Senator Al Franken
On Monday, he had a testy exchange with South Dakota Senator John Thune after Franken introduced a motion to change a tax in the bill from an excise tax to a surtax and such that it only applied to those who were truly wealthy, or "making millions" as he put it.
Franken said he missed Thune's discussion on the Heath Care Bill, but asked Thune if he talked about any of the benefits that would kick in immediately upon passage. Thune said that he had not. Upon hearing this, Franken chastised Thune for only presenting some facts and not the whole set of facts: "Benefits do kick in on day one," he said. "We're not entitled to our own facts."
The chart Senator Thune presented was basically a mis-truth: a presentation of part of the Health Care Bill. It did not show when tax benefits "kicked in", and that is upon the day of passage of the bill.
Here's the video:
Al Franken's a very smart man. He's growing impatient with the Republican attempts to misrepresent what the Health Care Bill is, and so Franken's exacting his own brand of justice: legal punishment of the political enemy.
Today, the ememy was Senator Joe Lieberman. It happened to be Senator Franken's turn to preside over the Senate when Lieberman was speaking. But Liberman had so upset Democrats and Liberals with his heavy-handed blocking of any version of the Health Care Bill with a "Public Option" earlier in the week, that he made himself ripe for a political smack-down.
He got one.
Lieberman had ran out of his 10 minutes of speaking time and asked Franken for an extension of time. "In my capacity as the Senator from Minnesota, I object", Franken calmly responded. Lieberman gave a small chuckle and said "Ok".
But while Lieberman was claim and almost jovial, Arizona Senator John McCain was one thing: pissed-off. He came to the podium and first asked for 10 minutes speaking time each for the "Senator from Rhode Island" and the "Senator from Michigan the distinguished chair of the Armed Services Committee", and finally himself to speak on the bill - 30 minutes total.
McCain was asking for so much time for others to make a point.
"I've been in this Senate 20-something years and it's the first time I've seen a member denied an extra minute or two to, uh, finish his remarks. I don't know what's happening here, but I think it's wrong." Michigan Senator Carl Levin then stood to explain that the same action was taken earlier in the day to move the bill process along. But McCain was so upset, he interrupted Levin and asked against for his speaking time request to be granted.
Franken did so "without objection."
According to Joel Achenbach at the Washington Post, Lieberman later said "No hard feelings" and seemed to take the whole matter in stride. But it was a tentpole moment signaling rising Democratic anger at Lieberman. Firedoglake called it "a glorious moment". Meanwhile, Michelle Malkin proves she wasn't watching the whole exchange, applying the term "snit fit" to Franken, when it really fits John McCain. I'm not surprised.
Senator Franken gave a great example of how to combine Senate rules and television to punish your political opponent. Brilliant!
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