{"id":1318,"date":"2009-06-30T15:35:02","date_gmt":"2009-06-30T22:35:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=1318"},"modified":"2009-07-20T17:55:11","modified_gmt":"2009-07-21T00:55:11","slug":"al-franken-wins-senate-fox-nation-throws-tantrum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=1318","title":{"rendered":"Al Franken Wins Senate &#8211; Fox Nation Throws Tantrum"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Minnesota Supreme Court <a href=\"http:\/\/thehill.com\/campaign-2008\/franken-declared-winner-of-minnesota-senate-race-2009-06-30.html\" target=\"_blank\">finally handed down<\/a> its ruling today that Al Franken was the winner in last November&#8217;s senate election. The court&#8217;s decision was unanimous with all five justices ruling in Franken&#8217;s favor:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><span style=\"color:#0d00d0;\">&#8220;&#8230;we affirm the decision of the trial court that Al Franken received the highest number of votes legally cast and is entitled under [state law] to receive the certificate of election as United States Senator from the State of Minnesota.&#8221;<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Norm Coleman has conceded and all that&#8217;s left now is for Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty to sign the certificate and send Franken on his way to Washington. Pawlenty has been hinting that he is prepared to sign the certificate, but with Republican governors you never know until it&#8217;s done. Pawlenty might decide to go for a hike in the Appalachians.<\/p>\n<p>So leave it to Fox to bring this news down to the level of a whining toddler who can&#8217;t understand why he isn&#8217;t getting his way:<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/Pix\/Caps\/foxnation-franken.jpg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>The Fox Nation reacted to this breaking news by quickly posting a photo of Franken&#8217;s Stuart Smalley character from his days on Saturday Night Live &#8211; ten years ago. Fox Nation&#8217;s childish behavior is nothing new. They simply can&#8217;t bring themselves to refer to Franken by his real name (a shortcoming they share with Bill O&#8217;Reilly). Every article I was able to find on Fox Nation about Franken used Smalley in the headline.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/origin.thefoxnation.com\/politics\/2009\/03\/27\/obama-team-strikes-stuart-smalley-diplomacy\">1)<\/a> Obama team strikes &#8216;Stuart Smalley&#8217; diplomacy.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.thefoxnation.com\/politics\/2009\/03\/30\/gop-vows-wwiii-over-stuart-smalley?page=4\">2)<\/a> GOP vows WWIII over Stuart Smalley.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.thefoxnation.com\/politics\/2009\/04\/01\/stuart-smalley-closer-us-senate\">3)<\/a> Stuart Smalley closer to US senate.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.thefoxnation.com\/politics\/2009\/04\/08\/stuart-smalley-widens-lead\">4)<\/a> Stuart Smalley Widens Lead.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.thefoxnation.com\/al-franken\/2009\/04\/14\/did-stuart-smiley-steal-election\">5)<\/a> Did Stuart Smalley Steal the Election?\n<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.thefoxnation.com\/politics\/2009\/06\/30\/no-joke-stuart-smalley-headed-senate\" target=\"_blank\">And now:<\/a> No Joke! Stuart Smalley Headed to Senate!<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>[Update] More Smalley references since Franken was seated:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.thefoxnation.com\/sen-al-franken\/2009\/07\/07\/minister-confronts-stuart-smalley-christian-bashing\">7)<\/a> Minister Confronts Stuart Smalley for Christian-Bashing.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.thefoxnation.com\/justice\/2009\/07\/07\/did-acorn-elect-stuart-smalley\">8&#41;<\/a> Did ACORN Elect Stuart Smalley?.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.thefoxnation.com\/media\/2009\/07\/10\/stuart-smalleys-radio-buddies-turn-him\">9)<\/a> Stuart Smalley&#8217;s Radio Buddies Turn on Him!.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.thefoxnation.com\/politics\/2009\/07\/11\/shirtless-stuart-smalley-video-surfaces\">10)<\/a> Shirtless Stuart Smalley Video Surfaces.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.thefoxnation.com\/politics\/2009\/07\/13\/video-sen-smalley-delivers-opening-statement-sotomayor-hearing\" target=\"_blank\">11)<\/a> Sen. Smalley Delivers Opening Statement at Sotomayor Hearing.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.thefoxnation.com\/politics\/2009\/07\/20\/sen-smalley-unleashes-first-bill\" target=\"_blank\">12)<\/a> Sen. Smalley Unleashes First Bill.