Al Franken doing good works

When you get down or frustrated with health care, remember, some good things still happen in D.C. and there are some good people in D.C. Al Franken is one of those people. His rape amendment was signed into law today.

I met Al a couple of years ago, a couple of months before he announced his run for the U.S. Senate. He had just finished airing an episode of his Air America show in Montana, and afterward, he came into a coffee house and drank espressos and held court for a large contigent of people for two hours. We sat at the table with him through most of it.

He was very, very funny and damned smart. He did a spot-on impersonation of Rush Limbaugh that almost put me on the floor. But, what I was really struck by was what a genuine, sincere person he was. He actually broke down a couple of times, I kid you not, talking about the Iraq War. He had gone over to Iraq a couple of times for USO shows and he broke down talking about the soldiers he met there, and because he was so full of anger toward Bush and the Iraq War. He is a very emotional man deep down inside.

He also told a funny story about how he butted heads with former Montana Governor Marc Racicot during the 2000 recount in Florida. He started his story with, “Marc Racicot … Marc Racicot … I-I just don’t like him…”

He told me of how he met Bush in 2000 in Iowa during the beginning of the election campaign and had asked Bush a complicated question. Rather than simply say, “I don’t know the answer,” he said Bush got that infamous glassy-eyed look we’ve all seen from “My Pet Goat” and then tried to bullshit an answer. Al said that was his first clue of just how dumb Bush was.

After meeting him, I knew he was going to be a good U.S. Senator. He is a good person, doing good works.

Al did good with the rape amendment, and it cracks me up now all the people who said he was going to be a joke as a senator.