Democrat Voter Fraud: A Brief History.  [Scroll down] A similar chain of events occurred in the election of Al Franken in Minnesota in 2008.  Incumbent Norm Coleman originally prevailed with over 700 votes, which were mysteriously whittled down to 200 in short order.  Franken called for a recount, and begorrah, the votes suddenly started appearing.  Some, anyway — an envelope of votes from one county simply disappeared, but were counted regardless, the totals evidently being read out from tea leaves.  By the time it all ended, Franken was ahead by 312 votes.  Coleman, a Republican gentleman of the old school, made perfunctory efforts at protest, but was undercut by the GOP itself, led by former governor Arne Carlson, a RINO to rule them all, who had refused to endorse Coleman during the campaign.  Shortly after the election, it was discovered that at least 1,099 illegal votes had been cast by felons, and this had been known during the vote count, but had been ignored.  Franken exchanged his diapers for a suit and spent the better part of two terms voting the way he was told and embarrassing his party before being forced out during the "Me Too" craze.

Biden Makes It Official: Grand Theft Election II is On.  [Scroll down] 2020 isn't the only time the Democrats have gotten down with this particular dance.  A week after the razor-thin 2008 Minnesota U.S. Senate election, the Wall Street Journal noted, "When Minnesotans woke up last Wednesday, Republican Senator Norm Coleman led (comedian Al) Franken by 725 votes.  By that evening, he was ahead by only 477.  As of yesterday, Mr. Coleman's margin stood at 206.  This lopsided bleeding of Republican votes is passing strange considering that the official recount hasn't even begun."  The pre-recount gains for Mr. Franken included 246 additional votes from a town where election officials stated they had "miscommunicated" the Senate race numbers — but changed no other vote totals.  "Typo" corrections that mysteriously, per columnist Ann Coulter, "generated more new votes for Franken than all the votes added by corrections in every race in the entire state ... combined."  And 171 new votes "discovered" in a single voting machine favoring Franken despite his previous 45% vote percentage in that precinct.

Al Franken calls Senate bid 'tempting' four years after resignation.  Disgraced former Democratic senator and "Saturday Night Live" fixture Al Franken is considering running for office again, calling the idea "tempting" four years after he resigned following multiple sexual misconduct allegations.  "Do you have it in your bones or in your blood to jump back into the political arena and run for elective office again?" Washington Post columnist Jonathan Capehart asked Franken in a podcast interview this week.  "I don't know," Franken said.  "I certainly loved my time in the Senate.  I loved the job.  I got a lot done.  I was able to accomplish things I couldn't accomplish anywhere else, I don't think.  So yeah, it would be tempting to try to do that again."

What Kind of Sore-Losing Idiot Would Suspect the Democrats of Voter Fraud?  [Scroll down]  The Democrats also stole the U.S. Senate seat held by Republican Norm Coleman in Minnesota in 2008, giving it to Al Franken.  Franken "won" by 312 votes, though Coleman came out of the election with a 725-vote win.  A series of recounts over the next six months, including votes cast by some 400 or more prohibited convicted felons, swung the election to the guy with the filthy mind and busy hands.  In the best of respectable RINO fashion, Coleman was too dignified to contest the outcome further.  (Interesting how "karma" plays out:  In the end, Franken gets booted out of the Senate anyway — by his own party, the same cheaters who put him in — for doing only a fraction of what the party's most revered leader at the time, Bill Clinton, did many times over and so much more criminally.)

Count and Recount Every 'Vote' Until You Win.  Joseph Stalin, the Russian communist dictator, once said it is not the people who vote that count, but the people who count the votes.  The Democratic Party in the U.S., which is full of radical leftists and quasi-communists, understands this trick well.  Not only that, but the party has perfected it.  On Election Night in 2008, the Republican Senate candidate in Minnesota, Norman Coleman, led the Democratic candidate, Al Franken, by 726 votes.  It's enough to warrant an automatic recount.  Two weeks later, Coleman's lead was down to 215.  The case then went back and forth to the court.  Six months later, the election winner was certified.  It was Al Franken, who then won by 312 votes.  Later investigation showed that 1,099 felons, all ineligible to vote, had voted in the race.  Writing in the Wall Street Journal, John Fund aptly titled it "Felons for Franken."  Keep recounting the "votes" until you win.

Another Woman Says Al Franken Groped Her.  The cover story New York published this week centers on the stories of women and men who came forward about sexual abuse and harassment — and one who has not yet done so.  In the issue, a woman who says former U.S. senator Al Franken groped her buttocks at an event in 2006 explains why she's kept silent until now, and why she still fears using her name.  "I was just out of college in my first job, working for U.S. senator Patty Murray," she told New York.  Franken, then exploring a run for the Senate, was the guest speaker at Murray's annual Golden Tennis Shoes Awards (named for a dismissive description of Murray, early in her political career, as a mom in tennis shoes).

Journalist Who Peddled Shoddy Kavanaugh Story Defends Al Franken.  A reporter known for slinging unsubstantiated allegations of improper behavior against conservatives has developed a sudden appreciation for due process and journalistic fact-checking.  At least for Democrats.  The New Yorker's Jane Mayer published a robust defense of former U.S. senator Al Franken, who resigned under intense pressure in 2017 after eight women publicly detailed unwanted groping and kissing from him.  Mayer argues that the former Minnesota senator should not have resigned, since one of his accusers was conservative and was associated with political opponents of Franken.  As for the other seven, Mayer suggests their complaints about unwanted kisses and groping didn't rise to the level of seriousness that a Senate resignation would indicate.

#MeToo Is Dead, and Franken Fangirl Jane Mayer Is the Killer.  The New Yorker's Jane Mayer's desperately dishonest attempt to exonerate disgraced former Senator Al Franken (D-MN) is filled with more than just deception and lies of omission.  On moral grounds, what Mayer admits to doing to one of Franken's accusers is beyond shameful.  Mayer actually tries to shame this woman, a longtime Democrat, as a way to make it seem as though the accuser is the villain and Franken is the victim.

Senator Franken Regrets.  Al Franken's regrets over resigning from the Senate add up to a tragedy for our times.  They are relayed by Jane Mayer in an illuminating scoop in the New Yorker.  It's a long, reported dispatch to which it's hard to do justice in a short editorial.  The nub of it is that Mr. Franken wishes he'd held out for an investigation by the Senate's Ethics Committee.  Instead, Mr. Franken quit, and, by his own account, went into a deep, even clinical depression. [...] What animates us in this story is the constitutional — even pre-constitutional — principle of due process.

The Editor says...
From where I'm sitting, it looks like Mr. Franken was elected to the Senate only because he stole the election from Norm Coleman.  Therefore, Mr. Franken is in no position to complain about "due process."

Don't let The New Yorker get away with its brazen Al Franken hypocrisy.  Nearly a year after co-authoring a suspect account damning Brett Kavanaugh as a serial sexual harasser — in the august pages of The New Yorker, no less — journalist Jane Mayer has taken up a curious cause:  defending Al Franken.  Recall that when Franken resigned from the United States Senate on Jan. 2, 2018, he was facing down eight accusers in a scandal that unfolded over just three weeks.

Apparently unaware of Obama's spying on Trump...
Joy Behar Worries to Gillibrand, Trump Might Win in 2020 Because Dems 'Won't Play Dirty!'  [Scroll down]  The Democrat Senator from New York and 2020 candidate was on The View later in the show, where she received a tough shake from each co-host to start off, mostly about her chances of winning.  When it became Joy Behar's turn, she grilled Gillibrand for her part in condemning former Democrat Senator Al Franken, calling him to resign last year after his groping scandal.  "Your campaign has said that your fundraising has suffered.  They think it's a backlash against your decision to lead the call for Al Franken to resign after the allegations of sexual misconduct.  It's a personal thing with me because I'm a friend of his.  I thought he was a great senator.  I really miss him now because I think he had a mouth on him and a brain!" she gushed, adding, "Do you think the democratic voters are going to turn on you for this?"  This isn't the first time Behar has opined for Franken.  She has openly defended him many times on the show many times before, and downplayed what he did.

Dear hypocrites and enablers:  Please stop trying to rehabilitate the predator Al Franken.  Perhaps [Norman] Ornstein and disgraced former Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn., are old personal friends, and this is just a case of someone wrongheadedly defending a bad person out of personal loyalty.  But there has been a broader effort in recent months to rehabilitate the unapologetic serial groper, who was forced out of office for attacking and harassing so many women that his own partisan colleagues couldn't avoid throwing him under the bus.  This broader effort can't be considered outside of the fact that Franken was a huge draw for Democratic fundraisers, and his disappearance has been a disappointment for many.

