Although many loved Al Franken as various characters on TV's Saturday Night Live ( including Stuart Smalley ) , many more have taken to the liberal barbs he has thrown as a political humorist. Before he performs his comedy in a show set for Sept. 16 at The Chicago Theatre, 175 N. State, Franken took a few moments to share his thoughts with Windy City Times on a variety of issues, including his movie God Spoke ( which follows the 2004 presidential election ) , Karl Rove and gay marriage.
On Hillary Clinton: 'Well, she's a terrific senator. I know her pretty well and I like her tremendously. She's brilliant and a hard worker. I've seen a side of her that a lot of people haven't seen—she's actually funny and goofy, oddly enough.'
On Karl Rove: 'Slime ... outed a CIA agent ... probably as bad as you can get—but he's smart. He's just a terrible human being, though.'
On gay marriage: 'I don't understand how it threatens my marriage; if someone could explain it to me, I'd enjoy hearing it. [ Laughs. ] It's not about worth; it's about rights.'
On Paul Wellstone [ a Democratic U.S. senator from Minnesota who passed away in 2002 ] : 'He was a friend and a hero—a guy who said what he believed and believed what he said. He had the courage to fight for the common people.'
On airport security: 'A lot has been spent on it, maybe on the wrong areas. My impression is that all the recommendations of the 9/11 Commission regarding homeland security have not been carried out, and probably less so in areas like port security. I think a very bad job has been done regarding homeland security.'
On Joe Lieberman: 'I think he sold out his party, and continues to. I think that if he said before the [ Connecticut ] primary that he would abide by the primary and that a couple of things he said about the war were unfortunate, he would've won. Specifically, he shouldn't have said that if you criticize the President, you're undermining [ him ] ; then, he also said in November of 2005 that things were going very well in Iraq, when they clearly weren't.'
On the most surprising things about filming God Spoke: ' [ Regarding taping, ] I learned that filmmakers don't know what the story is going on; in fact, they don't know if they have a story—but they're very calm about it. [ Regarding the election, ] the most surprising thing was that we lost. [ Laughs. ] '
On [ former JonBenet Ramsey murder suspect ] John Mark Karr: 'I made up my mind not to follow that. I spend so little of my gray matter thinking about things like that. He's such a sicko. I don't blame the authorities for bringing him in, though.'
On FEMA: 'Ugh. That's about Bush and cronyism. [ Michael ] Brown [ was in those positions as the FEMA head and Bush 2000 campaign manager ] because he was Joe Allbaugh's college roommate. When Joe Allbaugh left FEMA, he set up a lobbying shop so Brownie was there so he feed contracts to Allbaugh's clients. It's not about the public interest—it's about special interests.'
On the Midwest Values PAC [ founded by Franken in 2005 to provide financial and organizational support to progressive candidates, activists, and causes ] and his upcoming show: 'We've raised about $800,000 and it's going to Democrats like [ 6th Congressional District candidate ] Tammy Duckworth in Chicago and other candidates all over the country who we feel have chances to turn districts. I feel it's absolutely vital that we take at least one house in Congress. So this show is a fundraiser; when people pay, they're giving the money to the PAC. [ Singer ] Dar Williams will open the show in Chicago, and she's absolutely fabulous.'
On the secret to being married since 1975: 'Beer.'
Tickets range from $37.50-$147.50 and are available through Ticketmaster at 312-559-1212 or www.ticketmaster.com .