Fisking Franken’s Op-ed
I don’t recall ever having the pleasure of fisking something like Al Franken’s op-ed in today’s Strib. Here goes:
It is, of course, ridiculous that the United States Senate spent a day debating and voting on a resolution condemning an advertisement while our troops remained in Iraq, fighting a war with no end.
Why does Mr. Franken think it’s ridiculous spending a day debating something as important as MoveOn.org’s defamation of a commanding general in wartime? Is it because Mr. Franken thinks it’s ok to smear a career officer because he hates our President?
What’s delicious is how Franken turns from predator to victim:
Frankly, I’m used to this kind of smear; it’s what happens when you speak truth to power in George W. Bush’s America. But I think Minnesotans have had enough of this kind of political gamesmanship.
Poor little baby. Why should Mr. Franken get away with not speaking out against a radical fringe organization after they’ve accused Gen. Petraeus of lying before they’ve even heard what he said a word? Let’s flip this around. Would Franken stay silent if a Republican called Hillary a liar? Of he wouldn’t stay silent nor would anyone expect him to.
It’s interesting that Franken immediately employed the ’speaking truth to power’ gambit, aka the Joe Wilson Defense. Saying that you’re “speaking truth to power” is how scoundrels like Mr. Franken try sounding honorable after they’ve cheapshotted someone.
Here’s how Franken weaves in MoveOn.org’s talking points:
We should honor their sacrifice by refusing to allow this president to keep them there in the middle of a civil war. And we should honor them by taking seriously the difficult debate about the best way, or at least the least bad way, to end our engagement in Iraq.
Why shouldn’t we honor their sacrifices by letting them win? That’s what the vast majority of troops want. It doesn’t look like that’s important to Mr. Franken. It appears as though he’s only concerned with mouthing anti-war talking points. He hasn’t shown even a slight interest in defeating the jihadists or in securing the Middle East.
Minnesota deserves a senator that takes issues seriously, thinks things through and makes the right decisions independent of what fringe special interest groups say. Minnesota deserves a senator who isn’t beholden to fringe special interest groups.
The good news is that we have Sen. Coleman, who is as mainstream as they get.
Technorati Tags: Al Franken, MoveOn.org, Norm Coleman, David Petraeus, Election 2008
Cross-posted at LetFreedomRingBlog
September 26th, 2007 at 6:58 pm
“Would Franken stay silent if a Republican called Hillary a liar?”
Well, of course he would! He’s a fair and balanced kind of guy, isn’t he?
BTW, I’ve effectively said many times Ms. Clinton is a liar, and I’m sure someone (like Rocky or Benn, maybe?) would love to call me on it, but I’d be more than happy to debate the subject with Mr. Franken. Note, please, that the subject would be whether Ms. Clinton is a liar, not whether GW, Cheney, Petraeus or anyone else (inluding Mr. Franken) is a liar also.
September 26th, 2007 at 11:38 pm
Because:
The advertisement was in no way defamatory. It isn’t defaming if the criticism is true, and in this case, it is demonstrably true;
It’s wartime, and topic “a” is an advertisement in the New York Times, not the war, not the troops, not stridently working on a practical political compromise (to whit, how can we expect the Maliki government to reach a grand compromise if we can’t?));
The continued reliance by the radical right wing of the republican party on hashing and rehashing a partisan grassroots level organization advertisement is wearing thin, to the point of becoming a hostile act, possibly even treasonous (we are at War!).
Spending time debating this is an absurd waste of resources, and it would be laughable were 160,000 of our troops not in harm’s way.
Al isn’t getting away with anything. His op-ed was in response to an advertisement run by Norm Colman a day or two after the Senate voted to condemn Move On, attacking him because he was not joining in the condemnation (for those of you keeping score at home, this is Franken not getting away with it). However, MoveOn is not a radical fringe organization, nor did they not fully substantiate all of the claims in the ad. You’ve linked to the page on their web site, as I do above, with their fully-attributed and documented claim. Go back and look at it again… the evidence is pretty overwhelming.
Your next fisk is the best part, though, because you shoot yourself in the foot saying “Would Franken stay silent if a Republican called Hillary a liar? Of [course -ed.]he wouldn’t stay silent nor would anyone expect him to.” Setting up the classic straw man analysis requires parallel examples in the analogy. The better phrasing of this argument would have been “if a republican called Admiral Fallon a liar,” in reference to Fallon’s statement that Petraeus was an “ass-kissing chickenshit.” But what is delicious, to borrow your term, is that you chose a highly political example because either you agree that Petraeus is a political figure, as anyone who undertakes water-carrying for the White House would be, or it just naturally came out due to subconscious thoughts or feelings that only a good therapist and several years on the couch could uncover. I don’t think it’s the latter.
But being intellectually honest, you have to look at Al Franken’s stand on the issues, particularly Iraq before you say he “hasn’t shown even a slight interest in defeating the jihadists or in securing the Middle East.” Just because he doesn’t agree with you doesn’t mean his stand is ill-conceived or he has not given serious consideration to his position. Not knowing what you’re talking about betrays your partisan position as superior to all else. Gary Gross is as guilty of mouthing anti-democratic talking points as he accuses Franken of likewise.
September 28th, 2007 at 9:11 pm
Yes, its extremely ridiculous for our great senator to be spending his time defending a US General’s honor. I think the general can take care of himself and is not often prone to hurt feelings. One thing he might consider doing with his time is talking to our great governor who refuses to pony up any funds or responsibility for the bridge that just fell into the Mississippi river.
Did you know that our great senator used to be a Democrat. I’m sure he will be once again as soon as he gets a whiff of the political winds. Very ridiculous.
October 11th, 2007 at 11:44 am
I cannot believe that both this site and Norm Coleman’s would print that unintelligible “Fisking Franken’s Op-Ed”. I have a 3rd grader who can write with better grammar. I have a 5th grader that asked what this sentence was meant to say. Why should Mr. Franken get away with not speaking out against a radical fringe organization after they’ve accused Gen. Petraeus of lying before they’ve even heard what he said a word? Please translate to all of us that don’t speak Californian.
November 5th, 2007 at 1:28 am
What sort of “radical fringe organization” has 3,000,000 members?
It’s ridiculous that Norm Coleman has this article on the front page of his website.