What's the matter with Florida?  [Scroll down]  In the 2008 Minnesota Senate race between Republican incumbent Norm Coleman and Democrat Al Franken, Coleman won the election by the narrowest of margins.  According to CNN, "The initial count from the November 4 election put Coleman, a first-term senator, 215 votes ahead of Franken."  The slim margin triggered an automatic recount.  The canvassing board finally determined that Franken "won by 225 votes."  After Franken was sworn in, a conservative group called Minnesota Majority began investigating claims of voter fraud.  The group found 1,099 felons, all of them ineligible, had voted.

Al Franken, Minnesotan?  Al Franken purported to represent Minnesota in the United States Senate for nine years, but he had to pretend to come home from New York to run for office.  After being driven from the Senate by his fellow Democrats at the beginning of 2018, has he ever returned to his purported home state?  Apparently not.

Al Franken says he hasn't ruled out running for office again.  Former Sen. Al Franken, asked whether he plans to ever run for office again, said this week he has not "ruled it out" nor "ruled it in."  "I miss the whole job.  I loved that job.  I loved the job as senator," Franken, who officially resigned from Congress in January after facing allegations he inappropriately touched multiple women, told a Minnesota CBS station in an interview on Monday [7/30/2018].

Disgraced Senator Al Franken Wants to Run Again, Forgets One Important Detail.  Politicians are all alike.  They think we have such short memories.  Every election cycle it's the same.  These so-called leaders spend huge amounts of money, running ads online and on TV.  They hype up the pitiful little accomplishments they achieved while in office.  Most of the time, they're hoping you ignore the many hours they wasted doing nothing.  Or the many tax dollars they shelled out to special interests.

Major donor reconsiders support for Democrats who urged Franken to quit.  A prominent donor to the Democratic Party says she is considering withdrawing support for senators who urged their colleague Al Franken to resign after he was accused of sexual misconduct.  The donor, Susie Tompkins Buell, has been one of the Democratic Party's most generous supporters for decades.  In particular, she has been a champion of female politicians, including Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Maria Cantwell of Washington.  Last month, those senators were among the dozens who called for Franken to resign from the Senate after at least six women accused him of sexual harassment or misconduct, such as forcible kissing and groping.

Fish Lips Al Franken Finally Resigns.  Finally!  After two months of dodging his various victims of sexual harassment and in some cases assault, Al Franken has officially resigned from the Senate.  Good riddance to an unfunny clown.

Railroaded: The Real Reasons Al Franken Is No Longer A Senator.  Three weeks after volunteering as Democratic Party tribute Hunger-Games-Style, Al Franken has finally relinquished his Senate seat.  Operation:  Moral High Ground, the Democrats' transparent plan to claim victory in America's #metoo moment, was a simple one.  Step One:  Run Al Franken out of town.  No ethics investigation.  No consideration of Minnesota voters.  No censure or lesser discipline.  Just an aggressive Franken-ectomoy.  Step Two:  Sit back and wait for alleged pedophile Roy Moore to win a Senate seat in Alabama's special election.  Step Three:  Make sure Franken's exit shares a news cycle with Roy Moore's entrance.  It would have been the Holy Grail of partisan juxtaposition — the split-screen video image to end all split screen video images.  Step Four:  Scream into the echo chamber that Republicans are the Roy Moore party and Democrats are the party of women.

How Can We Miss You, Senator Franken, If You Won't Go Away?  As we welcome in 2018, Minnesota's discredited junior U.S. senator is still ensconced in the U.S. Capitol like a wet hair clump in a shower drain, employed by the people of Minnesota and paid in full by American taxpayers.

Franken:  No Really, I'm Quitting.  Looks like Minnesota will get its special election after all.  More than two weeks after his Democratic colleagues in the Senate pushed him to issue an ambiguous resignation speech in the Senate, Al Franken has set the date for his departure. [...] They won't have Al to kick around anymore.  However, the question may be whether Al does some kicking at his colleagues on his way out the door.

He may yet change his mind AGAIN.
Franken to resign in early January.  Sen. Al Franken will step down on Jan. 2, a spokesman for the Minnesota Democrat said Wednesday [12/20/2017].  Franken announced earlier this month that he would resign from the Senate in the face of sexual harassment allegations.  But he did not announce a date for when he would officially leave the chamber.

Dems now want accused groper Al Franken back.  Some Democratic senators now regret pushing accused groper Sen. Al Franken to resign, and are urging him to stay on, according to a new report.  "I think we acted prematurely, before we had all the facts," one anonymous senator told Politico.  "In retrospect, I think we acted too fast."  Franken reluctantly bowed to his colleagues' demands to step down earlier this month after he was accused of sexual assault by eight women, saying he'd leave the Senate "in the coming weeks."  Minnesota Lt. Gov. Tina Smith has been tapped as his replacement.

Democrats now want Al Franken to stay.  A handful of Democratic senators are now calling on Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn., to reconsider resigning.  At least four Democrats are expressing regret over calling for Franken to resign before a Senate Ethics Committee investigation took place into the allegations of sexual harassment made against him.

At least four senators reportedly have urged Al Franken to reconsider his resignation.  At least four senators are urging Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) to reconsider resigning amid sexual misconduct allegations against him, according to Politico.  Politico on Monday [12/18/2017] reported that two of the senators issued calls for Franken to step down amid the accusations two weeks ago.  "What they did to Al was atrocious, the Democrats," Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) said in an interview for Politico's "Off Message" podcast coming Tuesday.

The Senator Who Wouldn't Leave.  We should not be surprised by the news that "at least four senators are urging Al Franken to reconsider resigning, including two who issued statements calling for the resignation two weeks ago and said they now feel remorse over what they feel was a rush to judgment."  One can't help but notice that 11 days have passed since Al Franken declared, "in the coming weeks I will be resigning as member of the United States Senate."  Not only has Franken not resigned yet, he has not publicly declared a date of resignation.  Haley Byrd looks at those changing their mind about Franken and wonders what, exactly, has changed between Franken's eighth accuser came forward and now — other than the resolution of the Alabama Senate race to their liking.

No Decision On Timing of Franken's Resignation From Senate.  He's Democrat Al Franken.  And he isn't in any hurry to resign, even after his pathetic speech on the Senate floor.  A lot of people figured that if Roy Moore won, Franken would stay.  Well, Moore lost and Al Franken is still in no hurry to take his groping hands out of the Senate.  That's a Democrat for you.

NYT Op-Ed:  Maybe Franken Shouldn't Have Resigned.  Activist Zephyr Teachout, who ran for governor in 2014 and Congress in 2016 — she lost both times — is troubled by Sen. Al Franken's (D-MN) resignation.  Mind you, the Minnesota Democrat has not packed up his bags and left.  He said he would resign in the near future.  It was one of the most soporific and non-introspective resignation speeches — and it wasn't just conservatives who noted this.  Some journalists noted that Franken never apologized for his actions.  True.  He also called his accusers liars, which is also true.  The man didn't want to go, possibly because he thought his party affiliation could save him, as it did with William Jefferson Clinton.

Jones Wins:  Al Franken Hardest Hit.  Democrats and their media echo chamber will openly celebrate Doug Jones's narrow win in Alabama, but inside I'll bet they are actually disappointed.  There is little chance they can hold this seat in 2020 (unless Republicans nominate Roy Moore again).  Meanwhile, Jones deprives them of their favorite talking point that Republicans are all drooling knuckle-dragging morons.  Worse, it means Al Franken will likely have to go through with his resignation after all.

Keep Your Hypocrisy-Stained Hands Off Our President.  There is a profound difference between (i) the soap-opera charges now being leveled by some opportunistic women against President Donald Trump and leveraged for cheap political gain by the Gillibrand Hypocrites within the Democrat Party and (ii) the pants-dropping of The Icon, John Conyers, and the butt-squeezing, tongue-slithering obscenities of Sen. Al Franken (who now indeed will have to leave the upper chamber, with no Roy Moore to counterbalance).  Conyers and Franken have lost all legitimacy.  By contrast, the American people elected President Trump with full transparent cognition of his public and private portfolio, thereby validating his office.  The difference between the President and Disgraced Franken-Conyers is that the charges against President Trump fully were litigated before the voters during the 2016 Presidential election.

