It was a busy week for Al Franken. He's busy campaigning to become the DFL endorsed candidate to oppose Norm Coleman (R-MN) in the MN-SEN race. It was a busy week for me, too. I finally was able to attend a BBQ in Plymouth for his supporters on Saturday evening. I got the time wrong and showed up early. Which ended up being good because I got to talk to alot of people about the race and Al. Unsurprisingly, most folks I talked to didn't know much about Mike Ciresi ("he's the attorney who won against Big Tobacco, right?" asked one attendee) or Bob Olson.

The first trio there aside from me was a middle-aged couple and a woman wearing a Franken 2008 mesh ballcap. "How long have you been supporting Al and what made you decide?" I asked.

"Well, I've had the hat for a year," she replied. "How's that?" Al announced last February. I guess she's really excited and it showed. She obviously had the hat made long before there was any campaign.

"Since he announced," said the other woman. "There was no question that I'd support Al."

"I supported him since the announcement, too," replied the man. "But Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer entering the race complicates things for me. I supported Jack in the CD-5 race [Keith Ellison eventually won it] and I really like him." Nelson-Pallmeyer has not officially announced and is still testing the waters, mulling it over or whatever aphorism you choose.

While we chatted a dozen workers in official Franken 2008 tshirts had pulled up and began unloading and setting up. Then I noticed that a Teamsters Local 120 tractor trailer had pulled up. Not bad considering they just announced their endorsement on Friday. The pavilion was atop a hill and the parking lot and entrance road was out of site below the hilltop.

I spoke to Charles and Jean Gallow of Plymouth. They said they were undecided. I asked what were the important issues for them.

"Social programs," replied Charles. "Minnesota has always had good social programs and they've been going downhill under the Republicans in Washington and Pawlenty here in Minnesota. We need to take care of people, its what we used to do in this state. Also, we shouldn't be afraid of taxes, they buy good things like roads. Taxes shouldn't be a 'dirty word'.

Jean agreed and added: "Financial responsibility is important. The Republicans aren't financially responsible and they've taken away funding for social programs."

After talking to some more folks, I finally spied Jess McIntosh, Communications Director for the Franken Campaign. Since Al was so busy, she would be available to talk with me. If you have ever listened to Minnesota Matters on Air America (5-7 weekdays), she used to appear almost daily when she Communications Director for the state DFL. Its always good to put a face to a voice.

"I've never seen anything like this," she began. The pavilion was full now with about 250 people mingling. "We've got 4500 volunteers and people keep signing up. I've worked on a number of campaigns, but the volunteer turnout is just phenomenal and its so far out from prime electio season.

"One of the problem we have is Al wants to talk to everyone and will stay far past when we need him out of an event to get to another. We almost have to physically drag him away from talking to folks. He has such great energy and so do the crowds who meet him."

By this time Al had showed up and was amongst the throng. I began by asking about Al's position on the Iraq War.

"Al wants an orderly withdraw to major bases then an orderly redeployment," Jess responded. "We've got to have a plan for getting out." Here's what his website has to say:

The solution
Well, there aren’t any good ones. But it’s obvious that Republicans in Congress aren’t interested in changing our course in Iraq. Democrats need to lead the way. We should enact the recommendations of the Baker-Hamilton Commission. Specifically, we should put pressure on the Maliki government by making our presence in Iraq conditional upon its willingness and ability to meet certain benchmarks, including:

• devising a fair plan to share oil revenues among ethnic groups in Iraq
• starting a reconciliation process to defuse sectarian tensions
• addressing the disastrous de-Baathification and putting Sunnis back to work
• engaging sectarian death squads and tearing them out of Iraqi security forces, root and branch

We should also be re-deploying our troops out of the civil war that has engulfed Baghdad. They can be re-deployed to surrounding bases, to other parts of the country, to Kuwait and Qatar, and especially to Afghanistan, where our mission is in danger of failure. At the same time, we should be convening a regional conference including Iran, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Turkey, and Egypt to come up with a long-term plan for Iraq and ensure that a regional conflict does not arise. And we should consider the Biden-Gelb plan for a soft partition of the country. While we can’t impose that kind of a loose federation on the Iraqi people, it’s worth noting that one seems to be developing already. Tens of thousands of Iraqis a month are relocating out of mixed sectarian neighborhoods.

