Neither of Franken\u2019s parents attended college, so they placed extraordinary emphasis on education for their kids.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen the Russians put Sputnik up and terrified Americans because the Soviets were ahead of us and had nuclear weapons, my parents marched us into the living room and said \u2018you boys are going to study math and science so we can beat the Russians,\u2019\u201d he recalled.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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Franken made it to Harvard, but ultimately chose comedy over battling the Russkies. He and his writing partner, Tom Davis, worked small comedy clubs before they were hired in 1975 by Lorne Michaels as apprentice writers for the first season of “Saturday<\/span><\/span> Night Live.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n
At some point it became clear that Franken was the heir apparent to Michaels. But toward the end of the 1979-80 season, Franken performed a Weekend Update commentary, \u201cA Limo for A Lame-O,\u201d mocking the programming choices of the NBC president, Fred Silverman. According to several histories of the show’s early days, Silverman was not a fan, and soon thereafter denied Michaels\u2019 request to have Franken replace him as producer. Franken and Davis left in a housecleaning by Michaels’ ill-fated successor, Jean Doumanian.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Franken returned to the show in 1985 but quit again 10 years later when Norm MacDonald was tapped as the Weekend Update anchor — a seat Franken wanted.<\/div>\n
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There followed some film work and a series of best-selling books of political humor — including “Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right” and “Rush Limbaugh Is a Big Fat Idiot: And Other Observations” — and a three-year stint as an afternoon commentator in Air America, a liberal-leaning radio network he helped found.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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Franken can’t say exactly when he decided to transition from political commentary to actually running for office — or to do justice, as his rabbi said. But it was precipitated by the death of his mentor, Sen. Paul Wellstone, in a 2002 plane crash while the Minnesota Democrat was campaigning to retain his seat. Franken was angry, too, when Wellstone’s successor, Norm Coleman, described himself only three months into his first term as a “99 percent” improvement over the late Jewish lawmaker.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
It took awhile for Franken to re-establish residency in Minnesota and form a political action committee, but in 2007, he threw his hat in the ring against Coleman. (Noting that the three preceding senatorial races featured Jews on both sides — Rudy Boschwitz vs. Wellstone twice, then Wellstone vs. Coleman, Franken quipped, \u201cI don\u2019t think Minnesota is ready for a gentile in this seat.”)<\/div>\n
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Not everyone was pleased by his candidacy. The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, for one, was so sure he\u2019d lose it withheld its support.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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The cover of “Al Franken: Giant of the Senate” (Twelve Books)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Not that the Republicans were taking any chances. They started what Franken calls a de-humorizing campaign, treating a joke from the Rush Limbaugh book as fact. Franken had “suggested” that terminally ill elderly people be put in rockets and shot across the Snake River, with pay-per-view revenues going to reduce the debt.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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\u201cI was getting slammed all over the place,\u201d Franken told me. \u201cThey [the Republicans] were putting my jokes in the de-humorizer and attacking me for what I did in comedy.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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What turned things around? He claims it was his wife of 40-plus years, Franni.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe\u2019d had enough of it,\u201d Franken said, and appeared in a 60-second commercial in which she talked about her own battle with alcoholism, how her husband had stood by her \u201cthrough thick and thin,\u201d and how she was certain \u201che\u2019ll always come through for Minnesota.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\u201cA couple of days later we had a debate in a gym, and when Franni entered the room she got a standing ovation.\u201d<\/div>\n
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Still, it was hardly a landslide victory — Franken won by just 312 votes out of 2.9 million cast. He survived multiple recounts and lawsuits before finally being officially recognized as the winner at the end of June, more than seven months after the election.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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He immediately set to work to essentially “de-humorize” himself by coming prepared to all committee and subcommittee meetings.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat surprised me most was how little debate there is,” Franken said. “A lot of legislation gets worked out in offices or conference rooms. Most speeches you give there\u2019s no one out there. I think that\u2019s most surprising if you think of this as one of the great deliberative bodies in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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He also was taken back by the toxicity in the Congress, as exemplified by the stated goal of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell: that his \u201cNo. 1 priority [was] to see that Obama was a one-term president.”<\/p>\n
“I wasn\u2019t shocked that he felt that way,” Franken said of the Kentucky Republican. “I was shocked that he said it out loud.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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\u201cI remember asking colleagues who\u2019d been there a long time if it was as bad as this 20 years ago, 30 years ago. They said no. When I asked if it had ever been this bad, they said, yes, you know when that [guy] got hit by a cane.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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In 1856, Sen. Charles Sumner, a Massachusetts Republican, was beaten by a member of the House of Representatives after giving a lengthy anti-slavery speech.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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Still, Franken has done his best to work with everyone — except Ted Cruz, who the Minnesotan said \u201cmakes no effort to be collegial.”<\/p>\n
“He\u2019s a toxic co-worker, and if you think of the Senate as a workplace with a 100 people, it\u2019s kind of a good idea to get along with others. He doesn\u2019t. He\u2019s the guy who cooks fish in the office microwave.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Franken won re-election in 2014 by a 53-42 percent margin. Keeping his seat, he’s now in a position to really fight the Russians — or at least their election meddling — just like dad wanted all along.<\/div>\n
<\/p>\n
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