Al Franken lost big in the Alabama Senate race.  There were two big losers last night as the election returns came in from Alabama.  You already know about Judge Roy Moore and the GOP Senate majority, but consider Al Franken.  He now is going to be forced to live up to his promise to resign the seat when he spoke on the Senate floor and refused to admit having done anything wrong.  It was obvious then to all who have observed Franken over the years that this was a P.R. ploy and that once Roy Moore was seated in the Senate after his presumed election, Franken was going to stay in the Senate and pose as a righteous fighter for the female of the species.  Franken loves being a big-shot senator and is known for throwing his weight around.  But now that Judge Moore will not be traveling to the U.S. Capitol as anything other than a tourist, poor Al is left holding the bag, with no plausible reason to renege on his promise to resign in the coming weeks.

Minnesota Lt. Gov. Smith named to fill Franken Senate seat.  Minnesota Lt. Gov. Tina Smith was appointed Wednesday to temporarily fill the Senate seat of Democratic Sen. Al Franken, who resigned amid allegations of sexual misconduct and pressure within his party to leave office.  "It will be my great honor to serve Minnesota as United States senator," Smith said in accepting the appointment.  "I am resolved to do everything I can to move Minnesota forward. ... This is a difficult moment for us.  But even now, I am filled with optimism for Minnesota."  Smith, a Democrat, was appointed by Democratic Gov. Mark Dayton and will serve until a special election next year to complete Franken's term, ending in 2020.

Al Franken Still Hasn't Said When He's Actually Resigning.  Democratic Minnesota Sen. Al Franken has yet to announce when he's actually going to leave office.  Franken announced last Thursday that he would be resigning "in the coming weeks" after eight different women accused him of groping or forcibly kissing them.  "The timing of Franken's resignation remains unclear, as is his motive in delaying it," New York Magazine's Ed Kilgore noted at the time.  Franken has yet to offer any more specificity about when he's going to follow through in resigning.

Resigning to Live With Franken — And With the Democrass Senate.  That was some resignation, the Al Franken speech at the Senate the other day.  As he spoke, all we heard was "I didn't do nothin' — and, besides, you can't prove it!"  Some of the accusers, he asserted, were outright liars. [...] That is not a resignation.  That's an invitation to negotiate a departure.

Dems Need Plus-Size Fig Leaf in Ouster of Al Franken.  So, Al Franken is a lewd boor, an unfunny buffoon, an intellectual midget, and an adolescent crude serial invader of womens' space.  The latter triggered his blindfolded walk-the-plank exit from the USS Senate.  How convenient for the Democrats to have a do-over, only a third of the way through Franken's second underwhelming term.  But the gaggle of Democrat moral peacocks only purged Franken from their caucus because his political value didn't extend beyond another replaceable vote, a mere commodity.  Franken offered zero policy depth, wholly bereft of legislative scholarship, whose exposure on vital Senate committees, such as the Judiciary Committee, was an embarrassment.

Al Franken resignation.  We can say this.  First, the U.S. Senate will be a better place without Al Franken.  Second, don't assume that the Democrats will hold on to this seat, specially if the U.S. economy is doing well by the summer of 2018.

I'm Done With the Sex Scandals.  If someone broke the law and you can prove it, prosecute him.  If someone violated the rules of his organization, eject him.  Other than that, if women have forgotten the fine art of slapping a man in the face, there's not a whole hell of a lot society can do for them.  You keep silent for forty years and then ruin a man's career with an unprovable allegation — and that makes you a hero?  Not to me.  Look, I think Al Franken is a nasty little piece of corruption.  I'm not even sure he actually resigned at all.  I think he may have just faked it so Democrats could make a lot of hypocritical noise about Roy Moore down in Alabama.  I suspect, after the Alabama election is over, if Moore loses, Franken will retract his intended resignation and it'll all pass away.

Al Franken Decade Finally Ends.  Franken hasn't actually resigned yet.  That's coming... sometime?

Conyers and Franken resignations:  A Democrat bait-and-switch cover-up strategy.  First, Rep. Conyers and Sen. Franken's resignations are a clear signal to the drive-by media to immediately stop any and all investigations and reporting by accusers and alleged victims of both Rep. Conyers and Se[n]. Franken.  Essentially, the Democrats are directing the drive-by media to focus entirely on Republican Senate candidate Judge Roy Moore's alleged sexual misconduct and President Trump's endorsement of his candidacy.

Bitter Al Franken resigns, slams Trump on the way out.  Speaking on the Senate floor Thursday, Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn., announced his resignation from the U.S. Senate following several accusations of sexual harassment levelled against him in recent weeks.  On the way out the door, Franken took parting shots at President Trump, Republican candidate for U.S. Senate Roy Moore, and the Republican Party.

Al Franken Has Not Decided to Resign, Despite Media Reports.  Franken has now tweeted that he has not made a decision yet on to whether or not to resign, despite various inaccurate media reports to the contrary.

Al Franken Quits Senate Over Multiple Sex Scandals.  Disgraced liberal lawmaker Al Franken resigned from the United State Senate on Thursday, stepping down after multiple women came forward and accused the legislator of inappropriate sexual misconduct.  Franken announced his resignation during a speech on the floor of the Senate, saying he plans to quit in the "coming weeks."  "Today I am announcing that in the coming weeks I will be resigning as a member of the United States Senate," said the Senator.

The Editor says...
Please note:  Senator Franken has said that he plans to resign from the Senate.  He has not actually done so.  His plans may change.  There's a word for this:  Clintonesque.

Al Franken isn't sorry.  No one who listened carefully to Franken's remarks this morning could walk away from them with any notion of why he is bothering to resign.  He stood there in his purple tie grinning smugly, explaining, as if to a sensitive child, why he had done nothing wrong.  Without referring to any specific incident of sexual misconduct or even mentioning the names of any of his accusers, he calmly insinuated that all of the eight women who "have come forward to talk about how they felt my actions had affected them" are liars or victims of confusion.  He is "shocked," he said, by their stories.  He is even — the poor man — "upset."  But he is also "respectful," so respectful indeed that he worries that he might have given "the false impression that I was admitting to having done things I haven't done."  What a pity.  Franken should rest easy.  I for one was not under any such impression.  His conviction that he is wholly innocent of any crime or misconduct is perhaps the only aspect of this affair about which I am utterly certain.

If Moore Wins And Franken Un-Resigns, Will Senate Democrats Back Him Up?  I think Franken's play in his "resignation" speech was fiendishly clever.  He's quitting, yeah — but not for a few weeks, coincidentally after Alabama and Senate Republicans will have rendered their verdicts on Roy Moore.  He was careful this morning not to admit to any wrongdoing, merely saying that he'd lost the confidence of his colleagues and therefore had to go.  Imagine now that Moore wins and, as expected, McConnell's caucus immediately starts hemming and hawing about whether he should be expelled.  Some Republicans will deflect by insisting that the ethics committee should look into the allegations against Moore but many more will chime in on a soon-to-be common refrain that "the people have spoken."  The GOP will have rubber-stamped a senator accused of much worse than the departing Franken is accused of.  Despite their momentary ardor for cleansing Congress of creeps, rank-and-file Democrats won't like that one bit.  Why does their guy have to go when the Republicans' guy doesn't?

Franken's Phony Finale.  The speech followed the usual pattern of lying pols:  I didn't do it, I'm only quitting because I am a distraction and can't advance my party's agenda "effectively anymore, and the other side is worse.  Franklin bitterly remarked upon the "irony" of his resignation, presenting himself as an innocent man on the pyre while guilty men like Trump and Roy Moore walk free.  Secure in the knowledge that the party will hold his seat and that it could become akin to an honorary chair for militant feminists, the Democrats saw an opportunity for some cost-free moral posturing.  Franken was "doing the right thing," they said.  But how is he doing the right thing if he continues to deny the charges?  The same rationale for quitting — that it is good for the party — would have kept him in the seat if Minnesota's governor were Republican.

Al Franken Masters The Non-Apology.  In the three weeks since he was first accused of groping women, Democratic Minnesota Sen. Al Franken offered a litany of excuses instead of taking responsibility for his alleged behavior, even as more accusers stepped forward.  Franken resigned on the Senate floor Thursday after eight women came forward to accuse him of groping or forcibly kissing them.

