Few things bring me more joy than the ongoing fight between Bill O’Reilly and Al Franken (and it may surprise some of you that in this battle, I will choose Franken EVERY time, so great is my loathing for Bill O’Reilly), and via Malkin I see the latest salvo has been fired by Al:
Franken is making his third visit to the troops in Iraq next month. “My wife doesn’t like me going to Iraq. She says, ‘You don’t see Bill O’Reilly going to Iraq.’ I said, ‘That’s not fair; he doesn’t have any talent.”‘
Heh.
John S.
Oh boy, you have to love that Malkin:
Only a “rational” mind like Michelle’s could put Bush misleading a nation to war on an equal playing field with whatever transgressions Air America committed.
Krista
Good for him. More of the “talking heads” (or talking assholes) should get their butts over there to get a bit of perspective, and maybe…just maybe…a bit of humility.
SomeCallMeTim
I’m not sure if this is implicit in Tim’s comment, but it’s worth noting that lots of Dems think Franken’s a smug asshole. Including me.
Stormy70
Yeah, it is ok to bilk little disabled kids to keep the money pit of Air America on the air, because Republicans are just so bad. I can’t take most of you seriously anymore…oh, wait.
Flame on, people.
ppGaz
Franken is Da Man. He’s a brilliant comedian and sharp-witted deflater of Republican puffery. His stand-up routine about Jerry Falwell is one of the ten funniest things I have ever heard.
Republicans laugh at things … mostly, at other people … because they can get away with it. Franken laughs at things because they are so goddam funny.
Dems who say bad things about Franken will have lifelong infestations of fleas and other parasites in their groin area, punishment direct from God, who told me so Himself.
Stormy70
PS – O’Reilly and Franken suck across the board. Smug bastards.
ape
Erm..
Not the ‘latest salvo’. this gag is in ‘Lies’.
yours,
pedanticape
ppgaz – ditto that.
Pb
Stormy70,
Quick pop quiz:
Are you in favor of taking money from little, disabled kids?
Are you in favor of torturing little, disabled kids?
If no to both, which is worse?
What if they’re brown?
What if they’re potential terrorists on account of their brownness?
Another Jeff
Franken against O’Reilly, for me, is like Notre Dame against Michigan.
Can i root for injuries?
John S.
How very Malkinesque of you Stormy. Obviously, bilking disabled children (if such a thing occurred) for money to keep a radio station afloat is not acceptable.
But you really think that is on an equal plane with taking America to war under false pretenses at the expense of thousands of American lives, tens of thousands ruined American lives and countless civilian casualties?
And you talk about not taking people seriously…
Joey
I love Franken. “Lies” is one of the funniest things I’ve ever read, and he was great on SNL, especially as a writer. I agree with ppgaz 100%.
Steve S
Franken may be a smug bastard, but at least he’s funny.
And he get’s plenty of material from O’Reilly and the other wingnut pundits who just make shit up on the fly.
neil
Oh my gosh, a smug comedian? Now that’s just unheard of.
Steve S
Oh yeah, not sure if I want Franken as my Senator.
But then again I think Congress could use a sense of humor.
And he’s certainly better than the out of touch Hollywood elitists the Republicans have shoved down my throat.
Gray
And few things bring me more joy than the opportunity to say: “I told you that!”
[November 10, 2005 note: We have learned that some of the information we were provided in the above paragraph is incorrect. White phosphorous shells, which produce smoke, were used in Fallujah not for illumination but for screening purposes, i.e., obscuring troop movements and, according to an article, “The Fight for Fallujah,” in the March-April 2005 issue of Field Artillery magazine, “as a potent psychological weapon against the insurgents in trench lines and spider holes ….” The article states that U.S. forces used white phosphorous rounds to flush out enemy fighters so that they could then be killed with high explosive rounds.]
http://usinfo.state.gov/media/Archive_Index/Illegal_Weapons_in_Fallujah.html
Geek, Esq.
Franken funnier than O’Reilly?
I have one word for you: Falafel.
Faux News
Reminder:
Stormy thinks “water boarding” is just a frat prank.
I report, you agree.
Slide
thats Senator Franken to you.
ape
John S – ‘bilking disabled children (if such a thing occurred)’
you forgot, “and had anything to do with Al Franken”.
I’m not sure that even the nutjobs are claiming he actually did this.
I think the accusation is something like ‘not doing enough to help find out more about whatever it is’
whilst also perhaps ‘not having told specific individuals (who have nothing to do with whatever it was) whatever he knew about whatever it was, whenever it was that they decided he should’ or something very damning of that nature.
this is almost as damning as this critique:
http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2005/11/1/162756.shtml
“Air America radio host Al Franken says conservatives are racist because they lack diversity and oppose affirmative action. But fewer than 1 percent of the people he has hired over the past 15 years have been African-American.”
it’s hard to believe that it’s not a send-up. but it isn’t.
incidentally, exactly 0% of the people i’ve hired over the last 200 years have been African American. I’m sorry. I’ll try to hire more.