Al has this bond with the troops. Whenever he talks about the troops he usually gets choked up. When Andy Barr, Campaign Manager, joined us he related this story.

"At Grandma's marathon, we positioned Al near the start line," he related. Al was waving and everyone was waving back to Al. Two guys pull out of the pack for a second come over and say 'we were Al's bodyguards during one of his ISO Tours of Iraq'."

Next I asked about renewable energy.

"Well, the day that Ford announcemed that they were closing the St. Paul plant," answered Jess. "We did a press release that it ought to be redeveloped as a wind turbine factory. All the wind turbines are made in Scandavia, mostly." [update: they didn't have press release and I think the plant closed in '06]

Here's a bit from his website on it:

The solution
We need to get serious about renewable energy by funding a real Apollo Program to explore new sources. From ethanol and biomass energy to solar and wind power, the solution to our “addiction to oil” is right under our nose.

Al says:
One of the dumbest things this President has ever said – and that’s a high bar – is that adopting the Kyoto Protocol would be ruinous to our economy. Over 200 mayors have signed onto Kyoto, and we visited many of those cities with our radio show. Those mayors told me that their air is cleaner, they use less electricity, and they’ve created entire new sectors of employment in conservation and renewable energy technology.

With a real Apollo Program to develop these new sources, we can save our environment, finally address global warming, make our nation less dependent and more secure, and create high-tech, high-paying jobs in the process. That’s jobs in conservation, jobs in renewable energy research, and jobs in manufacturing. You know that Ford plant in St. Paul that’s closing down? We should be making wind turbines there!

Renewable energy: It’s win-win-win-win-WIND.

We talked for a while about campaigning, His Shrubness, Norm Coleman, Saturday Night Live ... a wide range of topics. It was fun and, unfortunately, I wasn't taking notes. Andy related this bit from Feb. 15th, the day that Al announced:

"We had an evening event at Wellstone Hall in the Labor Temple in Duluth. Al was running late, we know now to literally and physically drag him out of places. Anyway, the crowd was getting restless, it was packed. They were broadcasting in an overflow hall and despite that there were still people who couldn't get in. Al spoke for 45 minutes then talked to anybody who wanted to talk. We cleaned up, he continued to talk. We took the tableclothes off the tables and began putting the tables and chairs away, he was still talking to the last stragglers. After a long, long day, he still had tons of energy and he still has that energy today."

The Franni joined us. Franni reads all the Minnesota blogs. Plus, she's Al's not-so-secret weapon.

"I'm the pie lady," she explained. "After 9/11 I began bringing apple pies to Fire Co. 74 in Manhattan where we lived. They really liked them. 'Who are you,' they asked. I said 'I'm a citizen, have some pie.' They started calling me the pie lady."

"Her pies stand up about 6 inches in the middle," interjected Jess. "Completely full of apples. They're amazing."

"I've been bringing pies around to the meet-ups and they've been auctioning them off, silent auctions," said Franni finishing up her storyline after we got done discussing pie-making.

I asked about impeachment and trade agreements generally and NAFTA & CAFTA in particular. Jess promised to get back to me with statements. Here they are:

Al believes in fair trade. When Al Gore was debating Ross Perot in favor of NAFTA, Al tended to side with the vice president. But when it became obviousthat the policy was detrimental to both workforces and national economies, he could no longer support it. He opposed CAFTA because it failed to address theproblems created with NAFTA.

While he understands the case for impeaching Cheney, Al feels that it would distract from more pressing legislative concerns. And Al hopes that Gonzales does not continue to defy Congress, thus forcing the issue.

Soon after that the official program began. A guy from the campaign introduced Rep. John Benson and Sen. Terri Bonhoff both from Minnetonka/Plymouth, both recently elected and at the event ... and it was underway.

Tommy Johnson from Minnesota DFL Veterans Caucus was the warm-up. He came up with a name for the Bush Administration I hadn't heard before -- "Boy Blunder and the Plunderers." I like that one.