Will Keith 'X' Ellison replace Al Franken in the Senate?  Far-left Democrat Congressman Keith Ellison is reportedly one of the frontrunners to replace disgraced Sen. Al Franken in Minnesota, who announced his resignation Thursday [12/7/2017] after several women accused him of sexual harassment.  A senior Minnesota Democrat close to the governor of the state, Mark Dayton (who is in charge of appointing Franken's replacement until a November 2018 election), told CNN that Ellison, Democratic Rep. Tim Walz, and Lt. Gov. Tina Smith are among the leading contenders to take Franken's seat.

The Franken Hedge.  Did anyone else notice a crucial passage in Franken's statement on the Senate floor this morning?  He said that he'd be resigning "in the coming weeks."  How many weeks?  Will reporters ask him for a date certain?  Notice, too, that he neither apologized nor admitted to any wrongdoing.  Quite the opposite — he essentially implied that some of his accusers are lying, and he couldn't help but attack President Trump and Roy Moore.  I think Franken is attempting a super-Clintonian dodge.  He had to address the immediate firestorm, but he's probably holding out for Roy Moore to win the election in Alabama next week, be seated in the Senate by the Republican majority, and then Franken may try to rescind his promised resignation, the storm having blown over and attention shifting to the baggage of Moore.

Franken resigns from Senate amid new claims of sexual misconduct, backlash from Dems.  Calling it "the worst day of his political life," Minnesota Democratic Sen. Al Franken said Thursday he will resign from the U.S. Senate following a wave of sexual misconduct allegations against him that ranged from groping to forcibly trying to kiss women.  Franken, who said that some of the complaints against him were "simply not true" and that he remembers others "differently," also took a parting shot at President Trump.

Gropers Like Al Franken Should Resign:  IBD/TIPP Poll.  After weeks of biting their tongues about accusations that Sen. Al Franken groped women, Democratic senators are now lining up to call for his resignation.  They clearly have the public on their side, according to the latest IBD/TIPP poll.  A few days ago, New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand told a reporter that "it's his decision," when asked whether Franken should resign after half a dozen women accused Franken of groping them.  Other Senate Democrats also refused to call for his resignation, even as accusations piled up, instead deferring to a pending ethics investigation.

Democratic senators and staffers shed tears during Al Franken's resignation speech.  [Scroll down]  Only one Republican sat in on Franken's speech, Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz.  The rest of the Republican side sat empty.  In his speech, Franken name-checked former Sen. Paul Wellstone, the longtime Minnesota Democrat on three occasions.  Franken famously defeated former Sen. Norm Coleman in 2009 by 312 votes — who Wellstone was set to face off against in 2002 until a plane crash took his life only eleven days before the election — giving Democrats the much-needed 60th vote for a brief period of time that allowed them to pass the Affordable Care Act.

The expendable Mr. Franken.  Democratic support for the tenure of Minnesota Senator Al Franken in office died on the vine today.  First Senator Kirsten Gillibrand stepped forward to call for Franken's resignation.  Her call was followed by other Democratic women senators with the exception of his colleague Amy Klobuchar, whose help was unnecessary to the task at hand.  However, she had been among the first Senators to call for Franken's case to be remitted to the Senate Ethics Committee.  It wouldn't be Minnesota nice for her to pile on now.  Some two dozen Democratic Senators have called for Franken's resignation.

Six female Democratic senators call for Al Franken to resign after a sixth woman accuses him of unwanted advances.  Six female Democratic senators on Wednesday called for Sen. Al Franken to resign in the wake of multiple sexual misconduct complaints made against the Minnesota lawmaker.  Sens. Claire McCaskill, Maggie Hassan, Kirsten Gillibrand, Patty Murray, Mazie K. Hirono and Kamala Harris all called for Franken to step down.  The women did not mince words.  "Sexual harassment and misconduct should not be allowed by anyone and should not occur anywhere.  I believe the best thing for Senator Franken to do is step down," Harris, D-Calif., said.

Another woman says Franken tried to forcibly kiss her in 2006: report.  A woman is accusing Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) of trying to forcibly kiss her in 2006.  The woman — who was a former Democratic congressional aide — said the Minnesota Democrat attempted to forcibly kiss her in 2006 following a taping of his radio show.

Democrats need to find some honor and get rid of Al Franken and John Conyers.  Democrats need to find some honor and address their side of the sexual harassment problem, by forcing out Conyers and Franken.  Not only do harassment victims deserve a measure of justice, Democrats' political reputation is on the line.  These two — and I would guess probably a few others — need to go.

Top House Democrat calls on Franken to resign.  A top House Democrat said Sen. Al Franken should resign after two more women on Thursday [11/30/2017] accused the Minnesota Democrat of groping them.  Rep. Joe Crowley of New York, chairman of the House Democratic Caucus, is the highest ranking Democrat to call for Franken's resignation.  "I think it's time for Sen. Franken to go," Crowley said in an interview.

Army veteran fifth woman to accuse Al Franken of sexual misconduct.  An Army veteran becomes the fifth woman to accuse Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn., of inappropriately touching her in December 2003.  Army veteran Stephanie Kemplin told CNN that Franken touched her breast while she was deployed in Kuwait in 2003.  She said the alleged groping happened during a photo op during Franken's USO tour.

Sen. Al Franken refuses to resign, hopes 'to learn from my mistakes'.  Sen. Al Franken said he's open to making the findings of his Ethics Committee investigation public on Monday [11/27/2017], addressing reporters on Capitol Hill for the first time since facing a number of sexual harassment allegations. [...] The Minnesota Democrat returned to work on Monday after the Thanksgiving break had ensnared two other lawmakers in sexual misconduct charges — Reps.  John Conyers Jr., Michigan Democrat, and Joe Barton, Texas Republican.

S.E. Cupp:  If Dems Keep Protecting Franken and Conyers, They Can't Talk About Trump or Moore Again.  In recent days, two heavyweights in the Democratic Party have been hit with numerous allegations of sexual misconduct.  Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) has been accused of forcibly kissing and groping Leeann Tweeden as well as inappropriately grabbing several other women.  Meanwhile, it was reported that Rep. John Conyers (D-MI) settled a lawsuit with a woman who claimed she was wrongly dismissed from her position because she wouldn't succumb to his sexual advances.  During tonight's [11/27/2017] broadcast of SE Cupp Unfiltered, host S.E. Cupp took aim at Democrats in Washington for not forcefully demanding both men leave Congress.

Guy Benson Rips Al Franken:  I Can't Believe He's Getting Away With This 'Quasi-Apology Nonsense'.  On Monday night [11/27/2017], Guy Benson had some tough words for Democrats in the wake of numerous sexual harassment scandals.  After criticizing the ongoing turmoil of the Roy Moore campaign, the conversation shifted to Nancy Pelosi's interview on Meet The Press, which the Townhill.com political editor called "catastrophic."  "She ran through defending John Conyers with every sort of excuse in the book," Benson told Shannon Bream.  "She also defended Bill Clinton, who of course was credibly accused of rape, which is an awkward position for her to be in."  He accused her of "backpedaling," saying that she "now" believes one of Conyers' accusers she spoke with.

'Ashamed' Franken says he won't quit Senate over groping accusations.  U.S. Senator Al Franken, trying to salvage his political career amid accusations of groping or inappropriately touching women, said on Sunday he does not plan to resign but called himself "embarrassed and ashamed."

Two additional woman accuse Franken of groping.  Two more women have come forward with accusations that Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) groped them during photo opportunities.  HuffPost reported Wednesday night that two women, who spoke under conditions of anonymity for fear of retribution, said that Franken groped them during campaign events for his initial run for Senate in 2008.  "My story is eerily similar to Lindsay Menz's story," the first woman said, referring to a woman who said last week that Franken groped her at the Minnesota State Fair.

The Franken factor.  [Al] Franken's scandal represents a crossover between the world of show business in which he made his career and the world of politics in which he has sought to become a champion of the left.  Here former Minnesota Senator Paul Wellstone was his model.

Poll: Franken's Approval Rating Plummets.  The approval rating of Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn., has dropped after allegations of sexual harassment, according to a KSTP/Survey USA poll.  His approval rating is at 36 percent — down from 53 percent in Nov. 2016, according to KSTP.

Freefall:  Franken Approval Plummets in Minnesota.  As we mentioned earlier, partisan Democrats aren't quite sure how they should react to the controversy surrounding embattled Senator Al Franken, whom two woman have accused of groping them against their will.  Minnesota voters seem less conflicted on the matter.  A new poll out of the state shows that fewer than one-in-four Minnesotans believe Franken should remain in office — with the Senator's job approval rating tanking by nearly 20 points, compared to last year.

