Saves His Family", Franken's 1995 über-bomb.

While Barack Obama chose St Paul to deliver his "clinching the nomination" speech Tuesday evening, former Air America Radio host Franken was likely scrambling nearby to salvage what remains of his faltering effort.

With Democrats, liberals and his traditional foes on the right now increasingly united in opposition to his US Senate effort, it's going to take a miracle to overcome the kind of damage done over the past several months.

Beginning with the worker's compensation flap in March, Franken has generated a steady stream of negative headlines. By the first of May, it already appeared that he was in serious trouble, sunk further by his unpaid taxes.

But it took the subsequent firestorm over his now-infamous "Porn-O-Rama" Playboy column to cause significant defections from the left. Even traditional Franken cheerleaders at the Minneapolis Star-Tribune have backed waaaay off, with new questions as to whether the DFL Party will even endorse Franken at this weekend's convention:

In his Playboy romp, Franken fantasized about oral sex delivered by a machine, as well as sex with combinations of females who fit the Playboy view of women as big-breasted automatons, panting at the prospect of servicing the likes of Franken. That's why they call it fantasy, I guess.

I wonder how many DFL officials will be able to pull Porn-O-Rama through their Internet filters and read it before the party endorses its candidate for U.S. Senate this weekend. I wonder, too, whether folks like Sen. Amy Klobuchar and Attorney General Lori Swanson, whose campaigns took money in 2006 from Franken's so-called Midwest Values PAC (yes, you read that right) will feel compelled to return those bucks on truth-in-advertising grounds.

Somehow, Franken has managed to unite both Republicans and Democrats in disgust:

Two Republican state lawmakers in Minnesota Monday released a list of jokes and writings by Franken that they contend demeaned women, the St. Paul Pioneer Press reported.

"These are not jokes made by a teenage boy in the locker room with his friends," wrote state Rep. Laura Brod and state Sen. Betsy Wergin in a letter to their colleagues.

"These are jokes made by an adult man who has made his living this way, and only now, as a candidate for the Senate, wishes to be taken seriously," they wrote.

Rep. Betty McCollum, D-Minn., has called the Playboy piece, headlined "Porn-O-Rama," vulgar and sexist.

Franken's campaign has said the material was meant to be satire. Campaign spokeswoman Jess McIntosh reiterated that position.

"Al knows the difference between what a satirist says and what a senator does,'' she said. "They're different jobs."

In their letter, Brod and Wergin highlight eight other examples of Franken's words, which they argue belittled Afghan women, joked about killing baby girls and lesbians, and made sexual references to former Attorney General Janet Reno.

Now, former Governor Jesse Ventura is smelling blood and poised to jump into the race as an independent. And perhaps more worrisome, former DFL primary contender Mike Ciresi is considering restarting the campaign he abandoned some months back.

At this point, is it unreasonable to think Franken may drop out of the race, rather than suffer the indignity of losing further support within the DFL?

Suddenly, that Air America mega-salary and perks must be looking awfully good to our friend Stuart.


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