The Chris Moeller Archives

This is not 'Saturday Night Live'

Minnesota Senator Al Franken was scolded by fellow Senator Mitch McConnell earlier today after Franken reportedly mocked his colleague during a solemn speech by McConnell regarding the confirmation of Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagen. Franken made faces and physical gestures that mocked the comments of McConnell, then was confronted by the speaker after he left the dais. "This is not 'Saturday Night Live,'" McConnell cleverly scolded, marking reference to Franken's former career as a writer and performer on the late-night comedy series. Franken said he later sent McConnell a letter of apology.

First of all, the Senate is not "Saturday Night Live." McConnell is exactly right about that. If it were, the participants would be livelier and much better looking, the sex scandals more heterosexual in nature, the fiscal outlook markedly superior, and most importantly, Franken would be guilty of hijacking Chevy Chase's classic bit.

Secondly, on the list of Planet Earth's chief survival concerns, the preservation of United States Senate chamber "decorum" ranks #13,632, just ahead of the wobbly status of Tom Cruise's box office bona fides. That august body would surely run more efficiently and effectively if it were filled with more professional (or former professional) clowns like Franken and fewer unintentional ones like McConnell. I'll choose childish, personal attacks between its members over the insincere flattery that otherwise stands as tradition.

I defended Rep. Joe Wilson also when he yelled "You lie," at President Obama during the State of the Union address, that annual pontification of deceit that more often than not involves both parties in conspiracy. Such outbursts of bluntness, just or not, at least serve to burst the bubble of phony propriety behind which the vast majority of members are robbing Peter to buy personal real estate.

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Speaking of the North Star State, good for those activists who are calling the Minneapolis-based Target Corporation to task for the company's political donations to the anti-gay rights cause. In the wake of the dreadful Supreme Court ruling in the Citizens United case earlier this year, it's imperative that as much public light as possible be shown upon the financial contributions of corporations to political action committees and candidate campaigns. The research efforts connected with this story also help put to sleep the myth that Target stores are the "liberals' alternative" to Walmart.

posted by CM @ 8:45 PM