[Dialogue] Franken's 'Truth' is No Joke

[Harry Wainwright]

Published on Friday, December 2, 2005 by the Madison Capital Times
<http://www.madison.com>  (Wisconsin) 

Franken's 'Truth' is No Joke 

by John Nichols 

The essential founder of the American experiment was neither a general in
the Continental Army nor financier of its fight against colonial oppression.
He was not a member of the Continental Congress, nor a delegate to the
Constitutional Convention. He did not sign the Declaration of Independence
or any of the other official documents of his time. 

Tom Paine put his name only to the pamphlets he authored. But those
pamphlets, which achieved the widest imaginable circulation in the colonies
that would become the first 13 of these United States, provided the impetus
for the break from British empire. Rare was the home of a patriot from
Boston to Savannah that did not have a copy of Paine's "Common Sense" near
the hearth. Rare was the tavern where it was not discussed. Rare was the
gathering of Tory sympathizers with the British monarchy where the book and
its author were not reviled for their affronts to a ruler named George. 

Paine's next pamphlet, "The Crisis," which was written to inspire support
for the Continental Army and the republican cause, was so broadly read that
contemporary historians suggest it reached a greater percentage of Americans
than today watches the Super Bowl game. John Adams wisely noted, "Without
the pen of Paine, the sword of Washington would have been wielded in vain." 

"The Crisis" contained what is perhaps Paine's most famous line: "These are
the times that try men's souls." And it is surely true that the times that
try men's souls must, necessarily, inspire new Tom Paines. The dissenting
and radical tradition that is so vital to the health of American democracy
is characterized not merely by a willingness to confront what Paine referred
to as "aristocratical tyranny" but by a determination to do so in a manner
that is bold enough, provocative enough and, yes, entertaining enough to
reach the great mass of citizens. 

I thought often of the pamphleteering tradition as I read comedian, social
commentator and Air America radio host Al Franken's new book, with a title
that - like "Common Sense" or "The Crisis" - is Paine-like in its bluntness
and confidence: "The Truth." 

It's fair to say that Paine probably would have dispensed with the subtitle
"(With Jokes)," but the old revolutionary wrote in more deliberate times
than these. And if it now takes a bit of humor to get the message out,
doubtless Paine would approve. 

Surely, Paine would recognize the need, in times such as these, for
Franken's enormously popular books of social and political criticism. 

At a point where the Bill of Rights' "freedom of the press" protection -
which was written to encourage criticism of those in charge - has been
warped by media conglomerates into an excuse for the peddling of celebrity
gossip, the commercial carpet bombing of our children, and the shameless
stenography to power that allows a nation to be lied into war, it has become
difficult for most Americans to get a coherent take on the zeitgeist. As it
was in the era of King George, in the era of President George it is hard to
get a read on the spirit of the time from a media that, for commercial and
political reasons, is subservient to those who appoint members of the
Federal Communications Commission rather than to the readers, listeners and
viewers who yearn for substance and insight. 

It is this yearning that underpins the success of Franken's books and his
Air America radio program, as it does the documentary films of Michael Moore
and Robert Greenwald, the "Daily Show" diatribes of Jon Stewart, and the Web
sites such as www.commondreams.org and www.truthout.org that have been
developed to break through the fog of commercialism, extended weather
reports and breathless communiques regarding the lifestyles of the rich and
famous that now pass for "news." 

But what struck me as I read Franken's new book was the extent to which it
stands fully, and commendably, in the great tradition of patriotic
pamphleteering. Yes, it is thicker than one of Paine's revolutionary tracts,
and a bit more expensive. At some fundamental level, however, it does the
same work - that of exposing the flaws, the failures and the frauds of the
unexamined powerful. 

The former Saturday Night Live star's book is funny when it needs to be. But
the humor is merely the spice used to flavor what is a serious dish of
information. 

Some might chuckle at Franken's line: "Bush is lucky that he had a
Republican Congress, or he almost certainly would have been impeached and
imprisoned." But does anyone seriously question, after all the revelations
regarding the doctoring of intelligence and the deliberate deception of
Congress and the American people by the president and his cronies, that an
independent Congress would now be reviewing impeachment resolutions? 

