Al Franken: Giant of the Senate by Al Franken

[gilda_elise]

From the #1 bestselling author - the story of an award-winning comedian who decided to run for office and then discovered why award-winning comedians tend not to do that.

This is a book about an unlikely campaign that had an even more improbable ending: the closest outcome in history and an unprecedented eight-month recount saga, which is pretty funny in retrospect.

I’ve liked Al Franken since SNL and Stuart Saves His Family, but never more so then after reading this book. His humor and wit shine through, but so does his desire to do good for the people of his state. He gives praise to his fellow Democrats, while gently chastising his detractors on the other side of the aisle. And he actually taught me something about how a bill really gets through Congress (forget all about that silly video that purports to.)

He could do that because he had actually taken the time to learn about public policy, not jumping in totally ignorant as so many have. And he was a good enough Senator for the people of Minnesota to send him back a second time by a wide margin.

Now on to the elephant in the room. I did some research into the accusations against him. Most don’t hold water. He left his hand on your breast for ten seconds? What, were you in a coma? Another claimed that he had “pinched the skin around her waist a couple of times.” Give me a break. Perhaps if one of these women had turned around and slapped him, or yelled something to the affect like “Keep your hands to yourself, a**hole,” it would have all ended there. In any event, I found nothing that would have warranted destroying a man’s career. Certainly not before allowing the vetting he was asking for.

So Gillibrand, Brown, Harris, Stabenow, Booker, Warren, and, yes, even Sanders, and the other twenty-five Democratic senators who voted to oust him (amazing how many of them are running for the presidential nomination,) you can all rot.







Links are to more information regarding each book or author, not to the review.


1. The Outsider
2. War on Peace: The End of Diplomacy and the Decline of American Influence
3. Lost Dogs and Lonely Hearts
4. The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America
5. Frozen in Time: The Fate of the Franklin Expedition
6. From Baghdad to America: Life after War for a Marine and His Rescued Dog (Lava #2)
7. The Gap Into Vision: Forbidden Knowledge (Gap #2)
8. The Family That Couldn't Sleep: A Medical Mystery
9. First King of Shannara (Original Shannara Trilogy 0)
10. Legends of the Fall
11. Moon of the Crusted Snow
12. Mio, My Son
13. Circe
14. Al Franken: Giant of the Senate



BOOK BINGO

13. Free Space - Al Franken: Giant of the Senate by Al Franken





1. Fantasy, Scifi, Paranormal - The Outsider by Stephen King
2. Mystery/Crime/True Crime - The Family That Couldn't Sleep: A Medical Mystery by D.T. Max
5. Diverse Reads - Moon of the Crusted Snow by Waubgeshig Rice
6. Children's or YA - Mio, My Son by Astrid Lindgren
7. Biography/Autobiography Non fiction - From Baghdad to America by Jay Kopelman
8. Historical (fiction or nonfiction) - Frozen in Time: The Fate of the Franklin Expedition by Owen Beattie, John Geiger
9. Set in Your State/Country or Written by a Local Author - Legends of the Fall by Jim Harrison
10. Title Starts with the First Letter of Your Name - The Gap Into Vision: Forbidden Knowledge (Gap #2) by Stephen R. Donaldson
11. Female Author - Lost Dogs and Lonely Hearts by Lucy Dillon
12. One Word Title - Circe by Madeline Miller
13. Free Space - Al Franken: Giant of the Senate by Al Franken
15. Title is at Least Six Words Long - War on Peace: The End of Diplomacy and the Decline of American Influence by Ronan Farrow
20. A New-to-You Author - The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America by Richard Rothstein
22. A Book that is Part of a Series (4+ books) - First King of Shannara (Original Shannara Trilogy 0) by Terry Brooks

Comments

[gilda-elise.livejournal.com]

But do they think that, having waited all that time, they're more inclined to be believed now?

My biggest problem with the situation is that often the woman could have done something. The woman who accused Biden should have turned around at the moment and said something like, "Excuse me, none of that allowed." Or, "Hey, big guy, I think you took me for someone else." Because she wasn't alone with him, and she wasn't a young girl. And complaining that she felt "powerless" because some guy kissed her on the back of the head? I do tend to believe that it happened; it sounds like something Biden would do. But how the woman reacted, then and now, is what I have a problem with.

[leethet.livejournal.com]

Well, they're speaking up now because now there is an atmosphere of acknowledgment of how pervasive this kind of thing is. Also - and I'm sure you would agree - after the fact it's easy to say "you should have spoken up" or something. But in the moment most of us are caught off guard and don't have words ready on our lips. Also, women are accultured to play along, to be nice, to give in, not to make a fuss. I think it's all those things that crowd up in a woman's throat and make her feel powerless - not necessarily the act itself.

Me, the time a stranger grabbed my ass in a bar I backhanded him, on instinct. If I'd had a baseball bat he'd've been dead. But I have REALLY strong boundaries. I don't expect other women to react the way I did - nor would I necessarily recommend it! It didn't get the jerk to back off. He kept harassing me (following me around, trying to "talk" to me) until I asked my male band mates to threaten his life. That sort of worked.

What can you do? But no - I get the way a person, especially a woman, can freeze up and assume everyone will blame her for making a fuss over nothing, or call her a liar or a bitch. It's happened to pretty much every single woman who has come out with her assault or rape story.

[gilda-elise.livejournal.com]

I think that's something that definitely needs to change, how women are brought up to behave. Of course, then she's a b**ch, so you can't win. I do agree that being able to respond at the time is something that a lot of women aren't able to do, for whatever reason. Me, I stood up and pushed a guy who tried to sit next to me in a booth after I'd told him to basically get lost. So, yeah, my own instincts, which sound very much like yours, do make it hard for me to understand how women can put up with what they put up with.

[leethet.livejournal.com]

Some women know they aren't going to win a physical fight. I wouldn't have, had the guy gotten more physical. Had I been alone, say in an office or stairwell or my home. Or had I been in a place where a fight would have gotten ME in trouble (other than a bar, for sure!). I acted on instinct. Fighting back can get you beaten up or killed. Women get that in ways that I think men don't understand. But I'm surprised when women don't understand that - we're very unlikely to win any real fight with a man unless he's a lot smaller/weaker. And god knows our culture doesn't encourage women to defend their space with words. Until now. And the ones who're speaking are still derided and doubted.