Al Franks

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Al Franken
(official Senate photo)

Alan Stuart "Al" Franken (born May 21, 1951 in New York City ) is an American comedian, radio host and politician for the Democrats . He became popular as a writer and cast member on Saturday Night Live between 1975 and 1995 and paved the way for left-wing politics into pop culture from the 1990s. From the 2000s he was an influential political commentator, including as a talk radio host. From July 2009 to January 2018 he belonged to the state of Minnesota to the United States Senate on. He resigned following allegations of harassment.

Family and education

Al Franken is the younger of two sons of Phoebe Kunst and Joseph Franken who belonged to Reform Judaism . His paternal grandparents immigrated from Germany, and his maternal grandparents from Belarus. The family moved from New York to a small town in Minnesota when Al Franken was four, where his father worked in his father-in-law's kilt making. Two years later, the family moved to St. Louis Park , a suburb of Minneapolis , where the father worked as a printing agent and the mother as a real estate agent. In the suburb, about a fifth of the residents were Jewish; among others, the journalist Thomas L. Friedman , the political scientist Norman Ornstein and the directors Ethan and Joel Coen grew up there . There was much talk of politics in Franconia's family; his mother was a Democrat and his father had elected the Republicans until he was ousted by Barry Goldwaters' presidential nomination in 1964; Since then, he has always voted for the Democrats until his death in 1993. He and his sons regularly watched comedy programs on television, which Al Franken later described as formative. Franken attended Blake School , a private high school , and graduated from Harvard University in 1973 with a bachelor's degree cum laude in behavioral science .

At Harvard, Franken met his future wife, Fanni, who came from Maine and who was a staunch supporter of the Democrats who campaigned for the socially disadvantaged. They married in 1976 and have a daughter and a son.

Author and journalist

Franken first worked in the entertainment industry. After graduating, he did political stand-up comedy in Los Angeles with his school friend Tom Davis for two years . As a duo, she brought Lorne Michaels in 1975 to write the comedy show Saturday Night Live (SNL), which was just starting . At first they shared a weekly wage of $ 350. Together they also wrote the screenplay for the film One More Saturday Night (1986) and appeared in comedies such as The Soldiers of Fortune (1983). Franken wrote for SNL from 1975 to 1980 and from 1985 to 1995. His increasingly frequent appearances as a cast member of SNL made Franken popular. He also used hard drugs, which he gave up after the death of his colleague John Belushi . He left the show in 1995 after Norm MacDonald was chosen over him to fill the Weekend Update anchorman post. He then played the leading role in the film Stuart Stupid - A Family That Sucks (1995), in which he continued his SNL character Stuart Smalley . Franconia's screenplay for the film When a Man Loves a Woman (1994), which describes the wife's overcoming of alcoholism in a family, is partly autobiographical.

Franken 1991 with Senator Paul M. Simon
Franconia in December 2000 during a troop visit to Ramstein

Franken is considered to be a pioneer of the popular culture spread of left politics in the United States: With his special program Indecision 1992 on Comedy Central for the presidential election in 1992 , he paved the way for programs like The Daily Show . In this broadcast, Norman Ornstein gave Franconia's serious counterpart after they met at the 1988 Democratic National Convention . After Bill Clinton's election victory in 1992, both became part of the president's close circle of friends, whom Franken believes was the best after World War II . Franken later summed up that he had fought the “ Gingrich Revolution” in the 1990s , namely the conservative turnaround after the House elections in 1994 and the conservative media that accompanied it, when no one else had done so.

He published a number of satirical and political books, three of which became New York Times bestsellers , including Rush Limbaugh Is a Big Fat Idiot: And Other Observations in 1996 . The title of his book published in 2003 tell them Lies And the Lying Liars who - a fair and balanced look at the right plays on the long-standing slogan fair and balanced the television channel Fox News Channel on. Like many other critics, Franken sees Fox News as conservative and Republican-friendly ; it is doing exactly the opposite of fair and balanced reporting. His criticism aimed in particular at the moderators Bill O'Reilly and Sean Hannity and the author Ann Coulter . A lawsuit by the broadcaster against Franken because of this book title was dismissed. With the book, Franken became one of the leading left-wing political commentators.

From March 2004 he hosted The Al Franken Show on the radio network Air America Radio (AAR), which he co-founded and which, until bankruptcy in 2010, was the most important network for left-liberal and progressive radio talk shows in the United States, which was otherwise characterized by conservative talk radios was. When Franken got into a fight with a constant heckler at an event hosted by progressive Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean in March 2004 , the news went around the world. In late 2005, Franken moved back to Minnesota with his wife and founded the Political Action Committee Midwest Values , which raised funds for Democratic candidates.