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>I suppose that, in order for Fox Nation (and Fox News) to be successful, they have to cater to the diminished mental capacity of their audience. And after reading some of the comments posted on their site, I&#8217;d say they still have some ways down to go. Remember, this is a community that reveres ignorance, as illustrated by their adoration of Sarah Palin, and college dropout Glenn Beck. They proudly display their overt disdain for people with demonstrated intelligence, like President Obama and &#8230; well, Al Franken, who graduated cum laude from Harvard with a bachelor of arts degree in political science (and you thought he was just a comedian).<\/p>\n<p>I wonder if the fair folks at Fox would have trumpeted Ronald Reagan&#8217;s election like this:<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/Pix\/Caps\/foxnation-reagan.jpg\" border=\"1\"\/><\/p>\n<p>It is really too bad that Fox is so committed to acting like a spoiled crybaby. They were amongst the first to complain if someone didn&#8217;t show the proper respect to former President Bush. In fact, any demonstration of dissent was regarded as treasonous. But now they are the first to call for treason. Last week Glenn Beck expressly <a href=\"http:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/story\/0,2933,528946,00.html\" target=\"_blank\">advocated for secession<\/a> (again) and lamented that there were too few opportunities to threaten the federal government:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><span style=\"color:#0d00d0;\">&#8220;The Constitution, somehow or another, has become a suicide pact, where you can&#8217;t get out of it. Once you join the Union, you can&#8217;t get out, which leaves no place for threat to the federal government. You know, once you&#8217;re in, you&#8217;re always in. That&#8217;s you know &#8211; that&#8217;s &#8216;Hotel California.&#8217; No thanks.&#8221;<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>The real fun is going to come later when the Fox News primetime circus hits the air. It has been reported that the doctor attending to Michael Jackson has moved in with Bill O&#8217;Reilly and vans from local pharmacies have been in and out of the estate all afternoon. O&#8217;Reilly may try to feign indifference in that way he does, wherein he insists that he&#8217;s always been fair to so-and-so. But just as a reminder, here is what he&#8217;s <a href=\"http:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=1167\" target=\"_blank\">had to say about Franken<\/a> in the past:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>&#8220;You don&#8217;t get any lower than that man, Franken.&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;That&#8217;s the worst thing I&#8217;ve ever seen in American politics &#8211; is this man maybe becoming a senator.&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;It&#8217;s personal with me. He&#8217;s lied about me. He&#8217;s slandered me.<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;The fact that he was even competitive [&#8230;] depresses me about America.&#8221;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>If you can&#8217;t get any lower than Franken, where does O&#8217;Reilly place Hitler or Bin Laden? If Franken becoming a senator is the worst thing he&#8217;s ever seen, how much higher on his list is Watergate or the Kennedy assassinations? And if he&#8217;s really depressed about America, perhaps he should find a pleasant rest home with a nice garden where he can knit and scream at the mosquitoes.<\/p>\n<p>So the list of character flaws evident in the Fox mentality just keeps growing. They won&#8217;t be honest; they won&#8217;t be respectful; they won&#8217;t be faithful; they won&#8217;t be patriotic; they won&#8217;t be either fair or balanced.<\/p>\n<p>Is it really too much to ask that they just grow up?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Minnesota Supreme Court finally handed down its ruling today that Al Franken was the winner in last November&#8217;s senate election. The court&#8217;s decision was unanimous with all five justices ruling in Franken&#8217;s favor: &#8220;&#8230;we affirm the decision of the trial court that Al Franken received the highest number of votes legally cast and is [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[152,1,8,16],"tags":[179,26,527,33,591,589,590],"class_list":["post-1318","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-election","category-general","category-propaganda","category-wankery","tag-al-franken","tag-bill-oreilly","tag-fox-nation","tag-fox-news","tag-norm-coleman","tag-stuart-smalley","tag-tim-pawlenty"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4Ijg-lg","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1167,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=1167","url_meta":{"origin":1318,"position":0},"title":"Bill O&#8217;Reilly Congratulates Senator Al Franken","author":"Mark NC","date":"1\/6\/2009","format":false,"excerpt":"After a meticulous and prolonged recount, Al Franken has prevailed and will be Minnesota's new senator. Although the defeated incumbent, Norm