what the heck? An AEI member on Al Franken?

[wli]

No mention of Ledeen? No mention of PNAC? Franken shilling for the AEI? What the Hell???

[brainshrub]

1. Franken is busy running for the Senate.

He should focus on making an entertaining show.

[Catholic Sensation]

2. Norm Ornstein has been his friend for years

[SheepyMcSheepster]

3. what is AEI?

thanks

[Catholic Sensation]

4. American Enterprise Institute

a more neoconservative right wing think tank, though the heritage foundation gives it a good run for its money with all the Thatcherites it has hired.

[SheepyMcSheepster]

5. i see

thanks!
:hi:

[wli]

6. American Enterprise Institute, a.k.a. neocon central

Notoriously home to Michael Ledeen, a neocon devotee of Leo Strauss suspected to be involved in the Niger forgery and known for openly advocating fascism.

[NYCGirl]

7. Here's Ornstein's bio from the Huffington Post (he writes for them):

Norman J. Ornstein is a Resident Scholar at the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research. He also serves as an election analyst for CBS News. In addition, Ornstein writes for USA Today as a member of its Board of Contributors and writes a weekly column called "Congress Inside Out" for Roll Call newspaper. He has written for the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Foreign Affairs and other major publications, and regularly appears on television programs like The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, Nightline, and Charlie Rose. He serves as senior counselor to the Continuity of Government Commission, working to ensure that our institutions of government can be maintained in the event of a terrorist attack on Washington; his efforts in this area are recounted in a profile of him in the June 2003 Atlantic Monthly. His campaign finance working group of scholars and practitioners helped shape the major law, known as McCain/Feingold, that reformed the campaign financing system. Legal Times referred to him as "a principal drafter of the law" and his role in its design and enactment was profiled in the February 2004 issue of Washington Lawyer. He is also co-directing a multi-year effort, called the Transition to Governing Project, to create a better climate for governing in the era of the permanent campaign. He is a member of the Board of Directors of the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) and the Campaign Legal Center and of the Board of Trustees of the U.S. Capitol Historical Society. He was elected as a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2004. His many books include The Permanent Campaign and Its Future; Intensive Care: How Congress Shapes Health Policy, both with Thomas E. Mann; and Debt and Taxes: How America Got Into Its Budget Mess and What to Do About It, with John H. Makin.

[wli]

9. association with the AEI should be cause for deep suspicion

The AEI is heavily involved with the neoconservative "movement" and a number of rather unsavory characters (esp. Michael Ledeen) are involved with it.

[Cassandra]

10. I guess he fulfills AEI's need for...

someone in touch with reality.

[BlueEyedSon]

8. Franken is WAY too centrist for me, and I hope, AAR too

[devinsgram]

11. After the response he made about the meeting between

the village idiot and Cindy Sheehan, I sent him an angry email and told him, I have had enough of his show and his stupid comments. It sounded like he was defending * saying that Cindy was probably overwhelmed with grief and maybe she mistook his behavior. Well gee whiz,who wouldn't have been overwhelmed with grief after losing their child. Anyone with compassion would have seen that and acted accordingly with respect for the families. * acted like he was doing them a favor by seeing them. He is just a self-centered bastard.

You may or may not have liked Clinton, but he would have never acted like that.