Randi Rhodes seems to want to see Al Franken lose in Minnesota

[Cyrano]

She makes it very obvious that she hates him and probably for valid reasons having to do with their time at Air America.

Nonetheless, regardless of how she, or any of us might feel about Franken, we're talking about a 59th seat in the senate.

It takes 60 senators to break a filibuster. And if Franken becomes the 59th, there's always the possibility that Susan Collins, Olympia Snow, or some other (so called) moderate Repub can be picked off, bribed, or cajoled into not joining a filibuster.

So perhaps someone can tell me why Randi hates Franken so much. Randi, even though you're an occasional pain in the ass, I love you. So if you're reading this, perhaps you might chime in and tell us yourself.

[wuushew]

1. I wonder if Franken was the most liberal candidate

he always said he believed the intel in his original support for attacking Iraq.

[lapfog_1]

13. He is / was a pro Iraq war Clintonite.

Which is a good enough reason for people to dislike him.

He has the potential to be a funny Lieberman-lite.

OTOH, having a 59 seat majority in the Democratic caucus (including Bernie and Joementum) is probably worth it. After all, the Senate Dems welcomed Joe back into the fold. Al Franken is WAAAY better than Joe.

[tilsammans]

2. "Al is just not a nice person" is what I've heard Randi say back on AAR

I don't know why she feels this way. She has said that his wife is very nice, however.

[LisaM]

10. Does she like ANYONE at AAR?

On second thought, does she like ANYONE?

I met her in person once, and she seemed nice enough, but she leaves a trail of broken relationships behind her, particularly work ones.

[wryter2000]

28. She and Stephanie Miller like each other a lot

Of course, I can't imagine anyone not liking Momma.

[LisaM]

30. Stephanie's not at AAR, though

Maybe that has something to do with it.

[wryter2000]

33. True

Note to self: read subject headings more closely.

[marshall]

57. Haven't they all had reason to be in bad moods over the past few years?

They should all be much more pleasant to work with now.

[Goblinmonger]

11. I have a good friend

that is/was an intern for Al's campaign. She said that Franken is absolutely the nicest person in real life and truly, completely cares about the people of Minnesota. I trust her and will believe her over Randi.

[Berry Cool]

52. She says the same thing about Keith Olbermann all the time. "He is not a nice person."

She goes on and on about how she loves Keith on TV but never wants to meet him in person (just like she never wants to meet Sting in person), because so many people on the staff of his show have told her what a terrible person he is. She even gave a shout-out to one of his crew on the air once. I was like "HUH?!?!?!?"

I have always wished she'd put her money where her mouth is when it comes to insinuating how "not a nice person" other people are, but she prefers to smear with vague innuendo rather than cite any specifics. She taunts and teases and then says she can't really tell you.

There are a lot of things I like about her, but when it comes to that, I think she's full of it.

On edit: The irony of her claiming that Keith's staffers confide to her about how terrible he is is that she's constantly accusing him and his producers of stealing her topics and her ideas for guests. She assumes that every time she has a topic on her show in the afternoon and KO has the same topic at night, it's because he "stole" the idea from her. Completely disregarding that it's a story that's IN THE NEWS and that EVERYONE is covering it. Besides, I doubt she'd have people like Jonathan Turley on her show if not for hearing them first on KO.

[Bjorn Against]

53. I am not going to say much because I don't want to spread rumors about Franken...

Let's just say I've heard Franken is not always the nicest guy in person from someone who personally had a run in with him. Randi is not the only person who has had a bad experience with him. I want him to defeat Norm, but I really wish we could have had a different candidate as do many Minnesotans. If we would have had a different candidate this race would not have even been close, Obama won this state by a very large margin and Coleman only had a 38% approval rating before the election. For Franken to be struggling like this against a Republican with a 38% approval rating in a Democratic state shows that he was not a very good candidate. I really want him to win, but I doubt there are too many people in this state who think he was our best choice of candidate.

[Thrill]

3. Fuck Randi

Shes an idiot

[SidDithers]

5. Seconded...nt

Sid

[PM Martin]

6. O.K. I agree!

[Lex]

7. My sentiments

exactly. Her ego needs its own zipcode.

[Royal Oak Rog]

12. I Agree

I've always said she's the lefts equivalent to Billo! There's alot of things I don't agree with Al on, but ever since I heard Randi go after Patti Smith like she did I agree she's a thug!

[PM7nj]

16. Why the hell did she go after Patti Smith?

[LaydeeBug]

29. Smith supported a green party candidate, and Randi wasn't having it.

Ever since she turned freeper on Hillary Clinton, I am ABSOLUTELY done with her.

