From Ron Carey
Chairman, Republican Party of Minnesota
During a recent visit to Glencoe, comedian and DFL U.S. Senate candidate Al Franken made the case for why he should represent Minnesotans in Washington.

Unfortunately for Franken, I don’t think most Minnesotans are going to respond well to his unprecedented history of extreme and mean-spirited name calling. In his many writings and media appearances, Franken has called Republicans every name in the book, including “shameless [expletive deleted],” “right-wing mother[expletive deleted]” and “[expletive deleted] morons.” Franken has also referred to former Secretary of State James Baker as a “lying scumbag” and mocked World War II veteran Bob Dole over his war wounds by likening him to the one-armed murderer in the movie, “The Fugitive.” In addition, Franken has expressed “hate” for President Bush and joked about executing members of his administration.

With that kind of harsh track record, Minnesotans should not be surprised that Franken’s vitriolic personal attacks have continued during his campaign for the U.S. Senate.

Most recently, the Star Tribune reported that Franken mocked a conservative college student at Northfield’s Carleton College over the student’s manner of speaking and nervous habits. Most damaging for Franken, the conservative student's account of Franken’s behavior was verified by the chair of the Carleton College Democrats. Given Franken's complete inability to interact in a cordial way with a college student, Minnesotans may rightly wonder how such an individual will be able to work across party lines for the good of the state.

Even Democrats have taken note of Franken’s penchant for slash and burn politics, negative personal attacks and tendency to go too far with his strident rhetoric. DFL State Sen. Tom Bakk has called Franken “too negative.” Democrat U.S. Senate candidate Mike Ciresi has noted that, “Al Franken has made a living calling people names.”

Former Democratic State Senate Leader Allan Spear has said, “I just think there are a lot of things Al Franken has said over the years that are going to sound harsh and they're going to sound in some cases outrageous.”

Spear is right on that score. While Franken's well-heeled supporters in Hollywood and Manhattan embrace his scorched earth attacks on Republicans as “human filth” and “nutcases,” I am confident most Minnesotans will reject such name calling.

To effectively represent our state, we need someone like Sen. Norm Coleman who can work across the aisle to get things done for all Minnesotans. Sen. Coleman has been a successful and reliable advocate for our students, farmers, small business people, veterans and soldiers because he respects others.

As his own actions and words make clear, Franken does not respect his political opponents. In fact, he has frequently expressed hatred and contempt for them. Franken’s election year attempt at reinvention will not fool Minnesotans.

In spite of all his carefully scripted rhetoric and slick television commercials, it’s clear Franken does not possess the kind of temperament, maturity and experience Minnesotans demand. While Franken will spend millions of dollars on an extreme makeover this year, he will remain the mean-spirited and polarizing candidate in our state’s history.