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Comedy To The Senate? Well, There Certainly Hasn't Been A Satirist Or A Political Satirist Who's Done That. So, That Really Was Uncharted Territory During The Campaign. But I Think It's A Good Thing. Some People Thought That It Was An Odd Career Arc, But To Me It Made Absolute Sense.

-Al Franken

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Comedy To The Senate?

Al Franken

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Comedy To The Senate? Well, There Certainly Hasn't Been A Satirist Or A Political Satirist Who's Done That. So, That Really Was Uncharted Territory During The Campaign. But I Think It's A Good Thing. Some People Thought That It Was An Odd Career Arc, But To Me It Made Absolute Sense.

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Net Neutrality Isn't A Government Takeover Of The Internet, As Many Of My Republican Colleagues Have Alleged.

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Part Of The Middle Class Promise Is That, After A Lifetime Of Hard Work, You'll Be Able To Retire And Enjoy The Fruits Of That Labor. Medicare Was Established To Secure That Promise.

Bob Dole Used To Be Really Funny. Barney Frank Can Be Kind Of Funny. Bob Kerrey Has A Good Sense Of Humor.

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But In The Right-wing Media, They Do Have A Right-wing Bias. And They Also Have An Agenda. So Their Agenda Is: We're An Adjunct Of The Republican Party, And We're Going Push That Agenda Every Day, And, As You Say, Brand These Stories That Help Further The Right-wing Cause.

It Is My Fondest Wish That In The Fullness Of Time, The American People Will Look Back On The Franken Presidency As Something Of A Mixed Bag And Not As A Complete Disaster.

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Well, I Think That There's A Value To Comedy In And Of Itself.

I Don’t Know How Many Of You Have Been To New York, But If A Building Is Two Blocks Away From Anything, You Can’t See It.

No One Is More Sensitive To The Issue Of Overeating Than The Creator Of Stuart Smalley.

Let's Not Let The Government Sell Us Out. Let's Fight For Net Neutrality.

I Grew Up In Minnesota, Where We Treasure Our Tradition Of Civic Engagement - And Our Record Of Having The Nation's Highest Voter Participation.

Service Dogs Raise Their Masters' Sense Of Well-being.

In Our Political System, Money Is Power. And That Means A Few Can Have A Lot More Power Than The Rest. That's Bad News For Everyone Else - And For Our Democracy Itself.

Harvard's Kennedy School Of Government Asked Me To Serve As A Fellow At Its Shorenstein Center On The Press, Politics, And Public Policy. After My Varied And Celebrated Career In Television, Movies, Publishing, And The Lucrative World Of Corporate Speaking, Being A Fellow At Harvard Seemed, Frankly, Like A Step Down.

Whining Is Anger Through A Small Opening.

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If You Use A Cell Phone - As I Do - Your Wireless Carrier Likely Has Records About Your Physical Movements Going Back Months, If Not Years.

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We Need To Start By Having A Conversation About Climate Change. It Would Be Irresponsible To Avoid The Issue Just Because It's Uncomfortable To Talk About.

For 35 Years I Was A Writer. I Wrote A Lot Of Jokes. Some Of Them Weren’t Funny. Some Of Them Weren’t Appropriate. Some Of Them Were Downright Offensive. I Understand That.

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The Biases The Media Has Are Much Bigger Than Conservative Or Liberal. They're About Getting Ratings, About Making Money, About Doing Stories That Are Easy To Cover.

There's No Comparison Between Npr And The Propaganda That You Hear From Rush Or From Sean Hannity, The News Movement Conservatives That Are Just Laying Out, Slathering Out The Disinformation And The Lies, As I Discuss In My Book, 'lies And The Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair And Balanced Look At The Right.'

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When You Encounter Seemingly Good Advice That Contradicts Other Seemingly Good Advice, Ignore Them Both.

I Think Hell Exists On Earth. It's A Psychological State, Or It Can Be A Physical State. People Who Have Severe Mental Illness Are In Hell. People Who Have Lost A Loved One Are In Hell. I Think There Are All Kinds Of Different Hells. It's Not A Place You Go To After You Die.

