FrankenFraud: Doggone it, voters just don’t like it!
posted at 8:50 am on May 5, 2008 by Ed Morrissey
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Al Franken faces some grim poll numbers in a survey commissioned by a local television station. Fifty-nine percent say they are less likely to support Franken for political office after hearing about his evasion of corporate and personal taxes in almost two dozen states over the last few years. The DFL may have the biggest case of buyer’s remorse yet seen:
DFL candidate Al Franken jumpstarted his campaign with a rally the day before Republican Norm Coleman officially announced his reelection bid. Since then, headlines have not been kind to Franken. First, a $25,000 fine for not paying workers’ compensation insurance in New York. Then he revealed he is paying $70,000 in back taxes, penalties and interest to 17 states.
In the latest SurveyUSA poll about Franken’s tax troubles, 500 people were polled.
Of those people, 59 percent said the recent troubles made them less likely to support Franken and 31 percent said it made no difference.
When asked whether Franken should withdraw from the race, 51 percent said he should withdraw while 38 said he should stay in the race.
KSTP included a response from the Franken campaign saying that they “did not agree” with the majority of those polled about his political future. Certainly they don’t, but that’s hardly the issue. When a candidate sees a poll that shows a majority not just opposing him but also insisting on his withdrawal, that tends to speak loudly about the certainty of defeat at the polls in November.
The crosstabs look particularly grim. When asked whether his tax violations make voters less likely to support him or makes no difference, the former wins majorities across all age groups, with both men and women, and with whites, blacks, and independents. Franken scores a dead heat among Democrats on that question. He loses in every region of the state as well.
On the question of withdrawal, it looks just as bad. Majorities of men and women want him to quit, and the only age group that favors his remaining in the race is 50-64-year-olds, 48%-46%. Eighty-nine percent of black voters want him to quit, as do 46% of independents, with 42% of them saying he should stay in the race.
The Democrats face a debacle in this Senate race. Franken has no chance of winning, and it’s even worse than that. If Democrats endorse a tax cheat for the Senate, the Republicans will remind voters of that at every rally, in every debate, especially since the DFL wants to raise taxes to support their party platform. Franken will be a constant reminder of that hypocrisy.
Expect the DFL to act in the next few weeks to pressure Franken out of the race. Anyone they get will do less damage than Franken, who’s discovering that, gosh darn it, people don’t want to vote for tax cheats.
Update: Fixed title, and forgot to credit True North for the hat tip.
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Actually, it’s “doggone it”, not “gosh darn it”. That was back when Franken had a sense of humor.
packsoldier on May 5, 2008 at 8:55 AM
Couldn’t happen to a better guy.
TheBigOldDog on May 5, 2008 at 8:55 AM
Couldn’t happen to a more deserving fellow.
BTW, what ever happened to Congressman Jefferson?
(And what was all that stuff about conflicts of interest with Pelosi, Reid and Boxer?)
petefrt on May 5, 2008 at 8:57 AM
Silly liberals…
And what is it about Minnesota, politically speaking, that just always seems a little wacky?
JetBoy on May 5, 2008 at 8:58 AM
Who are these 31%? That just show you 31% of the people will vote liberal, no matter what. I understand the 10% of nut cases that have no idea what to do, but 31%?
Someone needs to find these and interview them, find out what makes the tick.
Voting for a millionaire serial tax evader? Unbelievable.
right2bright on May 5, 2008 at 9:01 AM
Maybe he can go back to his radio show and entertain those three listeners who miss him.
JammieWearingFool on May 5, 2008 at 9:02 AM
Fixed it, and thanks!
Ed Morrissey on May 5, 2008 at 9:03 AM
The big one was Feinstein…I have a feeling a deal was made, notice Feinstein has not been front and center attacking Bush for many months now? She was a lead attack dog, but after getting her hand caught in the “cookie jar”, shoving bids off to her husbands businesses, not a word from her or about her.
right2bright on May 5, 2008 at 9:04 AM
Couldn’t have happened to a
nicer guymore unhinged leftist nitwit.Jaibones on May 5, 2008 at 9:05 AM
Ohh NOOO!!! Minnesota is about to lose its opportunity to have as one of its leaders a truly great man who would guide the state to a new, higher day, a better day, one safe for hypocrites.
indythinker on May 5, 2008 at 9:09 AM
You’re joking, right? Franken was never funny.
Vic on May 5, 2008 at 9:14 AM
Why would he withdraw? Don’t most Democrats ride this stuff out?
I’m still a little surprised Spitzer resigned so quickly…
Asher on May 5, 2008 at 9:16 AM
That number jumped out at me. That’s an awfully high percentage in a political poll.
Then on the which would you vote for today, if they were the only ones on the ballet question, you have 51% of blacks saying they’d vote for Coleman.