"Aside from being a vet, I'm a small business owner," he began. "Actually, its a snow removal business. And the weather has been lousy lately for me. The meterologists always get it wrong about when its going to start snowing. It never snows anymore. And when its going to end on the rare occasions it actually does snow. And how much its going to snow when it does. Meteorologists are like the Bush Administration, they are wrong all the time and still get rewarded for it."

This got a lot of laughs. Then he hit us with his killer line: "Bill McGuire makes $100 million at UnitedHealth and our troops buy their own body armor. The priorities of the country and this Administration are all wrong."

He was there to fundraise for the MN DFL Vet Caucus's annual meeting. Al thought they could easily raise the $400 to rent a room up in Duluth at for their event. Tommy introduced Al.

Transcript of Al's stump speech

I've got a really strong tie to our vets. I've done 7 ISO tours. I'm not a vet, so its the least I can do. Its not hard. Show up, tell a few jokes and leave. It's not too hard. I want to stand up for our troops in Washington, too. In October of 2006 the Republican Congress cut in half traumatic brain injury research at the VA. From $14 million to $7 million. This is one of the most frequent injury that troops get, yet they cut research into it. I squawked about it on my show for about a week. Republicans don't fund the VA and we told them this would friggin' happen.

Anyway, Franni was nervous about me going to Iraq. She said 'Bill O'Reilly doesn't go' and its true. I said to her 'honey, that's not fair, its a talent show and he doesn't have any talent'.

So, we need to have a conversation about how to get out of Iraq. We need to have more thought and planning going into getting out of there than we went into going in.

Last year, Franni and I went 50 bean feeds. It was a gas. 50 bean feeds, spaghetti dinners, barbeques, you name it. We went party unit by party unit. We had to take back the Senate and the House. We had to get Amy Klobuchar and Tim Walz elected and we did. Tim Walz said 'Al loves his country and doesn't like the direction its going.'

We're gonna take our country back!

We need Universal Health Insurance.

We need to change our energy policy.

The dumbest thing the President said about our energy policy was that we shouldn't abide by the Kyoto Protocols because they'd hurt the economy. He's plain wrong. It'd be a boon to farmers and the economy. We're a windy state. We should be making the wind turbines in Minnesota not importing them. The Ford plant in St. Paul is closing. We could put a wind turbine factory in there. We can create many hi-tech jobs by investing in alternative energy.

We need to start believing in science again. We need to pass a law that no government official can change scientific policy without the okay of the scientists.

We need to promote and fund stem cell research. Blastocytes are thrown away every day. They're not going to be used for anything, but they could be used for research to save people's lives. I want to ask Norm in a debate what he suggests doing with them. He claims to be pro-life. Should we incinerate them or use them for life saving research? We choose science, we choose life. What's your choice, Norm?

I grew up in Saint Louis Park in a two bedroom, one bathroom house. I didn't worry about anything. Nowadays, people have to worry. The cost of health insurance is so high its the number one cause of bankruptcies. This is just wrong and we have to get health care insurance under control.

Then there's education. When Franni went to college, she got a Pell grant which paid for 90% of her college education. The Republicans have been gutting our education system and cutting our financial aid year after year. I'm gonna change that. Conservatives will tell you the way to succeed is to lift yourself up by your own bootstraps. Well, Franni's family didn't have the boots.

Democrats are the liberal and the conservative party. The Republicans are running $250 billion deficits year after year. They vote to fund things like the Bridge to Nowhere which Norm Coleman voted for. That's not conservative.

There is nothing conservative about claiming powers not given to them. There is nothing conservative about gutting habeas corpus. There is nothing conservative about doing domestice surveillance without approval by a FISA Court. There is nothing conservative about torture.

When Franklin Delano Roosevelt Dwight Eisenhower toured the world, hundreds of thousands of people greeted him, waving flags. President Bush can't even go to Mankato without vetting the crowd and getting everyone to sign pledges of support. On January 20, 2009 the world will let out a sigh of relief.

A Democratic President will replace him. He ... or she ... will have a larger majority in the House. Now we have a majority in the Senate by the skin of Joe Lieberman's teeth. We're going to have a 56 or 57 vote majority. A real majority.

I'm gonna be one of them.

I'm gonna need your help.

Paul Wellstone said The future will belong to those who have passion and are willing to work hard to make our country better.

It means so much to see all of you here. We feel we're going to do this, we're going to take our country back.