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Yeah, We Shot Ourselves In The Foot Right Out Of The Gate. The Guy Who Ran It At First Misled Pretty Much Everybody About How Much Capital We Had. He Said We Had Enough To Go Three Years Without Making Money, And We Had Enough To Go Three Weeks.

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Let's Keep The Internet Weird. Let's Keep The Internet Free.

When A Company Is Able To Establish A Dominant Market Position, Consumers Lose Meaningful Choices. You Might Not Like That Facebook Shares Your Political Opinions With Politico, But Are You Really Going To Delete All The Photos, All The Posts, All The Connections - The Presence You’ve Spent Years Establishing On The World’s Dominant Social Network?

Political Opinions

I'm From The Vietnam Generation. I Didn't Serve.

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As Someone Who's Spent Time With Our Troops In Iraq And Afghanistan On Uso Tours And Met Wounded Warriors At Walter Reed And Bethesda, I Feel A Deep Obligation To The Men And Women Who Have Risked Life And Limb On Our Behalf.

I'm A Perfectionist And If I Start Making Changes, I'll Never Stop.

Ralph Nader Is A Hero. I Know Ralph, And I Call Him Up Occasionally. He's Helped Me Out On A Couple Of Occasions When I've Given Speeches To Corporations Where He'd Have A Good... He'd Give Me Some Good Information.

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My Dad Always Told Me To Stand Up To Bullies, And Bill O'reilly Is Kind Of A Bully, And He's The Kind Of Kid Who Hits Other Kids On The Playground. And When You Hit Him, He Runs To The Teacher And Says, 'teacher, Sue Him.'

Bill Clinton Is The Greatest President Of The 20th Century Because I Played Touch Football With Him.

We Owe An Historic Debt To American Indians. They Have A Unique Set Of Concerns That Haven’t Been Addressed And I’d Like To Stand With Them. Also, I’d Like To Get Their Views On Immigration.

You Have To Love Your Country Like An Adult Loves Somebody, Not Like A Child Loves Its Mommy. And Right-wing Republicans Tend To Love America Like A Child Loves Its Mommy, Where Everything Mommy Does Is Okay. But Adult Love Means You’re Not In Denial, And You Want The Loved One To Be The Best They Can Be.

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Asking The Question Whether The Mainstream Media Has A Liberal Or Conservative Bias Is Like Asking Whether Al Qaeda Uses Too Much Oil In Their Hummus. I Might Think They Use A Little Bit Too Much Oil; Some People Might Think It's A Little Dry. But The Problem With Al Qaeda Is They Want To Kill Us. And The Problem With The Mainstream Media Is That It Has These Other Biases That Are Much More Important.

I Hope You Realize, In A Democracy, Laughter Is Assent.

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Serious Business

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I'm Crushed By The Responsibility Of Writing A Satirical Book.

It's Not Preppies, Cause I'm A Preppie Myself. I Just Don't Like Homosexuals. If You Ask Me, They're All Homosexuals In The Pudding. Hey, I Was Glad When That Pudding Homosexual Got Killed In Philadelphia.

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I Felt Like The Luckiest Kid In The World. And I Was. I Was Growing Up Middle-class In A Time When Growing Up Middle-class In America Meant There Would Be Jobs For My Parents, Good Schools For Me To Prepare Myself For A Career, And, If I Worked Hard And Played By The Rules, A Chance For Me To Do Anything I Wanted.

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If You Look At Terrorists, They Really Have No Sense Of Humor.

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My Dad Never Graduated High School. He Was A Printing Salesman. We Lived In A Two-bedroom, One-bath House In St. Louis Park, Minnesota. We Weren't Rich - But We Felt Secure.

It's The Power Of The Almighty, The Splendor Of Nature, And Then You.

When You Live In New York, One Of Two Things Happen - You Either Become A New Yorker, Or You Feel More Like The Place You Came From.

I Can Assure You, This Is Not About Spying On The American People.

I Do Personal Attacks Only On People Who Specialize In Personal Attacks.

Personal Attacks

I’m Good Enough, I’m Smart Enough, And Dog-gone It, People Like Me.

