Thursday, Al Gore endorsed Al Franken to be the Democrat candidate for the US Senate from Minnesota. The endorsement caused the local, and some of the national media, to be all a twitter. From the local Star and Sickle:
DFL U.S. Senate candidate Al Franken got a welcome boost on Wednesday with an endorsement from one of the more revered figures in the Democratic Party — former Vice President Al Gore.
Gore, who has become a crusading environmentalist since leaving elective office, sent an e-mail to DFL delegates on Wednesday afternoon that warmly praised Franken, calling him “exactly the breath of fresh air our government needs.”
I really don’t understand all the excitement.
If you’re not aware, Franken has been having some trouble with articles he’s written. The first was a 2000 article for Playboyin which amongst other things, Franken wrote about his son using the internet to write a report on bestiality. Another article, written in 1995has Franken making jokes about rape. Franken’s response to the article is that he did it as a satarist, it was a long time ago and Minnesota people know that that article is not who he is now. Like Barack Obama, Franken also tries to argue that the associations and activities of his personal life are not reflective of who he would be as a political leader. However, the article is so egregious and sexist, that even female Democrat leadership from Minnesota are asking him to remove himself from nomination.
Al Gore, if you remember, had his own problems with Playboy. In his 2000 campaign, one of Al’s California supporters had scheduled a fund raiser at the Playboy mansion. Al spent a great deal of time trying to reconcile his stated belief, that men and women were equal, with the fact that his fund raiser was being held at a place that clearly didn’t portray that perspective. While the venue was later moved, Al could never bring himself to return the contributions he had received from the various Playboy Executives. Like Franken and Obama, Al tried to tell us that the contributions didn’t reflect his views and were only a tiny fraction of the funds raised by the campaign.
So I really don’t understand the excitement of the endorsement. After all, they’re a part of the same secret society. As such, one would expect members of the society to stand and fully support one another.
What society you ask? No, I don’t mean the Secret Society of Al’s, I mean the secret society within the Democrat party that believes the objectification of women is a positive attribute.