Political career

On February 14, 2007, Franken announced in passing during his last radio show that he would run for a seat in the United States Senate in Minnesota . The impetus for this was provided by the former Republican Senator Norm Coleman , who in 2003 and a few months after the death of his predecessor, the left-liberal Paul Wellstone , described himself as a "99 percent improvement over Wellstone". According to his own statements, he made his candidacy decision in December 2006 when US troops visited Iraq for the United Service Organizations .

Franks during the Senate election campaign in Rochester

In June 2008, Franken was elected candidate for the Democrats in Minnesota ( DFL ) in the party primary with 65 percent of the vote ; His earlier statements and texts, some of which were revealing, were criticized during the election campaign. After a bitter and hard-fought election campaign - Franken had raised $ 20 million, more than any other challenger in this Senate election year - Franken and Coleman only separated a few hundred votes in the November main election , which, according to Minnesota regulations, required a tedious recount of votes made. This gave Franconia a lead of 225 votes, whereupon Coleman appealed. The review by a district court and the evaluation of additional postal votes resulted in a lead of 312 votes. After the Minnesota Supreme Court upheld this result on June 30, 2009, Coleman waived further legal remedies and congratulated Franken on his election victory. After Governor Tim Pawlenty signed the credentials , Franken was sworn in on July 7, 2009. He kept his hand on the Bible of his "political hero" Wellstone.

With Frank's assumption of the mandate, the Democrats achieved a so-called “supermajority” of 60 Senate seats for a few months, which helped prevent filibusters and enabled Obamacare to be passed. When he was re-elected in 2014 , he achieved a clear gap against his Republican challenger Mike McFadden with 53 to 43 percent of the vote. In the Senate, Al Franken was a member of the Health, Education and Labor Committee , the Justice Committee and the Committee on Indian Affairs . Despite his line-up against the Republicans as a party, Franken built personal relationships with some conservative senators; so he counts Jeff Sessions among his friends and recorded a country song with Orrin Hatch .

On August 5, 2010, as chairman of the session, Franken caused a minor uproar when he commented on the statements of Mitch McConnell , then the Republican minority leader , on Elena Kagan's nomination for the Supreme Court with gestures and grimaces. McConnell later explained to him, "This is not Saturday Night Live , Al." Franken admitted in a handwritten apology that McConnell had the right to have a senior senator respectfully listen to his speech. In the years that followed, Franken earned a reputation as a conscientious, accomplished specialist politician.

During Donald Trump's presidency, Franken was seen as one of the Democrats' most successful fundraisers and an important supporter of left activists against the policies of the White House and Congress . He has been given a good chance to be his party's candidate for the 2020 presidential election in the United States .

Harassment allegations and resignation

On November 16, 2017, the former radio presenter Leeann Tweeden Franken accused Franken of kissing her against her will in December 2006 during the rehearsal for a joint entertainment appearance with US troops ( United Service Organizations ) and later touching her immorally, for which she has a photo as evidence cited. Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell , Minority Leader Charles Schumer, and other Senators from both parties called for the ethics committee to investigate the allegations . Franken apologized, said that he had a different memory of the incident and asked for an investigation himself. After six more women reported sexual abuse in Franconia in the following weeks - in the context of the #MeToo debate and further allegations of harassment against other top politicians - 32 of his 48 party colleagues in the Senate of Franconia called for withdrawal, first Kirsten Gillibrand , and finally the parliamentary group chairman and close confidante of Franconia, Chuck Schumer .

On December 7, 2017, Franken announced that he would be stepping down from his mandate in the US Senate over the next few weeks and insisted that he had not been guilty of anything. He described it as ironic that at the same time President Donald Trump remains in office despite serious allegations and that another Republican, Roy Moore , may soon be accused of sexual abuse of minors, will enter the Senate (see the extraordinary Senate election in Alabama in December 2017 ). While many party colleagues expressed their regrets, some - like Catherine Cortez Masto - criticized Franconia for not taking responsibility for his behavior. Franken resigned on January 2, 2018 from his mandate, which his party friend Tina Smith took over the following day. In February 2018, Franken wrote a thank you letter to his supporters that he did not yet know what tasks he would take on in the future. In July 2018, he did not rule out a return to politics.

Positions

Franken established himself as an influential political commentator in the early 2000s. After initially reluctant to support the Iraq war , he turned against him two years later, in what Gregory Krieg on CNN.com described as paradigmatic for the Democrats' general left swing. Franconia's first Senate campaign focused on education, gasoline price cuts, and the introduction of general health insurance, an issue he pursued throughout his Senate career, as well as better government welfare for veterans, disadvantaged children, and Native Americans.

