Al Franken's approval rating down to 39% in Minnesota

Franken's approval numbers may be tracking Obama's downward.  This race hasn't been on anyone's radar for a while, but it will be now.  I just read a piece in Politico noting that this could be one of the most expensive races in the country. From the St Could (Minn) Times:

. . . The approval numbers come from the annual 2013 St. Cloud State University Survey. A portion of the findings were released Wednesday.   

In the statewide survey, 39 percent of respondents rated Franken’s performance as “excellent” or “pretty good,” with 51 percent rating him as “only fair” or “poor.”   

Forty-four percent of respondents rated Dayton at “excellent” or “pretty good,” with 52 percent scoring him as “only fair” or “poor.”   

For President Barack Obama, 38 percent of respondents rated him as “excellent” or “pretty good,” with 61 percent scoring him “only fair” or “poor.” . . .

Democrats uncomfortable about Obama's gun control measures?

The Hill Newspaper has comments from seven Senators.

Some vulnerable Senate Democrats are balking at President Obama’s new push on gun control, reflecting the tough position many will be in if Congress takes up major firearms legislation. 

The responses indicate how tough it will be for any legislation to move through Congress — and how tricky an issue it is for some rural-state Democrats facing reelection.
Here’s a rundown of what some of those Democrats . . . 

Sen. Mark Begich (D-Alaska) told the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner that he’s not eager to pass new gun control legislation.  

“I think they’ve got a long haul here … There are some of us who just fundamentally believe in a Second Amendment right,” he said. “To be frank, I feel like it’s going to be hard for any of these pieces of legislation to pass at this point.” . . .

Other comments from Senators Pryor, Baucus, Tim Johnson and others.

From Fox News:

President Obama's gun-control package was always going to be a tough sell in the Republican-led House -- but the plan is already running into resistance, or at least hesitation, from moderate Democrats in the Senate.  

The lukewarm response in the Senate to Obama's highly anticipated anti-gun violence plan portends an uphill climb for the legislation. And it underscores how, as the president's backers prepare to launch a veritable campaign to promote the plan, they will be pressuring members of their own party as much as reluctant Republicans.  

No Democrat in the Senate came out against Obama's gun plan. But several appeared to be on the fence or noncommittal, even as the president's allies in the House cheered the package as a long-sought solution to America's gun violence problem.  

"We must find a way to balance our Second Amendment rights with the challenges of mental illness, criminal behavior and the safety of our schools and communities," Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., said in a statement, noting Louisiana's tradition of hunting, target shooting and gun collecting. She said she would give the proposals "serious consideration."  . . .

Senator Al Franken: "I support 'principle' of assault weapon ban" -- there seems to be some wiggle room in Franken's previously strong support for a so-called assault weapon ban.

Joe Biden: Al Franken is a "leading legal scholar"

This is pretty funny.

Vice President Joe Biden described former Saturday Night Live comedian, Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn., as a "leading legal scholar," presumably in the Senate, today. "He has been one of the leading legal scholars," Biden said of Franken today, according to the pool report. He also said that Franken "is deadly serious" as a senator. He made the comments while recalling concerns that then-candidate Franken could not be taken seriously as a Senate candidate given his SNL work. Franken's comedic spirit got him in trouble on Washington. "This isn't ‘Saturday Night Live,’ Al," Minority Leader Mitch McConnell had to remind the freshman senator after Franken made faces while McConnell spoke during the Supreme Court nomination process for Elena Kagan. . . .

Al Franken doesn't understand free speech.

Having a faster internet connection is costly. Those who want a faster connection get charge more. Those who want to use the internet more get charged more. Franken thinks that is a violation of free speech. To him everyone should get equal access to speed and apparently another goal of "net neutrality" that there shouldn't be higher charges if you use the internet more.

Well, our free speech rights are under assault -- not from the government but from corporations seeking to control the flow of information in America. . . .
"Net neutrality" sounds arcane, but it's fundamental to free speech. The internet today is an open marketplace. If you have a product, you can sell it. If you have an opinion, you can blog about it. If you have an idea, you can share it with the world.
And no matter who you are -- a corporation selling a new widget, a senator making a political argument or just a Minnesotan sharing a funny cat video -- you have equal access to that marketplace.
An e-mail from your mom comes in just as fast as a bill notification from your bank. You're reading this op-ed online; it'll load just as fast as a blog post criticizing it. That's what we mean by net neutrality.
But telecommunications companies want to be able to set up a special high-speed lane just for the corporations that can pay for it. You won't know why the internet retail behemoth loads faster than the mom-and-pop shop, but after a while you may get frustrated and do all of your shopping at the faster site. Maybe the gatekeepers will discriminate based on who pays them more. Maybe they will discriminate based on whose political point of view conforms to their bottom line. . . .