Get a load of these pictures of Al Franken in action.  What's significant in Franken's case is that there have been clues, for years, out there about him and his odious behavior.  Evidence has been in plain daylight from photos of him on the internet.  From Twitter pictures to television screen grabs to news photos showing him and his associates, anyone can now see, perhaps in hindsight, what a [...] perverted rat he was and still is, and why he should have never been allowed to set foot in the Senate.

More Proof That Al Franken's A Real Ass.  The two women who say Al Franken grabbed them inappropriately are anonymous at this point.  Franken, rather than categorically denying the accusation, said it is difficult to address such claims and that he didn't remember the events where the gropings allegedly took place.  He did, however, "categorically" claim he never asked a woman for a restroom tryst.  If it was his policy to never grope women, he should have been able to deny these accusations.  It wouldn't matter if he remembered the event.

Sen. Al Franken vows to regain Minnesota's trust after harassment allegations.  The Minnesota Democrat, who has been accused by four women — two of them anonymously — of inappropriate contact, issued a Thanksgiving afternoon apology and pledge.  He wrote that he "feels terribly that I've made some women feel badly."  He called himself "a warm person" who likes to hug people when they're being photographed with him, but clearly, his embrace "crossed a line for some women."  Although his statement did not directly address the question of whether he might resign, he vowed to move ahead with an effort to regain the trust of his constituents.  A spokesman for Franken said Thursday that the senator has no plans to resign.

Al Franken allegations are a big money problem for Democrats.  Sexual misconduct allegations against Sen. Al Franken of Minnesota could cost the Democrats a rising star who energized progressives and a rainmaker who drove millions into establishment coffers.  During the 2016 election cycle, Franken transferred more than $322,000 in personal campaign funds to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.  A similar cash infusion is presumably off limits in the upcoming 2018 midterm elections, as Franken is politically damaged goods now that he stands accused by two women of groping.

Facing Second Accuser, Franken Sees His Once-Rising Star Dim.  After making the transition from comedy to politics, Senator Al Franken, Democrat of Minnesota, positioned himself as a staunch defender of women's rights.  "Sexual harassment and violence are unacceptable," he wrote on Twitter last month.  "We must all do our part to listen, stand with and support survivors."  Now it is Mr. Franken who stands accused, and his uncompromising stance in support of "survivors" of harassment has left him few options but to apologize and try to weather the storm.  On Monday, a second woman said the senator touched her inappropriately, telling CNN that he grabbed her rear end as her husband took a photo of the two of them at the Minnesota State Fair in 2010.  Mr. Franken said that he did not remember the episode but that he was contrite nevertheless.

Woman says Al Franken inappropriately touched her in 2010.  A woman says Sen. Al Franken inappropriately touched her in 2010, telling CNN that he grabbed her buttocks while taking a photo at the Minnesota State Fair.  It is the first allegation of improper touching by Franken, who is a Democrat, while he was in office.

In the Franken Scandal, Be Careful What You Wish For.  Don't get me wrong.  I am not sorry to see Al Franken exposed for being the creep that he is.  His entire career as a writer, comedian, and performer before he got into politics in 2007 absolutely reeks.  Examples of his sleazy and disgusting work that have helped to lower the bar of the popular culture starting in 1975 are abundant.  Until Thursday, Franken, to my knowledge, was never publicly accused of actually acting against anyone based on his immature, puerile, and sexist beliefs.

A Fair Hearing by a Jury of His Pervs.  [Scroll down]  In any event, [Gloria] Allred seems to have opened a Pandora's box.  Because now the always vulgar clown Senator Al Franken is under the spotlight for specific sexual misconduct.  He's admitted the most serious charge to date and apologized, but some in his party are demanding that he resign, although at least one self-described feminist has leapt to his defense.  Some on the left even have found (20 years late) words to admit they were wrong in defending Bill Clinton saying he should have resigned over the Lewinsky affair.  McConnell appears to be not the only party leader trying to get rid of inconvenient colleagues and former colleagues, using women's' tears as weapons.  (It's hard for me to imagine how "I am woman hear me roar" fits in with claims that a pinch on the butt or an unwelcome advance (rejected) can prove a traumatic event of a lifetime.  The suggestion by some that Franken should be subject to a Senate ethics hearing (which Franken said he'd agree to), drew Iowahawk's tweet:  "He deserves a fair hearing by a jury of his pervs."

Al Franken:  Even Worse Than You Think.  Al Franken isn't the monster Harvey Weinstein was.  But he should never have been let into American public life, either.  Having him lose his seat over what he did to Leeann Tweeden would be like getting Al Capone for cheating on his taxes.  Which is to say:  It's not the main problem with him, but we'll take it.

No, Al Franken has not admitted what his accuser alleged.  Some of the voices — like Hillary Clinton — offering semi-defenses of Al Franken have done so by noting that Franken has acknowledged misconduct toward radio host Leeann Tweeden, while Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore and President Trump have not admitted guilt for the allegations against them.  "Look at the contrast between Al Franken, accepting responsibility, apologizing, and Roy Moore and Donald Trump, who have done neither," Clinton said on WABC radio Friday [11/17/2017].  Other Franken allies have said similar things.  But has Franken acknowledged the misconduct alleged by Tweeden?  The answer is no.  Franken has acknowledged the actions in a photo in which he mimics groping a sleeping Tweeden.  But Franken has not admitted Tweeden's more serious charge that he physically forced himself on her while rehearsing for a skit during a USA tour in 2006.

Moore, Franken, creepy Biden and other horrendous media fiascos.  The Roy Moore story was going exactly the way the left and the media wanted.  Every day brought new allegations against the Republican U.S. Senate candidate in Alabama, followed by new controversy and further division within the GOP on a key election.  Then something happened to flip the script — Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn.  Franken, a longtime comedian and "Saturday Night Live" regular before entering politics, had his former life come back to haunt him.

Franken's apology.  [Scroll down]  As his colleagues abandoned him, Franken sensed he couldn't talk his way out of this jam.  He abjectly apologized and joined the call for the Senate Ethics Committee investigation of his own conduct.  Very big of him, but more calculating than generous.  He can reasonably hope that the Ethics Committee will give him cover in the slow moving gears of Senate procedures while the storm blows over.  The abjectness of Franken's second statement should count for nothing.  Tweeden's account of Franken's harassment includes a photograph that caught Franken in the act of sexual assault.  Despite his effort to say something to mitigate it in his first statement, mitigation is impossible under the circumstances.  His initial statement reveals his character and aggravates his misconduct.  It is otherwise worthless.

CNN Panel Brushes Aside Franken Allegations to Knock Moore; 'He Was Just a Comedian'.  A Thursday afternoon [11/16/2017] CNN Newsroom panel showcased political tribalism as three liberal journalists downplayed the disturbing sexual misconduct allegations against Democratic Senator Al Franken (Minn.) by harping on the fact that Franken was "just a comedian" while those against Roy Moore and President Trump were far more serious.

Al Franken's career is collateral damage for the Dems on the way to getting Trump.  The logical steps for getting Trump are clear.  Step one:  Establish that sexual harassment before taking office is sufficient grounds to remove someone from office.  This is the necessary predicate.  Franken's departure from office will establish the purported sincerity of the Democrats in establishing this brand-new principle. [...] Step two:  Apply this doctrine to Roy Moore if he should win the Senate seat for which he running. [...] Step three:  Throw Bill Clinton under the bus. [...] Step four:  As the hysteria mounts, following the blood sacrifices, demand that President Trump be impeached for actions before he took office.

Al Franken Should Resign Immediately.  On Thursday morning [11/16/2017], Los Angeles radio host Leeann Tweeden wrote a disturbing article alleging that Sen. Al Franken sexually harassed her on a 2006 USO tour. [...] There is no rational reason to doubt the truth of Tweeden's accusations, no legitimate defense of Franken's actions, and no ambiguity here at all:  Franken should resign from the Senate immediately.  Democrats should call for him to step down straightaway.  This revelation is a test of the Democratic Party's consistency, honesty, and decency.  If Democrats wish to preserve whatever moral standing they have today, they must exhort Franken to leave the Senate, with no hesitation or reservations.