With "The Truth," Franken indicts both the Bush administration and its
congressional allies - the section on former Majority Leader Tom DeLay is
deliciously detailed. 

To a far greater extent than Franken's previous book, "Lies and the Lying
Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right" (Dutton), which
attacked the messengers of the new right, this book sets out to dismember
official wrongdoers. "Gone is the familiar cast of villains: the psychotic
Ann Coulter, the sex-addicted Bill O'Reilly, the drug-addicted Rush
Limbaugh. Consigned to their own personal hells by their failings as human
beings, Franken mercifully leaves them be. Ann Coulter has been banned as
effectively from these pages as from the intellectual salons to which she so
desperately craves admittance," the third-person introduction explains. "In
'The Truth,' the fish are bigger, and the fry is deeper. Franken's targets
this time include both people - Bush, Cheney, Rice, Rove, DeLay - and
something new: ideas. In particular, the idea that the 2004 election meant
that Franken's beloved America had moved to the right. Al Franken ain't
buyin' it." 

The fishy figures of this administration do, indeed, get fried. 

Franken's book succeeds not with jokes - although the author's humorous
barbs remain the most effective skewers of the likes of Dick Cheney and Don
Rumsfeld - but with the tool that Paine and the pamphleteers of previous
ages employed: facts. 

"The Truth" is no screed penned in anger at a disreputable ruler and his
acolytes. It is a bill of particulars, which spells out high crimes and
misdemeanors for which Bush, Cheney and their crew will, ultimately, be
remembered. Indeed, if someone were to ask me for a quick review of what has
gone wrong with America since Jan. 20, 2001, I would not hesitate to
recommend that they start with this book. To be sure, there are other texts
that take apart particular players in effective ways - as the author of a
book on Cheney, I am duty bound to make that point - but there are few that
have the broad sweep combined with the consistent reliance on official
statements and credible critiques that this book offers. 

Additionally, "The Truth" captures the emotions of the moment, particularly
in the sections that deal with the frustrations of the 2004 presidential
contest, its delusional Democrats, its dysfunctional debates and its
disappointing conclusion. Bush, or more precisely Karl Rove, prevailed not
on merit, Franken argues, but by employing the "Three Horsemen of the
Republican Apocalypse: Fear, Smears, and Queers." 

That's a good line, to be sure. But it is backed up by chapters of
information and analysis that batter Bush with the effectiveness of a
particularly well-written legal brief - or a closing statement to the jury
from Clarence Darrow. 

Perhaps it does Franken no good to suggest that he has written - with the
able research assistance of Madison native Ben Wikler - an important and
useful book. In these days, the greater rewards tend to go to the most glib
commentators, to the loudest ranters and to the cruelest character
assassins. But Franken has offered us something more than another scream
from the left. 

This is a book that matters, not as great literature - although it is quite
well written and smoother in flow than Franken's previous texts - but as a
dose of reality for a nation that has grown ill from imbibing the global
fantasies of the neocons, the free-trade fallacies of the neolibs and the
"fighting-for-freedom" fakery of the Patriot Act-pushing, torture-promoting
neofascists who pass themselves off as the champions of liberty. 

At one point in the book, there is a joking reference to the notion that
Franken penned this tome with an intent to "purify the blood of the body
politic." 

Yet the often poignant letter to his grandchildren that closes the book,
under the title "The Resurrection of Hope," suggests that Franken's purpose
is just such a purification. 

Surely, Tom Paine - who anticipated both the Bush administration's secrecy
and Franken's challenge to it when he observed, "It is error only, and not
the truth, that shrinks from inquiry" - would encourage his pamphleteering
heir to embrace no less a mission. 

John Nichols is the associate editor of The Capital Times. His latest books
include "The Rise and Rise of Richard B. Cheney
<http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1595580255/commondreams-20/ref=nosim
> " (The New Press) and, with Robert W. McChesney, "Tragedy and Farce: How
the American Media Sell Wars, Spin
<http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1595580166/commondreams-20/ref=nosim
>  Elections, and Destroy Democracy" (The New Press). E-mail:
jnichols at madison.com 

C 2005 The Capital Times 

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