Just my two cents.

[spiritual_gunfighter]

23. What did she say about Patti Smith? n/t

[jonnyblitz]

55. that's the LAST time I listened to her after she SCREECHED

at Patti Smith. she is fucking NASTY.

[spiritual_gunfighter]

22. Thirded n/t

[Johonny]

40. hate to agree

But I dislike her show

[PM Martin]

4. I remember her from the spring contests.

Randi Rhodes is a horrible person. She is a thug, a creaton, a goon, and an all around miserable person. I found some of her ramblings on youtube and I must say that she is just not pleasant to listen to. The more seats you get the better. This bimbo clearly has some problems that she should get help with.

We have our own problems right now. Steve "Dubya" Harper has shut down the parliament to delay a no confidence vote. This vote could be the end of his days as Prime Minister.

[lapfog_1]

8. I suspect it has to do with Al waltzing into Air America

and becoming their "star host" despite having no experience on the Air. Plus I think Franken had something to do with Mike Malloy getting fired. Pretty much it was all related to Air America internal politics.

She has made it clear that she doesn't like him. But she also hasn't been bad mouthing him on her show.

[Sebastian Doyle]

15. Yep.

Randi and Malloy were the only professional radio hosts in the original Air America lineup. And Franken's show (besides being painfully boring) was also a daily neocon festival. The guy had a motherfucking nazi from the American Enterprise Institute on as a weekly regular, for fucks sake. And despite Al's butchery of a Bruce Springsteen song to the contrary, there are NO "decent guys" in Likud think tanks.

Now that said, I'd rather have Franken in the senate than Norm Coleman. But then, I don't live in Minnesota.

[wuushew]

17. I only tuned in for Joe Conason

I agree the rest was boring. Really not a fan of Randi either, but she did some good work in 2004.

[Jane Austin]

19. Norm Ornstein is not "a motherfucking nazi from the American Enterprise Institute".

He is a well-respected expert on Congress and legislation, and is probably best-described as a moderate.

He's a long time friend of Al's, maybe from childhood.

I don't know how he's kept his job at AEI, because he is almost nothing like the rest of the crew there.

If you ever read "Lies and the Lying Liars . . . ." I don't see how you could think of Franken as anything but a liberal.

And he adored, nay, worshipped Paul Wellstone.

[FormerDittoHead]

35. Wow. I just made the same point re: getting Malloy fired.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...

...I STILL point the finger at Al Franken (again, I donated to his campaign) for having Mike Malloy fired from AAR.

Here's my reasoning:

Al was the AAR 'star' making 1 MILLION a year to Malloy's 100,000. But the DAY AFTER Malloy had a 9/11 conspiracy show, with no notice, he was given the boot for "budgetary reasons". Yeah, right. But who would have CARED enough to have him fired?

I remain convinced that Franken got wind of that show and realized that his future Senate bid which he was 'exploring' at the time, and which he left AAR to pursue, would be crippled for the guilt-by-association that may have resulted from his working 'side by side' with a '9/11 kook'.

I've since quit AAR and am now a NovaM subscriber.

[Phredicles]

36. Right, and she makes a point of saying how she's not bad-mouthing him,

but she says it in a way that makes it clear she'd really, really like to bad-mouth him.

Personally, I find her whole manner really obnoxious.

[lapfog_1]

44. Apparently, she can't win.

If she rah-rah'd for Al, everyone would call her a hypocrite.

If she ignores him completely, she is missing a huge progressive story (there has been an Al Franken update on HuffPo every day since the election).

If she bad mouths him, she isn't supporting a Democrat for Senate and could be accused of helping Norm Coleman.

So she says "I won't say anything bad about Al, so I won't say anything". And you find it obnoxious.

I bought his books, I listened to his program, even when he would call his "ditto-head" friend that he had SO much respect for.
But Al's stance on the Iraq war made me take another look.

His campaign solicited me endlessly for money.

I want him to win... but not all that much.

[Phredicles]

50. No, I find her obnoxious in general. But she is basically saying, Look how

I'm not saying anything bad about Franken. She could report the facts about the recount, since it is news now, without emphasizing the existence of this baggage she's so not talking about. But she sure seems to want people to know the baggage exists.

[LibDemAlways]

9. The other day she said he isn't well liked by

the Dem power structure and that only Hillary campaigned with him. For some reason she just does not like him, but personalities aside, I fail to see why she'd be even tacitly rooting for an ass like Coleman. I personally want to see him and his zoom-whitened grin gone.

