Oh, come on, can't you take a little JOKE? AL FRANKEN sends you a letter on Harvard letterhead soliciting contributions for a book on sexual abstinence called , asking for personal testimonials such as "Did a young woman every think you were homosexual just because you wouldn't have sex with her?" Now, if you respond to that, is the problem that Al Franken is "lying" or that you're too stupid to get a frickin' joke?
https://blogcritics.org/archives/2003/08/20/031436.php

I certainly do not agree with a lot of Franken's liberal politics, but the bastard is funny to the toes of his shoes. How can you say something so silly as "has this guy ever done anything that anyone found to be even remotely funny?"

Franken is one of the original architects of Saturday Night Live. How much higher comic credentials could you ask for? Stuart Smalley is just funny as hell, and the infamous Rush Limbaugh book is a hoot. I say this even as a Rush fan.

Not funny? His classic "Limo for the Lamo" sketch alone outranks many whole comedy careers.
https://home.hawaii.rr.com/snlcn/franken/snl.html

Errrr, OK, Al, so you're a big fan. But it wasn't intended as a joke, now was it? It was a dishonest attempt to get Ashcroft to reveal personal and intimate information for one stated purpose, when he intended to use it for something else entirely. Plus, using school stationary for personal issues is a reason for dismissal at my institution. Since Franken was at Harvard as a "fellow", I'm guessing there wasn't much to dismiss. Additionally, it's not at all clear that he identified himself as "Al Franken, the satirist" from the story. In fact, it appears that he tried to pass himself off as "Al Franken, Fellow of the Shorenstein Center for Press and Politics, Harvard University". Sure seems like he's a lying liar telling lies, all right.

I'm glad you find him funny, but I just find him incredibly tedious and lame. Perhaps you are right - he may have been a part of many of the SNL sketches I found funny as a teenager from a writing standpoint, but I just never found anything he did as an actor/comedian to be all that enthralling. His major claim to fame is calling Limbaugh a big fat idiot.

Well, you COULD technically accuse him of "lying" to the Attorney General. Do you think that he was really expecting a serious response, though? Looks to me more like something created just for the hook of having Franken's letter itself get publicity. He has not in fact published embarassing personal responses, nor do I think he ever intended to. Most conservative types are not prone to give him the benefit of the doubt though, and I can understand that.

However, DAMN but this is funny. He's asking the Attorney General to tell stories about girls in high school thinking he was gay. Come on, man. Have you had your funny bone surgically frickin' removed? I can barely stop laughing at this idea long enough to explain it.

Holding bureaucrats up to ridicule, or better yet tricking politicians into embarassing themselves publicly is a legitimate public service.

Put it this way: Consider Franken's letter a reasonable independent citizen test of our Attorney General. If he's not clever enough to know better than responding to this gag, he'd need to be run out of office. He's helping keep 'em on their toes.

Whatever else you want to say about him, Ashcroft seems to have actually been fairly effective at putting the squeeze on al Qaeda, at least in the US. He's mostly doing pretty good for himself and the country. He's too smart to have fallen for this gag. Further, he can take a little joke.

I get real impatient with a lot of the shrill, hateful anti-Ashcroft stuff, calling him a Nazi and so on. However, being teased a bit about being prudish like this is reasonable. It's not a vicious personal slur. I'd put it down to good, clean fun.

Al,

My funny bone is completely intact - which is why I bothered to comment on this at all. I think the entire Fox/Franken/O'reilly affair is completely ludicrous. But don't you think it is kind of funny that a sanctimonious jackass (in this case I am referring to Franken, not O'Reilly) that is publishing a book titled Lies: and the lying liars who tell them has to write a letter of apology to the attorney general when he gets busted for using Harvard stationary? Now THAT'S funny.

I'm not a big John Ashcroft fan, and could care less if he ends up looking foolish. But I don't understand why Franken should get a pass just because he once was a member of SNL.

I breifly considered posting on this when I saw it, but I was tired and decided to wait. Neal, you beat me to the punch, and frankly Al should be greatful you did. My opinion of Franken is only slightly higher than the one I have for refrigerater mold. I would not have been one tenth as kind as you were.

I stopped watching SNL when the original cast left, I've only seen Franken through his so called "political" humor, the man blows, and no amount of, but gee he's really, really funny, will change my mind on him. Taste being subjective, I exercise my right to hate his hypocritical insult spewing ass.

The only difference between Franken and Micheal Moore, is a couple of years and 50,000 cheeseburgers, given time I'm sure Franken will catch up.

PS, you know, that was really harsh and unfair,...

I'm so proud of myself!

from your own remarks:
"But it wasn't intended as a joke, now was it? It was a dishonest attempt to get Ashcroft to reveal personal and intimate information for one stated purpose, when he intended to use it for something else entirely."

Are you completely stupid, or what?

Wow, Owen, what a compelling argument. Thanks for stopping by to offer an in depth analysis of the situation. Is that your real last name, or just the best you could do under the circumstances.

Read the article. Read the letter. Then tell me why the remark you picked out does anything other than make my point. He wrote the letter to Ashcroft. He completely misrepresented who he was, and did it on official university stationary. So, to respond to your oh so sharp barb in kind, are you a complete numbnut, or what?

I've been accused of being a lot of things, but stupid most definitely isn't one of them. I'll be happy to compare credentials, engage in debate, whatever you want. But the only one who seems to be "completely stupid" here is you.