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He announced that he would run for a [[Senate]] seat in [[Minnesota]] in 2008 as a [[Democrat]]. Franken's rudeness, vulgarity, and his tendency to make outrageously offensive comments have led to questions about whether or not he will alienate himself from the important undecided swing voters<ref>http://www.startribune.com/587/story/1083904.html Star Tribune retrieved 6 April, 2007</ref> <ref>[http://elections.foxnews.com/2008/06/06/frankens-senate-race-haunted-by-1995-rape-joke-on-snl-set/ Franken’s Senate Race Haunted by 1995 Rape Joke on ‘SNL’ Set]</ref>, even in a state such as Minnesota known for electing a wrestling star as governor.<ref>http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001818/bio</ref> Franken has also been called under fire for a boorish interview he did in Playboy magazine that is considered by many to be unbecoming for a senatorial candidate<ref>http://www.newsmax.com/insidecover/franken_playboy/2008/05/29/100040.html?s=al&promo_code=635B-1</ref> and is hurting him in his Congressional run.<ref>http://www.newsmax.com/insidecover/Washington_Post_franken/2008/06/18/105702.html</ref>
He announced that he would run for a [[Senate]] seat in [[Minnesota]] in 2008 as a [[Democrat]]. Franken's rudeness, vulgarity, and his tendency to make outrageously offensive comments have led to questions about whether or not he will alienate himself from the important undecided swing voters<ref>http://www.startribune.com/587/story/1083904.html Star Tribune retrieved 6 April, 2007</ref> <ref>[http://elections.foxnews.com/2008/06/06/frankens-senate-race-haunted-by-1995-rape-joke-on-snl-set/ Franken’s Senate Race Haunted by 1995 Rape Joke on ‘SNL’ Set]</ref>, even in a state such as Minnesota known for electing a wrestling star as governor.<ref>http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001818/bio</ref> Franken has also been called under fire for a boorish interview he did in Playboy magazine that is considered by many to be unbecoming for a senatorial candidate<ref>http://www.newsmax.com/insidecover/franken_playboy/2008/05/29/100040.html?s=al&promo_code=635B-1</ref> and is hurting him in his Congressional run.<ref>http://www.newsmax.com/insidecover/Washington_Post_franken/2008/06/18/105702.html</ref>
==Franken's problems with the truth==
On Franken's website there is the admonition ''"Anybody who deliberately propagandizes with lies should be held up to scorn and ridicule"''[http://lyingliar.com/index.htm]. 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 and the Lying Liars who Tell Them'') and found an extensive pattern of lies, mistatements, factual inaccuracies, among them:
*Accusing Ann Coulter of "lying with footnotes" by "citing a source and misrepresenting what it says"; throughout his book Skorski states that Franken has done exactly that on numerous occations (Skorski, pg. xiii)
*The collision between Bush foreign policy advisor Richard Armitage and news reporter Helen Thomas, which Franken had claimed broke both her hip and jaw (''Lying Liars'', pg 218), but which Thomas herself said never happened (Skorski, pg 208).
*Franken stated he is "often comparred 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 comparrison, 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 John Murphy of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce was lying when 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." [http://www.bls.gov/cps/prev_yrs.htm]. Skorski demonstrated that Franken willfully distorted the unemployment figures under the Clinton Administration by the month, rather than by the year as the Bureau of Labor Statistics does, to make it appear that it was Murphy who was lying (Skorski, pg. 77-78).
== Books by Franken ==
== Books by Franken ==
*''I'm Good Enough, I'm Smart Enough, and Doggone It, People Like Me!'' (Dell Books, 1992) (in character as Stuart Smalley)
*''I'm Good Enough, I'm Smart Enough, and Doggone It, People Like Me!'' (Dell Books, 1992) (in character as Stuart Smalley)
*''Rush Limbaugh is a Big Fat Idiot'' (Delacorte Press, 1996) (a satirical book of personal attacks on [[Rush Limbaugh]] as well as other conservatives.)
*''Rush Limbaugh is a Big Fat Idiot'' (Delacorte Press, 1996) (a satirical book of personal attacks on [[Rush Limbaugh]] as well as other conservatives.)
==References==
==References==
*Skorski, Alan. ''Pants On Fire: How Al Franken Lies, Smears, and Deceives,'' Cumberland House Publishing, Nashville, Tennessee (2005)
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