[onehandle]

21. She doesn't know what she is talking about. Bill Clinton, Sen. Harkin and others campaigned too.

I love Randi, but she often makes up little scenarios in her head.

[NYCGirl]

27. I guess that means Al Gore is not part of the "Dem power structure" then.

http://minnesota.publicradio.org/collections/special/co...



The DFL Party and Al Franken's campaign announced that former Vice President Al Gore will be in Minnesota on October 4th:

The Minnesota DFL Party and the Al Franken for Senate campaign announced today that former Vice President Al Gore will visit Minnesota on Saturday, October 4 to campaign for Al Franken and the DFL ticket at the annual Founders Day Dinner.

The DFL Party says the Founders Day Dinner will be held at the University of Minnesota in the early afternoon. No time scheduled yet.

[sellitman]

14. Since I have no respect for Randi ....Yawn.

Ever wonder why she hates so many Democrats?

She has issues.

[GentryDixon]

18. Professional jealousy?

[rvablue]

20. Personally I cannot stand Franken. I think he is an egotistic asshole....but

I hope to hell he beats Coleman.

[TexasObserver]

24. I'm shocked!! (Shocked that anyone cares what that run-on sentence says)

She's all mouth and no brains.

[Cyrano]

34. Since you are responding to my OP, I need to ask what run-on sentence

you're speaking about.

Then again, if you're calling Randi Rhodes a "run on sentence," I have to strongly disagree.

While she can be a tremendous pain in the ass on occasion, she is as well-informed and as liberal as anyone could possibly be.

We have enough Republican enemies, and even though I sometimes find Randi annoying, I don't count her among my enemies.

I view her as a strong and even strident voice for liberalism. If there was ever an anti Rush/Hannity/O'Reilly, she's it.

But of most importance, her facts are always dead on.

Having said all of this, I still want to see Al Franken take Minnesota.

[Jack Sprat]

46. I really like Randi's political outlook

I listened to her show plenty in the past, but she raised my blood pressure to unhealthy levels. She has a high speed energy that would not let me relax while listening. As much as I like her, I had to stop listening as often. I could not live with her.

[wildflower]

25. I like Al, though I have some problems with some of the stances he's taken...

He has been more centrist than I would have liked, and, at least in the past, he's dismissed the idea of electronic voting machine problems.

But of course I want him to win. I can't imagine any Democrat not wanting him to win right now. We need every Dem we can get.

And he's a funny, decent guy.

[hlthe2b]

26. He bruised her ego badly... She does not forget or forgive...

to her own detriment, IMO

[Cleita]

31. She really shouldn't do that on air.

I don't know what happened between them but I suspect it was because he got all the good guests back then and wouldn't share them. She even made a remark recently about stealing all of Al Franken's former guests now that he wasn't on the radio.

[NancyG]

32. A Senator Franken would be delicious.

Randi had professional issues with Al, as seen in the movie about Air America. More like personal professional issues.

I loved Al's AA show with all the interviews with opposing views. I miss it. Hartmann's show is a close second.

If Al loses, and I hope he doesn't, but if he does, perhaps he still has a job at AA. A silver lining perhaps.

[Bluenorthwest]

37. Randi is now the Sour Grapes Show

And her constant attacks on Demorats, and even on her callers will keep her in her niche market cage. I liked her for about a year, but she is depressed and not entertaining.

Al did AAR as a favor. Randi did AAR because it was the biggest and best thing ever to happen in her career. Al has won Emmys for comedy writing, had best selling books and just might be a Senator. None of those things are possible for Randi's talent. She's not going to make any movies, write any tv shows. Al was more famous before I could drive than Randi will be when I drop dead. He's a nice man, very funny, and he's also a great allie of GLBT equality. And Randi? She's got her show and her audience, and name recognition outside that slot is zero. But by criticizing him she can rub off a bit of his celebrity for herself.
Cheap and sad.

[Crunchy Frog]

38. Fuck you Randi!

I'm really starting to get sick of her.

[Name removed]

39. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[gogoplata]

41. Randi's a F$#@ing Wh*#e.

http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Air_Americas_Randi_Rhodes...

[greenbird]

42. I vaguely remember

hearing her say something about the Ohio votes in 2004 and Franken not believing her about how they were being stolen . . . I was only partially listening. I listen to her sometimes, but have to turn her off when she takes calls, 'cause I hate the way she treats most of her callers. I do enjoy her research and facts, though, and her hatred of Limbaugh.

[mysticalchick]

45. Yep. That's what I heard ...

... she said she was trying to get the word out that votes were being stolen in 2004 and no one would listen to her going so far as to cut off her feed and somehow, Al was involved in that.