I Once Asked The Most Fabulous Couple I Know, Madonna And Guy Ritchie, How They Kept Things Fresh Despite Having Been Married For Almost Seven Months. 'it's A Job, Al,' Guy Told Me. 'we Work At It Every Day.'

Some Of My Colleagues Seem More Interested In Using Every Procedural Method Possible To Keep The Senate From Doing Anything Than They Are In Creating Jobs Or Helping Americans Struggling In A Difficult Economy.

The Institutions That We've Built Up Over The Years To Protect Our Individual Privacy Rights From The Government Don't Apply To The Private Sector. The Fourth Amendment Doesn't Apply To Corporations. The Freedom Of Information Act Doesn't Apply To Silicon Valley. And You Can't Impeach Google If It Breaks Its 'don't Be Evil' Campaign Pledge.

My Dad Was A Terrible Businessman.

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Russia Has A Strategy Of Creating The Conditions That Give Rise To Corruption, Then Exploiting That Corruption To Its Own Benefit.

The Thing That Interests Me Least About The Radio Business Is The Radio Business. But I've Had To Learn A Little Bit About It. It's Not Rocket Science: You Get Ratings, That's Good.

I Don't Consider Myself An Artist Necessarily, But Craftsmen Or People In The Arts, Their Spiritualism Is Sort Of When You're Writing Well Or Performing Well Or Doing Whatever You Do Well, There's An Element Of That That's Either God-given, A Talent That You're Not Necessarily Responsible For.

When The President During The Campaign Said He Was Against Nation Building, I Didn't Realize He Meant Our Nation.

As A Source Of Innovation, An Engine Of Our Economy, And A Forum For Our Political Discourse, The Internet Can Only Work If It's A Truly Level Playing Field. Small Businesses Should Have The Same Ability To Reach Customers As Powerful Corporations. A Blogger Should Have The Same Ability To Find An Audience As A Media Conglomerate.

We Love America Just As Much As They Do. But In A Different Way. You See, They Love America Like A 4-year-old Loves His Mommy. Liberals Love America Like Grown-ups. To A 4-year-old, Everything Mommy Does Is Wonderful And Anyone Who Criticizes Mommy Is Bad. Grown-up Love Means Actually Understanding What You Love, Taking The Good With The Bad And Helping Your Loved One Grow.

Grown-up Love Means Actually Understanding What You Love, Taking The Good With The Bad And Helping Your Loved One Grow. Love Takes Attention And Work And Is The Best Thing In The World.

Sometimes If I Tell People, 'i'm Afraid That I'm Really A Fraud,' Or 'i Have A Lot Of Self-doubt,' They Go, 'oh, No, You're Kidding.' I Go, 'no, I'm Really Honest.'

I'm Sure I've Devoted Enough Thought To Rush Limbaugh For One Lifetime.

If 98 Out Of 100 Doctors Tell Me I've Got A Problem, I Should Take Their Advice. And If Those Two Other Doctors Get Paid By Big Snack Food, Like Certain Climate Deniers Get Paid By Big Coal, I Shouldn't Take Their Advice.

I Just Can't Sit Still And Meditate; That Doesn't Kind Of Work For Me. I Don't Even Know Exactly What It Means.

It's Hard To Have That Debate Around Secret Programs Authorized By Secret Legal Opinions Issued By A Secret Court. Actually, It's Impossible To Have That Debate.

To Ask Whether The Mainstream Media Has A Conservative Or Liberal Bias Is Like Asking Whether Al-qaida Uses Too Much Oil In Their Hummus. It's - I Think They Might Use Too Much Oil In Their Hummus - But It's The Wrong Question.

We Know That The Russian's Interfered In Our Election And They Did It To Benefit President Trump. The Intelligence Agencies Confirmed That.

I'm For Israel's Right To Exist.

And I Think That Being Able To Make People Laugh And Write A Book That's Funny Makes The Information Go Down A Lot Easier And It Makes It A Lot More Fun To Read, Easier To Understand, And Often Stronger. So There's All Kinds Of Advantages To It.

The Reason I Wrote Political Satire Was Because I Thought It - Politics - Was Important... That Public Policy Was Important. Then I Transitioned Into Books, Then Into Radio.