News Anchor accuses Al Franken of non-consensual kissing, groping in 2006.  Leeann Tweeden, now a local radio news anchor in Los Angeles, has authored an article accusing Senator Al Franken of non-consensual sexual contact in 2006, during a USO tour in the Middle East.  This contrasts with the accusations against candidate Roy Moore, which involve alleged conduct several decades ago.  Since there have been calls to "expel" Moore should he win, will there be calls to expel Franken for conduct which took place not long before his election to the Senate in 2008.

Al Franken joked about raping Leslie Stahl in 1995 New York Magazine article.  Democratic Sen. Al Franken was accused by a California sports radio broadcaster on Thursday of kissing and groping her without her consent in 2006 — but the politician has a history of making crude remarks about sexually assaulting women.  Franken, then a comedian, was quoted in a 1995 New York Magazine article discussing a skit for "Saturday Night Live" that involved drugging and raping CBS reporter Lesley Stahl.

Schumer calls for ethics probe of Al Franken amid groping allegations.  Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer on Thursday [11/16/2017] called for an ethics probe of Sen. Al Franken in the wake of allegations that he groped and kissed a Los Angeles TV host without her consent, as fellow Democrats on Capitol Hill condemned the Minnesota senator.  "Sexual harassment is never acceptable and must not be tolerated," Schumer, D-N.Y., said in a statement Thursday.  "I hope and expect that the Ethics Committee will fully investigate this troubling incident as they should with any credible allegation of sexual harassment."

Journalist Leann Tweeden Accuses Sen. Al Franken of Fondling, Kissing Her Without Consent.  Leeann Tweeden, a journalist who anchors the morning news at TalkRadio 790 KABC in Los Angeles, California, is accusing Senator Al Franken (D-MN) of fondling her while asleep and shoving his tongue down her throat without her consent.  At the time, December of 2006, Tweeden had a boyfriend (who is now her husband) and was on a two week USO Tour with the then-55-year-old Franken and others.

"Al Franken groped me".  Leeann Tweeden has posted a detailed account of her sexual assault by Minnesota Senator Al Franken in 2006 (Franken was first elected to office only two years later). Tweeden's account has been posted by 790 KABC in Los Angeles, where she works as a morning news anchor.  Her account is posted [elsew]here.  I see no reason not to take it at face value.  The incidents recounted by Tweeden amount to recent history by comparison with the conduct charged against Roy Moore.  Moreover, unlike the charges against Moore, Tweeden's case against Franken is supported by photographic evidence.

Woman Accuses Al Franken of Molesting Her During USO Tour.  News anchor Leeann Tweeden accused Minnesota Sen. Al Franken Thursday of sexually harassing her multiple times during a USO entertainment tour in the Middle East in 2006.  Tweeden alleges that Franken, a writer for "Saturday Night Live" before he became a senator, wrote a script that featured him kissing her, and harassed her during rehearsals, Tweeden writes for KABC.

Al Franken:  So Dumb Even The Hard Left Corrects Him.  Naturally Al Franken the Democrat from Minnesota, went to a foreign country to promote his latest crackpot theory:  that Net Neutrality should apply to websites, not just ISPs.  This is dumb on a number of levels.  First, for years the Net Neutrality defenders have claimed they were the side of freedom of speech.  Now Al Franken reveals them as the party of censorship and content control.  Second, for years the Net Neutrality defenders have claimed that Net Neutrality would not be regulating the entire Internet, but was just a logical application of utility regulations already in place.  Title II of the Communications Act was the basis of the current regulations, after all.  Third, users have choice!  State- and locally-awarded monopolies limit people's ISP choices sometimes.  No such government-awarded monopoly forces people to use Facebook or Google.

Franken charges Trump judicial nominee with hate group ties.  A Democratic senator tried to tie one of President Trump's judicial nominees to a "hate group" Wednesday [9/6/2017], saying the woman's decision to speak at an event sponsored by Alliance Defending Freedom, a religious liberty law firm, makes her unfit to sit on a federal appeals court.  Sen. Al Franken lobbed the charge at a hearing for Amy Coney Barrett, Mr. Trump's pick to fill a seat on the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

Klobuchar, Franken Impede the Path of an Outanding Judge.  When Minnesota Supreme Court Justice David Stras was nominated for the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit, the news was met with enthusiastic support by Minnesotans from across the political spectrum.  A diverse group of judges, attorneys and law professors urged the Senate to act on Stras' nomination and confirm him for the Eighth Circuit.  Among those who signed letters of support for Stras are former colleagues on the Minnesota Supreme Court, including retired Justice Alan Page and others appointed by a bipartisan list of governors, as well as former Gov. Tim Pawlenty and Gov. Mark Dayton.  Stras is also supported by 12 former members of Congress from Minnesota (Republicans and Democrats), by members of the faculty at the University of Minnesota Law School and by more than 100 prominent Minnesota attorneys.

Al Franken will use Senate blue-slip tradition to block Trump judiciary nominee.  Sen. Al Franken said Tuesday that he will use an arcane Senate tradition to try to derail one of President Trump's appeals court nominees, marking an escalation in what has become a nasty fight over the shape of the federal judiciary.  Mr. Franken said he won't return his "blue slip" for Minnesota Supreme Court Justice David Stras, Mr. Trump's nominee for the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.  Under Senate tradition, the chamber won't proceed on a judicial nominee unless both home-state senators return their blue slips, signifying acquiescence in the pick.  Left with little power to filibuster, the blue slip has become the most effective tool Democrats have to obstruct Mr. Trump's court nominees.

Al Franken warns Dems on Trump impeachment wish, says Pence 'would be worse'.  Sen. Al Franken of Minnesota has a message for fellow Democrats who yearn for President Trump's impeachment:  Be careful what they wish for; they just might get it.  Mr. Franken told the International Business Times on Monday [6/19/2017] that those hoping that the FBI's investigation into Russia's attempts to influence the November presidential election will pave the way for impeachment should consider Vice President Mike Pence's policy preferences.

Franken: Impeaching Trump could lead to 'zealot' Pence.  Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) is cautioning his Democratic colleagues that if President Trump is impeached, Vice President Pence would become president and he "would be worse" on domestic issues.  "He's ideological, I consider him a zealot," Franken told International Business Times in an interview published Monday [6/19/2017].  "And I think that in terms of a lot of domestic policy, [Pence] certainly would be worse than Trump."

Slow-learner Al Franken rebuked by former DNI James Clapper in Senate testimony.  Senator Al Franken's background as a joker was showing yesterday [7/5/2017] when he questioned former director of National Intelligence James Clapper in a Senate hearing yesterday.  He seemed to playing the role of a sad clown unable to accept reality, pathetically clinging to the illusions lying in ruins at his feet. [...] Mere ignorance of widespread media reporting on his area of questioning is bad enough.  But Franken revealed himself unable to understand and process new information.

Minnesota: Land of 10K lakes, and one loon in the Senate.  Yesterday [3/20/2017] was day one of the Senate confirmation hearing for Donald Trump's nominee to the Supreme Court, Neil Gorsuch.  And while the usual good cop/bad cop rhetoric was displayed by Republicans and Democrats during their opening statements, Senator Al Franken served as Exhibit A on what's wrong with the loons on the left when it comes to the courts and the Constitution.

The Indecent Mr. Franken.  I recently recognized Minnesota Senator Al Franken as the de facto leader of the Democrats' tin foil hat brigade.  Last week Franken sought to enlist FBI Director James Comey in the brigade when he testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee.  Comey politely declined.  Franken sees the tendrils of "a conspiracy so immense" between the Trump campaign and Russian operatives to defeat Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential campaign.  To expose the conspiracy, Franken has taken to asking hypothetical questions:  Is it possible?  Franken's own career as an alleged funnyman turned demagogue provides one answer.

When Al Franken body-slammed a demonstrator.  [Scroll down]  The Franken incident occurred in 2004, before Minnesotans grievously erred by sending the one-time funnyman to the Senate.  [Greg] Gianforte's misconduct also predates his election.  In Gianforte's case, a goodly number of Montana voters (perhaps one-third of them) had his assault in mind when they voted.  They elected him anyway.  Franken's assault was not on the radar in Minnesota three years later when he won his Senate race.  It probably didn't make the radar when it happened.