Coleman, is still threatening legal action to retain his seat, most observers give him little chance of succeeding. His legal arguments wouldn't even produce enough votes to alter the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Election&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Election","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=152"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":54655,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=54655","url_meta":{"origin":1318,"position":1},"title":"Al Franken Shows How to Make Republican Hacks Squirm By Using this One Little Trick &#8211; Truth!","author":"Mark NC","date":"9\/11\/2022","format":false,"excerpt":"CNN has not exactly been dignifying itself lately. It's new management appears to be shifting its editorial direction more to either an artificial neutrality or downright conservativism. They have fired honest journalists like Brian Stelter and John Harwood. And sources say they are pushing remaining personnel to be more \"Republican-friendly.\"\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;General&quot;","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"Al Franken, GOP Elephant","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/franken-gop.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/franken-gop.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/franken-gop.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":8629,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=8629","url_meta":{"origin":1318,"position":2},"title":"Could Stephen Colbert Join Al Franken To Form A Senate Comic Caucus?","author":"Mark NC","date":"12\/10\/2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Public Policy Polling has just released a new survey of South Carolina residents on who they would prefer as the replacement for Sen. Jim DeMint, who is leaving the senate to head the conservative Heritage Foundation. Among those included in the speculation are long-time state pols like former governor Mark\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;General&quot;","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1108,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=1108","url_meta":{"origin":1318,"position":3},"title":"Not That It Matters: O&#8217;Reilly vs Franken","author":"Mark NC","date":"10\/28\/2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Last night Bill O'Reilly couldn't hold back any longer. He had to let loose on his arch-nemesis, Al Franken, and he did. Not that it matters. I'm just posting this as a bit of comic relief. A far-left extremist, Franken's tenure on the Air America Radio network was punctuated by\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Election&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Election","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=152"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":36199,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=36199","url_meta":{"origin":1318,"position":4},"title":"HUH? WH Press Sec Says Trump&#8217;s Sexual Abuse Shouldn&#8217;t Be Investigated Because He Denies It","author":"Mark NC","date":"11\/17\/2017","format":false,"excerpt":"The more Donald Trump and his flagrantly dishonest administration diverge from reality, the harder it is for them to maintain any semblance of coherence. Their lies just keep getting more absurd, which requires ever more ludicrous justifications and defenses. That state of affairs was perfectly illustrated Friday morning when Trump's\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;General&quot;","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"Sarah Huckabee-Sanders","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/huckabee-sanders-wtf.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/huckabee-sanders-wtf.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/huckabee-sanders-wtf.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1325,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=1325","url_meta":{"origin":1318,"position":5},"title":"A Sad Day For Bill O&#8217;Reilly &#8211; Courtesy Of Senator Franken","author":"Mark NC","date":"7\/6\/2009","format":false,"excerpt":"O'Reilly: \"In a sad day for America, Al Franken is now a U.S. Senator.\" It's not sad for the majority of Minnesotans who voted for him, and the millions of Americans who believe in Democracy. O'Reilly: \"Franken is a blatantly dishonest individual, a far-left zealot, who is not qualified to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;General&quot;","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1318","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1318"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1318\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1318"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1318"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1318"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}