An etherealgirl's Adventures in Cyberland

Tuesday, October 18, 2005

al franken interviewed

The author of Rush Limbaugh is a Big Fat Idiot talks about Air America, regular America, and making the shift from entertainer to political hopeful.

It's been over a week since Katharine Lanpher left my favourite Air America show to write her upcoming book, and I've been having little bits of withdrawal because I totally love the raucous rapport that she and Al shared... but it has been interesting to listen to Al going solo. He comes across, more than ever, as someone who really cares about this country and wants to make an impact, and really do anything he can to help us out of this mess and get our country back on track.

Al Franken dabbled in political subject matter as a writer -- and performer -- during two lengthy stints on Saturday Night Live, as well as on his short-lived NBC sitcom, LateLine. He has also worked in film, most notably as co-writer and star of 1995's "Stuart Saves His Family," a spin-off of the Stuart Smalley character he'd created for SNL. But today, Franken's politics overshadow his comedy at virtually every turn. Born in New York City, raised in a suburb of Minneapolis, and educated at Harvard, Franken has become a full-time political figure.

The transformation began in earnest with his 1996 book, Rush Limbaugh Is a Big Fat Idiot, followed by his 2003 work, Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right. Now Franken is one of the major players behind Air America Radio, the liberal talk-radio network introduced in March 2004 to counter rightwing domination of the medium. At fifty-four, he spends the bulk of his time touring, preparing, and performing for the sixty-seven-station network, on which he appears as co-host of The Al Franken Show. But his goals are more ambitious still: He recently moved from New York back to Minnesota to prepare for a U.S. Senate run against Norm Coleman in 2008.

You can find the entire Q&A interview link via AlterNet.

Posted by etherealfire :: 10:35 PM :: 2 Comments:

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