Well, A Lot Of Politics Is Communicating With People, And Obviously Comedy Has Something To Do With That. I've Been A Producer And Led People. Also, Being A Comedian, You're Under Pressure.

Today I Will Masterbate! Okay, That Was A Mistake. I Should Have Written "today I Will Masterbate--if I Want To!

The Minnesotans I Talk To Are Really Concerned About What The Future Holds For Their Families. They're Trying To Pay For Health Care And Send Their Kids To College, They're Worried About Declining Home Values, They're Scared For A Loved One They Have Serving In Iraq.

The Fourth Amendment Doesn't Apply To Corporations.

Fourth Amendment

When I First Started Writing For Television In The Seventies And Eighties, The Internet Didn't Exist, And We Didn't Need To Worry About Foreign Websites Illegally Distributing The Latest Tv Shows And Blockbuster Movies Online.

My Parents Didn't Make A Lot Of Money. My Dad Was Not A High School Graduate - He Didn't Have A Career As Such; He Was A Printing Salesman Essentially For Most Of His Working Life.

I Think Clinton Fatigue Was A Real Thing. It's Just Hard To Get Comfortable With Gore - It Was Hard For Him To Project Who He Is, The Person People Know In Private.

Most Of Us Here In The Media Are What I Call Infotainers...rush Limbaugh Is What I Call A Disinfotainer. He Entertains By Spreading Disinformation.

Most Americans Don’t Think About Antitrust Law When They Look At Their Cable Bill, Flip Channels On Tv, Or Worry About What Their Favorite Website Knows About Them. But They Should.

It's Really Building Air America That I'm Focused On, And For Me, That Almost Only Means Doing A Good Show.

I Know That It's Probably Not A Good Idea For A Comedian, Especially A Satirist, To Support A Public Policy Group Or A Politician. This Is Something I Learned Only Too Well Years Ago When I Did A Fundraiser For Pol Pot. A Few Years Later I Saw 'the Killing Fields,' And I've Got To Tell You, I Just Felt Like A Schmuck.

Having An Actual Income Can Expand Your Romantic Horizons Toward The More Appealing End Of The Spectrum.

I've Spent My Entire Career Being A Satirist.

I Do Have A Self-censor; Everybody Does, Or At Least Most Who Are Not Pathological Do.

Liberals Like Me Love America. We Just Love America In A Different Way.

I Want A President Who Can Handle A Cream Soda.

During Vietnam, I Was In College, Enjoying My Student Deferment. The Government Wisely Felt That, In My Case, Military Service Was Less Important Than Completing My Studies To Prepare Me For My Chosen Career: Comedian.

In My First Week As A U.s. Senator, I Had The Privilege Of Participating In The Supreme Court Confirmation Hearing For Judge Sonia Sotomayor.

My Spiritual Life Is... Sometimes I Have Access To It And Sometimes I Don't. When I Do Have Access To It, It's Usually A Sense Of My Understanding What The Best Course Of Action Or The Best Thing For Me To Do. By Best, I Mean When I Have A Real Sense Of Doing The Right Thing And Doing Good For People And The Connected Universe Of Everybody.

I Couldn't Think Of Anything Less Appealing Than Molding The Minds Of Tomorrow's Leaders.

The Republican Agenda Is A Radical Vision In Which Medicaid Is Slashed To The Bone - In Which We Start To Balance The Budget On The Backs Of, Literally, Our Most Vulnerable Citizens.

I Think The Internet Has Developed At This Incredibly Rapid Pace Because Of Net Neutrality, Because Of The Free Nature Of It, Because A Youtube Can Start The Way Youtube Started.

The Medicare Part D Prescription Drug Bill, Which Might Be The Most Corrupt Piece Of Legislation In History, Was A Huge Giveaway Of Taxpayer Funds To The Big Pharmaceutical Companies.

All Concluded That Russia Did In Fact Interfere In The 2016 Election In Order To, Quote, Help President-elect Trump's Election Chances When Possible By Discrediting Secretary Clinton. And The Agencies Concluded That The Russians Had A Clear Preference For President Trump.