Lines
During the time I was reading “Lies” I ended up on multiple flights around the country. People in Red states would glare at me, pose threateningly and just be ugly about it. People in the bluer areas would routinely use it as a conversation piece, asking me what I thought, if it was good and the conversation would go from there.
Maybe I’d get the same thing from a Bill O’Reilly book in those Red states, but somehow I doubt it.
The Disenfranchised Voter
Lies is one of my favorite books. I disagree with Franken on some issues, but he is damn funny. I’ll probably pick up The Truth (with jokes) eventually.
Shygetz
I think Franken is a good writer, and a pretty bad radio host. But I loved “Lies”, and I plan on checking out “Truth” soon.
ET
Interesting that you posted this John. Great article in the most recent New York Times Magazine about the USO and how Franken and Henry Rollins (Black Flag) have been doing good things for the troops.
SeesThroughIt
Pretty much. He can be insufferably smug–almost to the point where he seems like a far-right-wing blogger or something–and he’s far better at writing than he is at speaking, but he’s also dead-on when it comes to the OReillys/Hannitys/Coulters of the world and the politicians they prop up.
jg
Henry Rollins scares the shit outta me. That man needs a valium, maybe two.
Gary Farber
“She says, ‘You don’t see Bill O’Reilly going to Iraq.’ I said, ‘That’s not fair; he doesn’t have any talent.”’”
I more or less like Al Franken, and I despise O’Reilly with the heat of a star going nova.
But, for the record, Franken has been using this line about O’Reilly for over six years. He’s literally used it in every talk show appearance I’ve seen him make in the past couple of years, and reports indicate he uses it in most speeches.
In other words, he’s made this joke hundreds of times to millions of people for years, just as Al Gore has used his “there’s winning, losing, and that little-known third option” line similarly.
In other words: scream, argh, jeezus. It was funny a few years ago, the first few hundred times.
Mike S
He’s mellowed a hell of a lot. You should have seen him back in the day.
jaime
Comedians ALWAYS recycle their jokes.
Steve
In other news, Rodney Dangerfield still gets no respect.
HH
Franken will say anything (and has surely glommed onto the latest Bennett-esque misquote from the left-wing noise machine) to draw attenton away from being humiliated on his own show:
KC
I listen to Franken here and there and actually enjoy his show when I do. Sometimes I just need a break from our local righty talker, Tom Sullivan.
Mike S
I suppose he could do what O’Reilly does and say that he never said what he said.
jg
I haven’t seen him since back in the day. Has he mellowed much since ‘Heat’? I don’t hink I’ve seen him since that movie came out.
Mike S
I’m talking about way back in the day of Black Flag.
Pb
Yeah, O’Reilly really must have had it rough, growing up–it’s a wonder he wasn’t killed in Vietnam or something. With all that crippling poverty, he sure was lucky to be in a private school–and then go to Europe–at the time!
The Disenfranchised Voter
You call that humilation HH? Give me a break. What a joke.
Steve S
When it comes to hyperbolic unsubstantiated claims… the nutjobs have the liberals beat hands down.
HILLARY CLINTON MURDERED VINCE FOSTER!
BILL CLINTON USED CHEMICAL WEAPONS AT WACO!
you get my point
Birkel
John Cole,
I have another option.
They’re both smug and I’d root for neither of them against anyone, ever.
I wish laryngitis on both of them.
And that’s about it.
scs
I don’t know, I think “loathing” should be reserved for serial killers and murderous dictators. But a talk show host? What on earth has Bill done? I really have to read that book Lies to see what the fuss is all about.
I heard there was a big bruhaha about if O’Reilly was poor and if he grew up in Levittown. Is that it? Is that the cause of this hatred? I read an article in maybe the NYT about that I believe, and a lot of people who used to live there wrote in and explained that Levittown was split, but was the common term for the whole area. And as to being poor, I also went to Europe as a student, but I certainly wouldn’t consider my family rich. In fact rich and poor are relative terms. The richest girl I used to know in school was very sure sure that she wasn’t rich -she was of course comparing herself to rich people she knew, whom I wasn’t even aware of. So it all depends on your frame of reference.
Anyway, I hope Franken has more than that on him. I am not a real hard core O’Reilly fan, but so far I have found him to be somewhat fair on his show. He always invites all kinds of Lefties to talk on his show and has been independent on some issues. So what’s the beef?