Fonts

  • I'm Good Enough, I'm Smart Enough, and Doggone It, People Like Me! Daily Affirmations with Stuart Smalley. Dell Books, 1992, ISBN 0-440-50470-8 .
  • Rush Limbaugh Is a Big Fat Idiot and Other Observations. Delacorte Press, 1996, ISBN 0-385-31474-4 .
  • Why Not Me? The Inside Story of the Making and Unmaking of the Franken Presidency. Delacorte Press, 1999, ISBN 0-385-31809-X (parodic diary of his fictional presidential candidacy).
  • Oh, the things I know! A Guide to Success, or Failing That, Happiness. Plume Books, 2003, ISBN 0-452-28450-3 .
  • Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right. 2003, ISBN 0-452-28521-6 , German edition: “Kapitale Lügner” ( ISBN 3-570-50054-3 ).
  • The Truth (With Jokes). Dutton Books, 2005, ISBN 0-525-94906-2 .
  • Al Franken: Giant of the Senate. Twelve Books, 2017, ISBN 9781455540419 .

Web links

Commons : Al Franken  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f Christopher Buckley: Al Franken on Al Franken: from comic to (mostly) serious legislator. In: The Washington Post , June 2, 2017 (English).
  2. ↑ a b c d e f John Colapinto: Enter Laughing: Senator Franken's long journey. In: The New Yorker , July 20, 2009 (English).
  3. ↑ Sandra Sobieraj Westfall: Al Franken Says John Belushi's Fatal Overdose Inspired Him to Give Up Drugs. In: People , May 26, 2017 (English).
  4. ↑ a b c d e f Gregory Krieg: The slow rise and quick fall of Al Franken. In: CNN.com , December 7, 2017 (English).
  5. ↑ Alex Shephard: Al Franken's Memoir Is the Best Political Book of 2017. In: The New Republic , May 31, 2017 (English).
  6. ↑ a b c Al Franken's Senate Bid No Laughing Matter. In: National Public Radio , June 9, 2008 (English).
  7. ^ Richard Corliss: Why Air America Will Be Missed. In Time , January 21, 2010 (English); Brian Stelter: Liberal Radio, Even Without Air America. In: The New York Times , January 25, 2010.
  8. ↑ Russell Shorto: Al Franken, Seriously So. In: The New York Times , March 21, 2004 (English).
  9. ↑ Alex Gangitano: Franken: Roll Call's Coleman Interview Led Him to Politics. In: Roll Call , June 5, 2017 (English).
  10. ^ Judgment of the Minnesota Supreme Court ( January 1, 2010 memento in the Internet Archive ) (PDF).
  11. ^ Pat Doylen: At last, a second senator for Minnesota. In: The Star Tribune , July 1, 2009 (English).
  12. ↑ General Election 2014: MN US Senate. In: Our Campaigns.
  13. ^ Molly Ball: Al Franken Has Been Sitting on Jokes for a Decade. Now He's Ready to Tell Them. In: The New York Times , May 29, 2017.
  14. ↑ McConnell to Franken: "This Isn't SNL". In: CBS News , August 6, 2010.
  15. ↑ Rebecca Savransky: Woman accuses Al Franken of kissing, groping her without consent. In: The Hill , November 16, 2017 (English).
  16. ↑ Niels Lesniewski: Ethics Committee Should Review francs Allegations, Says McConnell. In: Roll Call , November 16, 2017 (English); Amber Phillips: Leading Senate Democrats call for ethics investigation into Al Franken. In: The Washington Post , November 16, 2017.
  17. ↑ US Senator Al Franken resigns. In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung online , December 7, 2017; Carl Hulse: Al Franken's Improbable Political Rise and Sudden Fall. In: The New York Times , December 7, 2017. Al Franken's resignation speech: Transcript. In: CNN.com , December 7, 2017 (English).
  18. ^ Maya Rao: Al Franken submits resignation letter to Senate; Tina Smith ready to step in. In: Star Tribune , January 3, 2018.
  19. ↑ Dave Orrick: Al Franken: What's next? 'I'm not quite ready to answer yet.' In: Twincities.com , February 23, 2018.
  20. ^ Li Zhou: Franken on running for public office again: “I haven't ruled it out, and I haven't ruled it in”. In: Vox.com , July 31, 2018.
personal data
SURNAME Franken, Al
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Franken, Alan Stuart (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American author, comedian, radio host and politician
DATE OF BIRTH May 21, 1951
PLACE OF BIRTH New York City , New York