There Is - I Mean - I Found Early In Life That Righteous Indignation Is A Little Off-putting, And So I Try To Couch It With Humor.

You Know, Lincoln Was Funny. I Don't Think F.d.r. Was Very Funny. But Lincoln Was Funny. Lincoln Was Really Funny. But I Think You Should Get Elected First, And Then Show That You're Funny.

Putin Has Had Many Positive Experiences Working With Western Political Leaders Whose Business Interests Made Them More Disposed To Deal With Russia.

The Next Thing I Am Doing Is Moving Back Home To Minnesota And Getting Involved In Politics. I'm Looking At A Run For Senate In 2008, But In The Meantime I Am Focused On Knitting Together The Progressive Network In The Upper Midwest.

If I Put Myself On The Ballot And Even 50 People Voted For Me, It'd Be A Travesty.

The Way I See It, I'm Not Going To Washington To Be The 60th Democratic Senator. I'm Going To Washington To Be The Second Senator From The State Of Minnesota.

Progressives, In A Way, Are The New Conservatives. We Want To Conserve What We Fought To Build.

Minnesotans Know The Difference Between The Job Of Satirist And The Job Of Senator. And So Do I.

I Think The Government Has A Role In Protecting The Fundamental Rights Of Its Citizens.

There's Going To Have To Be Investigations, And An Independent Investigation, Into The Trump Campaign And The Trump Administration's Relationship To Russia.

I Don't Know What Happens To You After You Die. I'm Not Banking On There Being, Like, A Heaven.

When People Talked About Protecting Their Privacy When I Was Growing Up, They Were Talking About Protecting It From The Government. They Talked About Unreasonable Searches And Seizures, About Keeping The Government Out Of Their Bedrooms.

Anybody Who Deliberately Propagandizes With Lies Should Be Held Up To Scorn And Ridicule.

Our Laws Need To Reflect The Evolution Of Technology And The Changing Expectations Of American Society. This Is Why The Constitution Is Often Called A “living” Document.

Armed With Nothing More Than A Facebook User's Phone Number And Home Address, Anyone With An Internet Connection And A Few Dollars Can Obtain Personal Information They Should Never Have Access To, Including A User's Date Of Birth, E-mail Address, Or Estimated Income.

I'm The New York Jew Who Actually Grew Up In Minnesota.

If Republicans Eliminate Medicare, America Will Become A Country In Which You Can Never Retire - And Once You Physically Can No Longer Work, You Are Desperately Poor Until You Die.

Net Neutrality Has Been In Place Since The Very Beginning Of The Internet.

My Dad Didn't Graduate From High School, Ended Up Being A Printing Salesman, Probably Never Made More Than $8,000 A Year. My Mom Sold Real Estate And Did It Part Time.

Apple Has Long Been A Leading Innovator Of Mobile Technology; I Myself Own An Iphone.

Call-time Has Renewed My Faith In The Need For Public Financing Of Elections. Call-time Is Where I As The Candidate, Sit In A Room With My “call-time Manager,” And A Phone. Then I Call People And Ask Them For Money. For Hours. Apparently, I’m Really Good At It.

If We Have George W. Bush As President, We're Going To Go Back To The Kind Of Policies We Had When His Father And Ronald Reagan Were President.

Veterans Report That Service Dogs Help Break Their Isolation. People Will Often Avert Their Eyes When They See A Wounded Veteran. But When The Veteran Has A Dog, The Same People Will Come Up And Say, 'hi' To Pet The Dog And Then Strike Up A Conversation.

Teen Pregnancy Went Way Down In The '90s, And 75 Percent Of It Was Because Of Increased Use Of Contraception.

If You Use Facebook - As I Do - Facebook In All Likelihood Has A Unique Digital File Of Your Face, One That Can Be As Accurate As A Fingerprint And That Can Be Used To Identify You In A Photo Of A Large Crowd.

Why Don't We Focus On What Afghan Women Can Do? They Can Cook, Bear Children, And Pray. As I Recall, That Was Fine For Our Grandmothers.

Liberals Don't Hate America. We Love America More Than Ann Coulter Does. I Love It Enough To Engage My Readers Honestly.

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