Al Franken forgets that the Senate Floor isn't SNL

The Politico lists this under the topic of "bad behavior." It seems that Franken gave an apology/non-apology. What exactly did Franken apologize for since he asserts that he didn't do anything wrong?

When Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell laid out his opposition to Elena Kagan’s Supreme Court nomination, someone in the chamber appeared to be moving around in his chair, gasping and rolling his eyes.

It was Sen. Al Franken.

Moments before Kagan’s confirmation vote Thursday, the Minnesota Democrat was presiding over the Senate — and the Kentucky Republican thought the freshman senator was mocking his speech. Upon the conclusion of his remarks, a very irritated McConnell removed his microphone, approached the dais and confronted the former comedian.

"This isn't ‘Saturday Night Live,’ Al," McConnell told Franken sternly, according to people who overheard the exchange.

Franken later apologized to McConnell.

“The leader thought I was disrespectful while he was giving his speech on General Kagan,” Franken said in a statement to POLITICO. “He is entitled to give his speech with the presiding officer just listening respectfully. I went directly to his office after I was done presiding to apologize in person. He wasn’t there, so I’ve sent him a handwritten note.”

A question about the Minnesota Senate race

From Monday's WSJ.com's Political Diary:

New Mexico Senator Tom Udall: "I remember asking about it, and was told not to worry about it because we'd have 60 votes once Al Franken got seated. Well, we found out what 60 votes got us."

I have one question: why were the Democrats so certain in December 2009 that Franken would be declared the winner. Wasn't Senator Norm Coleman still in the lead at that time?

New piece up at Fox News: What Al Franken's Election Tells Us

This is from my new piece up at Fox News:

For those who claim that vote fraud isn't a problem, Al Franken's election to the Senate demonstrates not only that vote fraud exists but also that it can alter elections and indeed the laws of the country.

Murderers, rapists, and robbers may not be the people we want providing the crucial votes that determine what America's laws should be.

My newest Fox News piece: Guess What, Felons Favor Democrats

My newest piece starts this way:

A new study by the Minnesota Majority found that at least 341 convicted felons in heavily Democratic Minneapolis-St. Paul who voted illegally in the 2008 Senate race. And it looks quite likely that felons gave Franken his narrow Senate victory.

The six month vote recount in the Senate race was a torturous process. The morning after November 4, 2008 election, Senator Norm Coleman lead Al Franken by 725 votes. Correcting for typos cut Coleman’s margin to 215, and a recount by all the counties reduced it further to 192.

Once the state canvassing board had looked into the intent of voters and counted 953 previously rejected absentee ballots, the final total had reversed that count and handed Franken a 312 vote victory.

WIth this small number of votes separating the two candidates even just hundreds illegal voters can alter the outcome. By any measure, felons overwhelmingly vote for Democrats. . . .

The WSJ had this follow up story.

Al Franken is an idiot (pardon me for borrowing from Franken's obnoxious title "Rush Limbaugh Is a Big Fat Idiot")

Senator Thune clearly states that the "spending" benefits from the proposed Democrat health care plan in the Senate doesn't kick in until 2014. So what does Al Franken start yelling about? His first example is a regulation that starts immediately (now we could point out that the benefit he mentions will actually raise costs by more than the benefits or insurance companies would already be offering it, but that is somewhat besides the point). The next example is a tax credit.

IBD: "Al Franken — Democrat From Acorn"

IBD has this:

Incumbent Republican Norm Coleman conceded defeat in the mother of all recounts in Minnesota's U.S. Senate race after the state's Supreme Court unanimously rejected his lawsuit.
Arguably, his seat may have been lost the day in 2006 when Democrat Mark Ritchie defeated two-term incumbent Republican Mary Kiffmeyer to become Minnesota secretary of state.
It was Ritchie who orchestrated the recount that gave Democratic challenger Franken a lead some six weeks after Coleman appeared to win by 725 votes on Election Day. Ritchie has extensive ties to the Acorn organization now under federal investigation for vote fraud and was endorsed by the community activist group in 2006.
In 2006, the Minnesota Acorn Political Committee endorsed Ritchie and contributed to his campaign. Other contributors to his campaign included George Soros, along with the likes of Deborah Rappaport, a Saul Alinsky disciple who co-founded the Midwest Academy, a radical Acorn clone.
"Mark Ritchie as we all know is a hard-core liberal who was endorsed by Acorn and funded by Acorn," Matthew Vadum, senior editor of CapitolResearch.org, a nonprofit think tank, recently told NewsMax. "It is not surprising that he has a permissive attitude toward the recount process."
Also contributing to Ritchie was James Rucker, the former director of grass-roots mobilization at MoveOn.org and reportedly a co-founder of the Secretary of State Project that played a critical role in this and other elections and will do so in the future.
Ritchie gave partial credit for his 2006 election to the liberal 527 political organization, the stated goal of which is to replace conservative secretaries of state with liberal Democrats.