The Truth (With Jokes)

The Truth (With Jokes), by Al Franken (2005)

Comedian, author and host of his own Air America radio show, Al Franken covers little new ground in a book that will appeal almost exclusively to Democrats and liberals. Even so, Franken’s love of country and sense of humor make this book a joy to read.

“The only comedian to have performed at Abu Ghraib,” so far as he knows, Franken addresses the outrageous assertion by commentators such as Rush Limbaugh that “nobody got hurt” there, in spite of the photo evidence showing one detainee dead and another badly beaten.

Franken takes aim at the Republican Party for its passage of legislation in the Terri Schiavo case. He points the finger at outgoing Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, a medical doctor, who formed his opinions on Mrs. Schiavo’s condition without ever having met with her. After her autopsy showed what many doctors had already concluded, that Schiavo had irreversible brain damage, Frist would claim that “Terri’s Law” was about merely about ensuring an accurate diagnosis.

But for all of his criticism of others, he maintains his ability to laugh at himself. After detailing a 2004 Defense Science Board report, which concluded that Americans were “strangely narcissistic” in the eyes of Muslims, Franken writes:

“… I think about narcissism a lot. One of the things people like most about my books is how I relate politics and global events to anecdotes about myself, especially my USO tours and the repeated confrontations in which I get the better of Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz. But enough about me…”

Franken finishes with a letter to his grandchildren, dated ten years into the future. He correctly predicts a Democratic takeover of the U.S. House in 2006. He goes on to predict gains for Democrats in the years after that, along with the passage of universal health care and public financing for elections. And what are his grandchildrens’ names? Barack, Hillary and Joe III (the last name having been in the family for many years.)

In an era of negative, often divisive, attacks hurled from one side to the other, Franken shows that one can make their points without being ugly. Better yet, he has fun while doing it. In print and on the air, Franken accomplishes what all too few writers and commentators do: he makes following public policy fun.