U.S. Senator Colludes With Russians to Influence Presidential Election.  Yes, a United States senator really did collude with the Russians to influence the outcome of a presidential election.  His name was Ted Kennedy.  While Sen. Al Franken (D-Ringling Bros.) and other Democrats have the vapors over a truthful, complete, and correct answer Attorney General Jeff Sessions gave in his confirmation hearing, it's worth remembering the reprehensible behavior of Senator Ted Kennedy in 1984.  This reprehensible behavior didn't involve launching an Oldsmobile Delmont 88 into a tidal channel while drunk.  This reprehensible behavior was collusion with America's most deadly enemy in an effort to defeat Ronald Reagan's reelection.  You won't hear much about that from CNN and the clown from Minnesota.

Franken hands over $41K in contributions from Boston law firm under investigation.  U.S. Sen. Al Franken has relinquished $40,822 in donations from a Boston law firm under investigation by federal regulators for linking employee bonuses to campaign contributions.  The Minnesota senator's office confirmed this week that the money, which Franken deposited to the U.S. Treasury, came from Thornton Law Firm.  The admission came after the Federal Election Commission (FEC) sent Franken a letter asking him to identify the donors.

Al Franken Crossed the Line With Gorsuch Chastising.  Tuesday's [3/21/2017] round of questioning during Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch's confirmation hearing tended to bounce between two extremes:  Republicans praising Gorsuch and giving him softball questions that he could answer with thoughtful, charming responses, and Democrats trying to play gotcha, asking questions about pertinent legal issues and Gorsuch's record, with the judge deftly dodging and parrying.  But then came Senator Al Franken (D-MN).  In stark contrast to Senator Ted Cruz's adoring exchange with the nominee, Franken angrily and disrespectfully chastised Judge Gorsuch, calling a dissent that he wrote in a case "absurd."

Missing: The 'Frank' in Sen. Al Franken's anti-Sessions rant.  Shame on Sen. Al Franken.  In a rambling diatribe during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing last week, the Senator attempted to cast aspersions on Attorney General nominee Sen. Jeff Sessions by relying on recent claims of a discredited former U.S. Justice Department civil rights lawyer, Gerald Hebert, who 30 years ago had to recant false testimony about Sessions.

Al Franken Triples Down on Stupid.  I'm not enough of an elitist to believe that only Senators with legal training should serve on the Senate Judiciary Committee.  However, the ability to engage competently in legal reasoning ought to be a prerequisite.  In his work on the Judiciary Committee, Al Franken has failed to display this ability.  Indeed, he shows a lack of competence in basic logic that, in a better world, would disqualify him from the Senate.

Franken: 'A Few' GOP Senators Concerned About Trump's Mental Health.  Some Republican senators are concerned about President Donald Trump's mental health, according to Minnesota Democratic Sen. Al Franken.  "A few.  Yeah," the comedian-turned-lawmaker said Sunday [2/12/2017] on CNN's "State of the Union," when host Jake Tapper asked if it was "true" that his GOP colleagues "express concern" about Trump's mental health.  "It's not the majority of them.  It's a few," he added.

Please note that Senator Franken never seemed to question the mental health of Barack H. Obama, although he should have.

Watch Ted Cruz Obliterate Leftist Senator Al Franken In Defense Of Jeff Sessions.  Al Franken attempted to paint Senator Jeff Sessions as a liar and a racist — accusations which are in direct opposition to the actual facts of Senator Jeff Sessions' remarkable law enforcement and legislative career.  Sessions was fighting against real racism when Franken was a third-rate comedian and writer on SNL.  How refreshing is it to see a conservative like Ted Cruz, a man who intellectually laps the likes of Franken many times over, come so quickly and forcefully to Senator Sessions' defense.  Perhaps the persistent rumors of a Cruz nomination to the Supreme Court remains a very real possibility in a Trump administration.  If so, America would be better for it.

Smoking Franken.  Minnesota Senator Al Franken wants so badly to count for something.  As a United States Senator he is a powerful man, but Harry Reid stripped some of the power from the minority that Franken and his Democratic colleagues now occupy.  Like most of his other of his Democratic colleagues, Franken flails away as he seeks to lead the cranky opposition to Trump in the Senate.  As a humorist, Franken was profoundly unfunny.  As a politician, he is profoundly unserious.  He is a pretext in search of an argument.

No Joke:  Al Franken for President?  This is Al Franken's moment in the spotlight, and if he chooses, he could parlay his good fortune into a bid for the presidency in 2020.  To be sure, Franken, 65, may not be the Democrats' strongest candidate in the general election.  His deeply liberal politics and long-standing dismissiveness of Republicans turn off many voters in the middle.  But with Democrats looking for strident opposition to Trump in the early days of his presidency, they're probably not going to be in a pragmatic mood in the primaries.

The Daily Caller Presents: The 23 Least Intriguing People Of 2015.  [#22] Pro-war politician of fortune Al Franken, who pimped out his own infant grandson for campaign contributions earlier this year, was once an unfunny comedian with bit parts on "Saturday Night Live."  He has been elected to the U.S. Senate twice by the same people who elected professional wrestler and noted conspiracy theorist Jesse Ventura as governor.  How can a guy with this background be such a stick in the mud?

Franken would be 'tremendous' VP, says Dem.  Sen.  Al Franken would be a "tremendous" vice presidential pick, Minnesota Rep.  Keith Ellison said Friday [6/10/2016].  "Al Franken is a brilliant man, he's very smart, he has excellent progressive credentials and he's the funniest person in Congress," Ellison said of the former "Saturday Night Live" player.  "Why does that matter?  I think it's important to lampoon Donald Trump, make him what he is — ridiculous.  Who better to do that than someone who is an expert funnyman."  Ellison said Virginia Sen.  Tim Kaine, who is seen as a favorite to be Hillary Clinton's running mate, is a "wonderful public servant."

The Clinton Record.  [Scroll down]  In 2008, Democrat Al Franken won a highly controversial U.S. Senate race in Minnesota by just 312 votes.  It was later discovered that 1,099 felons — all legally ineligible to vote — had cast ballots in the election, almost exclusively for Franken.

Michelle Obama Rallies Voters in Minnesota.  Mrs. Obama headlined a get-out-the-vote rally for Sen. Al Franken and Gov. Mark Dayton in a north Minneapolis high school Tuesday afternoon [10/21/2014].

Non-Citizens Are Voting.  Could non-citizen voting be a problem in next week's elections, and perhaps even swing some very close elections?  A new study by two Old Dominion University professors, based on survey data from the Cooperative Congressional Election Study, indicated that 6.4 percent of all non-citizens voted illegally in the 2008 presidential election, and 2.2 percent in the 2010 midterms.  Given that 80 percent of non-citizens lean Democratic, they cite Al Franken's 312-vote win in the 2008 Minnesota U.S. Senate race as one likely tipped by non-citizen voting.  As a senator, Franken cast the 60th vote needed to make Obamacare law.

Internet crusader Al Franken rakes in cash from cable giant.  U.S. Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn., has made his name in the latter part of his first term as a crusader for net neutrality and a huge critic of billion-dollar mergers of multimedia companies.  And while his ire has been focused on Comcast, the nation's second largest media conglomerate, he's been raking in cash from competitor Time Warner Cable, the third-largest, according to profits.  Since 2009, Franken has raised $33,450 from lobbyists from TWC, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonprofit dedicated to tracking political spending.

Franken: Citizens United is one of the 'worst' rulings.  Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) blasted the Supreme Court's Citizens United decision, calling it one of the "worst" rulings in the history of the court.  "Citizens United was one of the worst decisions in the history of the Supreme Court," Franken said on the Senate floor Tuesday [9/9/2014].  "It was a disaster."

How ISIS Is Complicating Al Franken's Reelection Bid.  The threat posed by ISIS has invaded the campaign ads and speeches all across the U.S., but the issue has had special resonance in Minnesota where an unusual number of people have left to join the terrorist group.  More than a dozen of the nearly 100 Americans believed to have joined ISIS, including several women, hail from the Minneapolis-St. Paul area, according to federal authorities.  Many are recruited from the area's large Somali population, but the recruits are not confined to Somalis.  Douglas McCain, the first American killed fighting for ISIS, was also a Minnesota native. McCain's friend, Troy Kastigar, also died this year while fighting with ISIS.

Is Al Franken in Trouble?  This morning [10/1/2014] Franken and McFadden held the first of their debates, in Duluth.  The Minneapolis Star Tribune had two reporters live-blog the debate.  While I don't know the reporters personally, it is reasonable to assume that they are Democrats.  Their tweets indicate that they were underwhelmed by Franken's performance.

