Changes

The election was very close, with multiple recounts and appeals. On January 5, 2009, the Minnesota election board declared Franken the winner by a razor-thin 225 votes. Coleman filed a lawsuit, which by state law had to be resolved before Franken could be seated.<ref>http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090105/ap_on_el_se/minnesota_senate</ref> He was seated July 7, 2009, upon which the ''Wall Street Journal'' proclaimed that "Mr. Franken now goes to the Senate having effectively stolen an election." <ref>[http://spectator.org/archives/2009/07/02/al-frankens-blue-ball Al Franken's Blue Ball; American Spectator, July 2, 2009]</ref><ref>[http://bighollywood.breitbart.com/jromano/2009/05/07/perkins-coie/ When Dems Don’t Have the Votes, [[Perkins Coie]] Finds Them - Big Hollywood, May 7, 2009]</ref>

The election was very close, with multiple recounts and appeals. On January 5, 2009, the Minnesota election board declared Franken the winner by a razor-thin 225 votes. Coleman filed a lawsuit, which by state law had to be resolved before Franken could be seated.<ref>http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090105/ap_on_el_se/minnesota_senate</ref> He was seated July 7, 2009, upon which the ''Wall Street Journal'' proclaimed that "Mr. Franken now goes to the Senate having effectively stolen an election." <ref>[http://spectator.org/archives/2009/07/02/al-frankens-blue-ball Al Franken's Blue Ball; American Spectator, July 2, 2009]</ref><ref>[http://bighollywood.breitbart.com/jromano/2009/05/07/perkins-coie/ When Dems Don’t Have the Votes, [[Perkins Coie]] Finds Them - Big Hollywood, May 7, 2009]</ref>

==Controversial Statements==

==Controversial statements==

On Franken's website, there is the admonition ''"Anybody who deliberately propagandizes with lies should be held up to scorn and ridicule"''.<ref>http://lyingliar.com/index.htm</ref>  Throughout his books he has held himself to "impossibly high standards" to tell the truth about those he has written about.  Author Alan Skorski researched two of Franken's books (''Rush Limbaugh is a Big Fat Idiot'' and ''Lies and the Lying Liars who Tell Them'') and found an extensive pattern of lies, misstatements, factual inaccuracies, among them:

On Franken's website, there is the admonition ''"Anybody who deliberately propagandizes with lies should be held up to scorn and ridicule"''.<ref>http://lyingliar.com/index.htm</ref>  Throughout his books he has held himself to "impossibly high standards" to tell the truth about those he has written about.  Author Alan Skorski researched two of Franken's books (''Rush Limbaugh is a Big Fat Idiot'' and ''Lies and the Lying Liars who Tell Them'') and found an extensive pattern of lies, misstatements, factual inaccuracies, among them:

*Franken stated he is "often compared to Rush Limbaugh" when on the air, despite the fact that by the time he left his Air America show to run for the U.S. Senate, his radio network was reduced to just over 40 market stations as a result of severely-low ratings and ultimately bankruptcy.  Limbaugh, by comparison, plays on more than 600 stations with an average daily listening audience of 22 million (Skorski, pg 303).

*Franken stated he is "often compared to Rush Limbaugh" when on the air, despite the fact that by the time he left his Air America show to run for the U.S. Senate, his radio network was reduced to just over 40 market stations as a result of severely-low ratings and ultimately bankruptcy.  Limbaugh, by comparison, plays on more than 600 stations with an average daily listening audience of 22 million (Skorski, pg 303).

*Franken claimed on his radio show (June 1, 2005) that Rush Limbaugh made up a quotation supposedly said by Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, which claimed Ginsburg said "replacing 'Mother's Day' and 'Father's Day' with a 'Parent's Day' should be considered...".  Skorski did a Google check on Ginsburg and discovered a May 20, 2005 column from the ''National Review'' titled "Bench Warmers, Putting Judicial Nominees in Perspective, Part III"; this column cited a September, 1974 article written by Ginsburg which advocated for the creation of a "Parent's Day" to replace both Mother's and Father's Days.

*Franken claimed on his radio show (June 1, 2005) that Rush Limbaugh made up a quotation supposedly said by Supreme Court Justice [[Ruth Bader Ginsburg]], which claimed Ginsburg said "replacing 'Mother's Day' and 'Father's Day' with a 'Parent's Day' should be considered...".  Skorski did a Google check on Ginsburg and discovered a May 20, 2005 column from the ''National Review'' titled "Bench Warmers, Putting Judicial Nominees in Perspective, Part III"; this column cited a September, 1974 article written by Ginsburg which advocated for the creation of a "Parent's Day" to replace both Mother's and Father's Days.

*Franken claimed John Murphy of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce was lying when he took a pro-CAFTA (Central American Free Trade Agreement) position on PBS's ''Lehrer Report'' (July 27, 2005) stating "we've seen unemployment fall to 5.0 percent today, which is lower than it's been in decades."<ref>https://www.bls.gov/cps/prev_yrs.htm</ref>  Skorski demonstrated that Franken took the unemployment figures under the [[Clinton Administration]] by the month (rather than by the year as the Bureau of Labor Statistics does) and willfully distorted them to make it appear that it was Murphy who was lying (Skorski, pg. 77-78).

*Franken claimed John Murphy of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce was lying when he took a pro-CAFTA (Central American Free Trade Agreement) position on PBS's ''Lehrer Report'' (July 27, 2005) stating "we've seen unemployment fall to 5.0 percent today, which is lower than it's been in decades."<ref>https://www.bls.gov/cps/prev_yrs.htm</ref>  Skorski demonstrated that Franken took the unemployment figures under the [[Clinton Administration]] by the month (rather than by the year as the Bureau of Labor Statistics does) and willfully distorted them to make it appear that it was Murphy who was lying (Skorski, pg. 77-78).