Yes, her disdain for him is pretty obvious.

I learn a lot listening to her but sometimes, I just can't take the yapping. I also listen to Steph (podcast them both) and appreciate what both shows have to offer. (I'm such a Libra.)

[Clintonista2]

43. She's nuts

Glad her ass got canned at AA.

[walldude]

47. Well then let me be the voice of dissent here, as usual.

I Like Randi. In my opinion she's the only one out there who is as pissed off as she should be. THe problem with the entire Democratic party is they have this need to be liked. I mean here we are worried that we won't have a filibuster proof majority. You ever see a repuke worry about that shit? NO. Why? BEcause Dems are too busy contemplating their fucking navel to worry about stopping the neo-cons. Randi is angry, she doesn't give a shit whether you like her or not and she says what's on her mind. You go girl!

[bertman]

48. Randi can be one of the most articulate and well-informed advocates for the Progressive

agenda that I have ever heard. Sometimes I have been so enthralled that I pulled off the road and stopped to listen to her hold forth on issues as diverse as FISA/telecom immunity or war profiteering by military contractors or the treachery of our Democratic leaders like Reid and Pelosi. There have even been times when her stories have been told with such emotion and force that I was moved to tears, or to yell AMEN, SISTER!!!

She will say pretty much whatever pops into her brilliant head, no matter who it offends or how outlandish it sounds. I like that.

On the other hand, she is rude as hell to many of her callers. She tolerates no disagreement with her opinions (yes, it's her show, but let's at least have some reasoned discourse here). Sometimes she gets so obnoxious that I turn off the show after yelling at the radio.

One thing is she has never been or never will be as milquetoast and boring as Al Franken was when he had his show on AA. I was so freakin' thrilled when he came on. But his vocal style and plodding, aaahhh-filled sentences drove me up a wall. So, I stopped listening to him except on rare occasions when I'd tune in just for something different.

I see no reason we should expect our liberal radio personalities to agree with "most liberals" on anything. I want them to rant and rave about things that make a difference. I want them to tell us why they don't like Senator X or Congresswoman Y or candidate B. And I especially want them to give a perspective that I'm not going to get on any other medium--cause it sure as hell ain't coming from MSM.

So, let's give Randi the freedom to speak her mind. Even if she's an obno, she's our obno--mostly. Let's put more liberal obno's on the air so we'll have a wide assortment to choose from--like the fascists do.

[MiniMe]

49. I think it is all ego

When they started AAR, Al was the #1 draw, and I think that stuck a bit in Randy's gut. But back then, he was the name. Randy was well known in South Florida, but not nationally. When people started listening to her, her popularity nationwide grew, but she wasn't the draw in the beginning.

[Hassin Bin Sober]

51. Randi has diarrhea of the mouth.

I tried to like her - I really did. I've never heard someone argue so much with people that were AGREEING with her. She goes of half-cocked on most of her callers and she is downright rude. Also, she is an embarrassment the way she makes up "facts".

Between her abrasive personality, her pulling "facts" out of her ass, and now this... she can go fuck herself.

[Puglover]

54. My armchair take on Randi

is that she is horribly insecure and very ego driven. She can't mention Michael Moore's name without adding that "I don't think he likes me." As far as I know this is from one quick encounter in a hallway. She doesn't seem to be able to let go of even a perceived slight. And she is quick to say that AAR and NY were not a good experience for her.

She loves to name drop. At first I thought she did this for humor and of course a story but I think it's abit more then that.

It seems as if you don't worship her she has no time for you. But god forbid if she takes your call and you worship abit too much. Really it is difficult to know sometimes which of her callers she is going to be rude to and which she will be decent with.

I think one of the differences between her and Franken on the radio is that Randi lets you see abit of herself where as I didn't get that from Al.

That said I listen to her everyday. Sometimes (IMHO) her insight is brilliant and her New York humor tickles me. I usually however only can take her for two out of her 3 hours and turn the radio off at the top of hour 3. She is a brilliant, difficult and complex person. Again this is an "armchair" take on her. For me anyway the way to enjoy Randi is take the good and leave the bad.

I am from Minnesota and I hope Franken wins, however the campaign he ran was about as riveting as his radio show.

[Divine Discontent]

56. I find her brilliant at times, but far too mean spirited to callers or people she feels

at the time, are wrong or an enemy to her perfect views. She's got some great thoughts, but like Al, they've got egossssssssssssssssssssss that just keep going and going.

Despite that, I'd rather have her or Al in the Senate as opposed to a B*shy backer! Al might just pull this off!

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