Al Franken Gets the Last Laugh

Well the "Land of 10,000 Lakes" took what seemed like 10,000 years, but the Minnesota Supreme Court finally ruled yesterday in a unanimous decision to certify Al Franken's election victory last November. The final margin of victory for Franken was 312 votes out of 2.9 million cast, which translates to a whopping .01%. So, if anyone tells you that your vote doesn't count--they're still probably right, I don't even think I know 312 people, although Facebook tells me otherwise.

Franken's victory now gives the Democrats a 60 vote filibuster-proof majority in the senate, at least theoretically. The very fragile supermajority assumes that the two independents who caucus with the Democrats (Arlen Specter and Joe Lieberman) will actually vote with the Democrats, not to mention the 56 other Democrats, two of whom (Ted Kennedy and Robert Byrd) are in poor health. Republicans have traditionally been better at getting their congresspeople to march in lock step with the party agenda, so just how filibuster-proof the Democratic majority turns out to be is, as yet, completely unknown.

Franken, of course, holds the world record for appearances on a Connecticut Forum panel by a senator, most famously sparring with Ann Coulter in 2004, but also participating in A Spoof on Presidential Politics in 1996. Chris Dodd, though, could tie Franken with another appearance.

At any rate, a hearty congratulations to Al Franken from everyone in the Connecticut Forum Family. I think we can all agree that it'll be nice to never have to hear the following again:

Former CT Forum Panelists in the News

Former Forum panelists Al Franken and Ann Coulter have been in the news a lot lately for different reasons - Franken has just been declared the winner following a recount in the Minnesota Senate race, and Coulter is promoting a new book.

Let's journey back a few years and see what these two headliners had to say to one another in a most memorable Forum...

Former Forum Panelists Weigh in on Palin

Leave a comment or email us at info at ctforum dot org by Wednesday, September 17 at noon EST for a chance to win two tickets to The Presidency! Good luck!

These days, it seems that everyone's talking about politics, preparedness, and Palin. (But mostly the latter.)

Here's what a few former Connecticut Forum panelists have to say...

Mayor Michael Bloomberg:

“...you can disagree with some of her positions, I disagree violently with some of them, but…she is the governor of a state, you don’t get to be a governor by accident... She has balanced raising a family with public service and my hat's off to her.”

“You want to have a spirited, close race where the public really has to sit down and think what they want and who they are going to vote for. That’s good for democracy. I think she is to be congratulated. I wish her and John McCain well. And I wish Joe Biden and Barack Obama well...I hope the press focuses on the issues instead of some of the personal things that seem to have dominated the press for the last few days. It was really a shame.” Read more...

Gloria Steinem:

Sarah Palin shares nothing but a chromosome with Hillary Clinton...Her down-home, divisive and deceptive speech did nothing to cosmeticize a Republican convention that has more than twice as many male delegates as female, a presidential candidate who is owned and operated by the right wing and a platform that opposes pretty much everything Clinton's candidacy stood for -- and that Barack Obama's still does. To vote in protest for McCain/Palin would be like saying, "Somebody stole my shoes, so I'll amputate my legs." Read more...

Newt Gingrich:

"She is the real thing," Gingrich said. "But she is going to make mistakes, and her ability to withstand what (the media) will legitimately try to do to her" will determine "whether she is an enormous asset and game changer, or she turns out to be a liability." Read more...

Mo Rocca:

Let's face it: this is a race between Barack Obama and Sarah Palin. Joe Biden is dead weight - a good man, perhaps, and funny at times. But he can be downright tedious - speaking in undiagrammable sentences. And McCain is ideologically rudderless - this week a maverick, last week conservative, next week a populist - all the while nervously tugging at his fingers, hoping he can hitch a ride on the Palins' DC-bound snowmobile. Read more...

Pat Buchanan:

"...she's a terrific gal. She's a rebel, reformer..." Watch video clip...

Thomas Friedman:

With his choice of Sarah Palin, the Alaska governor who has advocated drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and does not believe mankind is playing any role in climate change, for vice president, John McCain has completed his makeover from the greenest Republican to run for president to just another representative of big oil. Read more...

Ann Coulter:

John McCain's choice of Sarah Palin, governor of Alaska, as his running mate finally gave Republicans a reason to vote for him -- a reason, that is, other than B. Hussein Obama. They claimed Palin was chosen only because she's a woman. In fact, Palin was chosen because she's pro-life, pro-gun, pro-drilling and pro-tax cuts. She's fought both Republicans and Democrats on public corruption and does not have hair plugs like some other vice presidential candidate I could mention. In other words, she's a "Republican." Read more...

Alec Baldwin:

"John McCain is not George Bush, Sarah Palin is." Read more...

Peggy Noonan:

Much has been said about her speech, but a few points. “The difference between a hockey mom and a pitbull? Lipstick” is pure American and goes straight into Bartlett’s. This is the authentic sound of the American mama, of every mother you know at school who joins the board, reads the books, heads the committee, and gets the show on the road. These women make large portions of America work...There is something so normal about her, so “You’ve met this person before and you like her,” that she broke through in a new way, as a character vividly herself, and vividly genuine. Read more... or read/watch her unedited live comments...

James Carville:

"This is a very, very complicated world and my problem with this woman is not what kind of mother she is or not what her values are...it's that she's just uniquely and supremely unqualified for the office of which they've selected to run for and it's kind of unfair to her." Watch the video...

Mary Matalin:

"She's new, she's fresh, she's young, people like her..." Watch the video...

Frank Rich:

"We still don’t know a lot about Palin except that she’s better at delivering a speech than McCain and that she defends her own pregnant daughter’s right to privacy even as she would have the government intrude to police the reproductive choices of all other women...Whatever we do and don’t know about Palin’s character at this point, there is no ambiguity in what her ascent tells us about McCain’s character and potential presidency..." Read more...