Fraters Libertas

Fowl Play

The guy who takes one for the team nearly every day, Our Al Franken Listener Rick, write in with his thoughts on the propriety of sending Al to Iraq, for entertainment purposes:

I am sure there was no way that the USO could say no to Franken with out looking partisan themselves, since he has already done many tours already. While he was there he called in to the show to report on the trip, he told a little bit his act (which appeared to be little more than telling lots of dirty jokes, and singling out a soldier in the audience and assert that he is gay, then poke fun at the soldier to get laughs. Lovely). As you would expect, he relates that every one privately admits that situation is hopeless.

I am really hoping that we start to hear back from individual soldiers (and marines, airmen and sailors), especially those Franken talked to, what their opinion was.

I've yet to see any independent reports of Franken's behavior either, all we have are his own tales of people gleefully looking to shoot Rumsfeld and accounts that he's the most respected person on these tours, because of his anti-war stance. Again from the Hardball interview:

And I had this happen a few times, which - guys would come up to me and say, look, I'm completely opposite of you politically. But the fact that you came over here, I respect you more than I respect Darryl Worley. And I would go, like, no, no, no, they're over here, too. No, I respect you more because you're against the war.

Later, a variation on this theme:

FRANKEN: And a soldier went up to the manager of one of the girl groups who was singing with us. And he said, sir, it is an honor to meet you. And the manager said, no, no, you don't understand. I'm manager of the girl group. And he goes, no, you don't understand. I'm a soldier. I have to be here. I met President Bush three weeks ago. He is the commander in chief. He really had to come. It's more of an honor to meet you, sir, than it was to meet President Bush because you're here and you don't have to be here. You came because you care.

MATTHEWS: That's important.

FRANKEN: And you get that all the time from these guys. And these guys, our soldiers are magnificent.

Interesting how Franken consistently turns a supposed apolitical tribute to the troops into a tribute to himself and his political beliefs. Which I suspect is a primary motivation for his participation in USO tours, given his need to then go on a publicity tour about himself afterwards.

Regarding Franken's other dubious report, the sighting of the mythological plastic turkey referenced yesterday, a Tim Blair commenter puts it all in the proper perspective:

"As God is my witness I thought turkeys could lie!" -Arthur Carlson, station manager WKRP