Why Al Franken Should Be Worried.  The state that gave us Michele Bachmann and Jesse Ventura just might decide to dump funnyman Al Franken from the Senate.  Most pundits think that challenger Mike McFadden is, at best, a long shot.  I don't think so.  In several polls the incumbent, a former Saturday Night Live star, can't break the 50% mark.  Given his narrow victory in 2008 (which some say wasn't a real victory), it's probably not that surprising that Mr. Franken is still a polarizing figure.  But after six years in the Senate, one might expect that the incumbent would have built a more comfortable cushion for himself.

Finding Al Franken.  As Republicans aim to take control of the Senate, with a bevy of red-state Democrats looking to be in trouble, Minnesota's Senate race isn't at the top of the GOP's takeover list.  But it heads the list of "sleeper" races — one of a handful of contests that have the potential to break late if the political environment is as toxic for Democrats as some national polls suggest.  Unlike other Democratic senators responding to newfound challenges by engaging their opposition early, Franken is running an unusually low-key race, giving off the vibe that there's nothing to see here.

Obama's unpopularity poses serious midterm challenge for funnyman Franken.  Funnyman-turned-senator Al Franken is running a dead serious campaign for re-election, as some observers see him potentially vulnerable due to President Obama's low approval ratings in Minnesota and a vigorous GOP opponent with eyes on a sleeper upset.  Just how vulnerable is up for debate, and the race nevertheless is seen as favoring the Democrats.  But both sides now acknowledge that, with less than two months to go until Election Day, Minnesota's Senate contest between Franken and Mike McFadden, a longtime Minnesota businessman, is shaping up as a battle.

Republicans Turn to Lazard Banker to Topple Al Franken.  Investment banker Mike McFadden wants to trade a career at Lazard Ltd. for one in politics and is making his finance background a chief argument for unseating U.S. Senator Al Franken in Minnesota.  That approach carries considerable risk as just 14 percent of Americans hold a favorable opinion of Wall Street firms, a NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll in September 2013 showed. [...] "Senator Franken and the Democrats have no idea what I do," McFadden said in an interview when asked whether his 20-year career in investment banking could be turned into a political liability.  "They don't have a clue, just like they don't have any idea how to run this economy."

Democrats' Woes Make Al Franken a Little Less Safe.  Stuart Rothenberg, editor and publisher of the nonpartisan Rothenberg Political Report, changed his rating on Sen. Al Franken's race for re-election in Minnesota to reflect a slightly more competitive environment for the Democrat.  But Mr. Rothenberg, an experienced handicapper, was quick to note that his ratings change — from "safe Democrat" to "Democrat favored" — has everything to do with headwinds confronting the party and very little to do with Mr. Franken's Republican opponent, businessman Mike McFadden.

Chamber of Commerce to Endorse Al Franken's Challenger.  The U.S Chamber of Commerce will be endorsing GOP businessman Mike McFadden in the Minnesota Senate race, the latest sign Republicans view Democratic Sen. Al Franken as increasingly vulnerable. [...] The Minnesota Senate race is emerging as potentially competitive, despite receiving less attention than other battleground contests.

Sen. Al Franken insists he was 'always a serious person'.  Comedian turned politician Al Franken insisted in an interview airing Sunday that he was "always a serious person" despite what his public persona may have suggested.  "People who are funny are very often very serious people and vice-versa," the Minnesota Democratic senator, up for re-election this year, said on ABC's "This Week."  And the freshman senator, who won election by a razor-thin 312-vote margin, said he has provided precious little material for comedians these days.

It's that bad: Even Al Franken won't be seen with Obama.  With Republicans in Washington thus far successfully fending off insurgent tea party challengers in competitive races, odds makers are now indicating that the GOP has a better than even chance of retaking the upper chamber of Congress in November.  President Barack Obama's sinking job approval rating is not helping boost Democrats' chances.  Speaking anonymously to The Hill, one Democratic Senator said Obama's "unpopularity" is troubling.  "It's a tense time," the source said.

Obama Visits Minnesota, Minnesota's Dem Senators Avoid Him Like the Plague.  You know things are bad when the Clown of the Senate whose whole ID is that he's leftier than left doesn't want to be seen with you. [...] It's estimated that 140,000 people in Minnesota would lose their health insurance policies because of ObamaCare.  ObamaCare's approval rating isn't doing too well there and it will be easier for [Senator Al] Franken if he isn't seen with the Obama of ObamaCare.

Poll: Franken up by double digits in reelection fight.  Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) is leading by doubt digits in his 2014 race for reelection.  A new poll released Thursday [10/31/2013] by Democratic polling firm PPP found Franken leads his potential GOP opponents by 10 to 13 percentage points.

Franken in trouble in MN for 2014?  Don't get too excited about the latest St. Cloud State University poll in Minnesota, but it does at least offer a glimmer of hope for a Minnesota Republican Party that still finds itself in financial and organizational straits.  Just a year after getting blitzed in the 2012 election, Minnesotans find themselves less than enchanted with Democratic officeholders.  And 2014 incumbent Sen. Al Franken fares the worst of all.

Al Franken Launches His Re-Election Campaign on MoveOn.Org.  It is almost unbelievable that Al Franken, a washed-up former comedian and reformed (I'm giving him the benefit of the doubt) coke-head with serious anger management issues, was elected to the Senate in 2008 from Minnesota, a state he hadn't lived in for several decades.  ("Elected" despite the fact that he almost certainly received fewer legal votes than Norm Coleman.)  It is even more unbelievable that Franken stands an excellent chance of being re-elected next year, only because there is no strong Republican candidate on the horizon.

Poll: Franken and Dayton Losing Support Among Minnesota Voters.  Support appears to be crumbling among constituents of Senator Al Franken (D-MN) and Minnesota Democratic Governor Mark Dayton, according to new poll data posted from Public Opinion Strategies this week that the Minnesota GOP is touting.  The statewide survey of 600 likely Minnesota voters, conducted between March 3 and 5, shows "fewer than half of Minnesotans (48%) want Al Franken to remain their US Senator."

Franken faces growing list of Republican challengers for his Senate seat in Minnesota.  Julianne Ortman, a veteran state senator from the Twin Cities suburbs, on Saturday joined the growing group of Republicans who want to challenge incumbent Democratic Sen. Al Franken next year.

The Obamacare Disaster.  [Scroll down]  The Affordable Care Act was passed in a dubious manner.  The 60-vote level in the Senate was obtained by the subornation of Arlen Specter in that tainted window between his rejection by his own party and his defeat by the Pennsylvania voters, and by Al Franken's questionable win in the Senate election in Minnesota, where partisan, county-by-county recounts overturned the people's choice.

Thank these Republicans for Obamacare.  [Scroll down]  Al Franken's Senate seat is another one that should be on Republicans' radar.  He stole the 2008 election in Minnesota, going from a thousand votes down the day after the election to 300 votes up a few months later, after vast numbers of Franken votes kept being discovered in heavily Democratic districts.  As economist John Lott pointed out at the time, the magically appearing votes for Franken were a statistical impossibility.  Obamacare could not have passed without the Democrats' prodigious vote theft in Franken's 2008 election.

Republicans look to oust Franken.  Republicans are seeking to oust Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.), who is up for his first reelection after his narrow 2008 win.  Franken will be a tough candidate — he's worked hard to ingratiate himself in the state, and his poll numbers look fairly solid.  But Republicans hope with the right candidate they can topple the first-term senator.

Al Franken goes from top target to heavy favorite for Minnesota Senate.  The Minnesota Democrat looked to be a top GOP pickoff target next year after his agonizing seven-month recount and legal battle put him in the Senate in 2009 by a mere 312 votes.  Yet, in a turnabout few could've predicted, Franken has yet to draw a Republican opponent.

Mike Malloy Slams Air America Colleague Al Franken as Arrogant, Aloof.  Left-wing radio host Mike Malloy is often one of the most unhinged voices over the airwaves, but once in a great while he reveals a limited capacity for perception.  This is one of those times.  On his show last night, Malloy was talking with a caller when Sen. Al Franken, Democrat of Minnesota, was mentioned.  Franken and Malloy once worked at the now-defunct Air America Radio network before Air America fired Malloy in 2006 and Franken left to run for Senate in Minnesota the following year.

Al Franken challenged this ballot.
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Al Franken also challenged this ballot.


This ballot counted for Al Franken.

"The people who cast the votes decide nothing.
The people who count the votes decide everything."

— Joseph Stalin