Interesting opportunity for Coleman, I’d say. If it lasts…
MamaAJ on May 5, 2008 at 9:32 AM
Actually, it’s “doggone it”, not “gosh darn it”. That was back when Franken had a sense of humor.
packsoldier on May 5, 2008 at 8:55 AM
—–
You’re joking, right? Franken was never funny.
Vic on May 5, 2008 at 9:14 AM
—–
Franken was always a little whiny, but if you go back and watch the SNL bits when he first joined, when he had to perform as a sidekick or otherwise pay his dues, he was funny enough.
It’s just that, once he got popular enough to influence the writers, or worse, to write his own stuff, he went right back to being a neo-communist stiff.
Mew
acat on May 5, 2008 at 9:36 AM
Why should Al Franken have to pay taxes? He’s one of those no-money-for-the-war-machine kind of people! A bit of latent anarchism to go along with that big government philosophy. Contradiction? You bet. But he’s also one of those who care so much about the little people that they are willing to put tons of them out of work to save a snail darter, and starve tons more of them half to death with this bio-fuels nonsense. The heart of it is really narcissistic irresponsibility, the other Al being the world champion.
smellthecoffee on May 5, 2008 at 9:37 AM
Asher:
Normally Democrats can ride out almost any storm. Spitzer’s problem was his arrogance which ended up making enemies within the NY Democratic Party. Both sides of the aisle were overjoyed with his demise.
jerryofva on May 5, 2008 at 9:37 AM
I was wondering about the 31 percent as well. Perhaps some are people who had a zero percent chance of voting for him to begin with and no scandal can drop the chance of voting any lower than zero.
gmbdds on May 5, 2008 at 9:45 AM
Remember we’re talking about Minnesota, the bozos who elected “Jesse the Body” as Gov.
jgapinoy on May 5, 2008 at 9:55 AM
I always felt that he was a bit of an idiot, myself. You know the kind…they think that no matter how stupid they look, if anyone is laughing, they are laughing with them, but nothing could ever be further from the truth. What a maroon!
Vntnrse on May 5, 2008 at 9:57 AM
Thank goodness, one more tool out of the tool box.
TheCulturalist on May 5, 2008 at 9:58 AM
Guess Minnesota won’t be a Senate pick up for the D’s.
libhater on May 5, 2008 at 10:00 AM
Thanks Al for helping us with our splinters. Even with glasses, that plank in his eye seems to prevent focus on FrankenWorld.
And, yes, you are Al Franken.
saved on May 5, 2008 at 10:03 AM
Al Franken just seems to move from one big flop to another, at least he’s consistent.
Maxx on May 5, 2008 at 10:04 AM
Franken-Idiot
custer on May 5, 2008 at 10:07 AM
Dems want you to be shoe horned by all of their crazy ass idealism but don’t wont to be subjected to it themselves.
TheSitRep on May 5, 2008 at 10:09 AM
I have an idea for a video: Pics or snippets of Al, with background music being Edgar Winter’s Frankenstein.
Bigfoot on May 5, 2008 at 10:11 AM
Best instrumental ever!
jgapinoy on May 5, 2008 at 10:14 AM
Why is this number so high? Well, this is the only state that voted for Mondull.
jgapinoy on May 5, 2008 at 10:15 AM
His chickens………. have come HOME TO……….. ROOST!!!!!
uniclone on May 5, 2008 at 10:18 AM
So, who will the DFL run in his place? Can Walter Mondale be called out of the retirement home one more time?
irishspy on May 5, 2008 at 10:22 AM
AL FRANKEN … Do as I say, not as I do.
DPierre on May 5, 2008 at 10:44 AM
Some of that 31% ‘no change’ includes people who were never going to vote for him.
Likewise, some of the people who don’t want him to drop out are saying that because they want the easy win.
KCSteve on May 5, 2008 at 10:46 AM
Al Franken is a
hypocriteDemocrat.TooTall on May 5, 2008 at 10:47 AM
This is the biggie. Democrats love workmens comp and other labor union type benefits.
funky chicken on May 5, 2008 at 10:59 AM
That is my thought, too. It’s really quite worrisome that BDS has become so ingrained in American society. If it wasn’t for the fact that so many psychologists are Democrats, I’m sure we’d see it listed in the DSM-IV. There has to be some shrink out there who is willing to study the liberals’ hate cult.
Connie on May 5, 2008 at 11:22 AM
I’m not sure that you all lambasting Franken know about his turd colored parachute-his ego will bring about this scenario:
fight it out to the general, lose in a landslide to Coleman.
Claim that his (Franken’s) entire campaign was an attempt at political activism, which can be declared a “WIN” because he was all about getting Democrats excited about compassion and following the ideals of Paul Wellstone. Then Franken will promise to work hard to support the MN-DFL through fundraisers and rallys in the coming years. Actually he will re-open his NY address and capitalize on his failed campaign by writing a bitterly sarcastic book about being a candidate. And it will all be George Bush’s fault.
Doug on May 5, 2008 at 12:09 PM
Absolutely right!!!
And apparently even Franken never viewed himself as funny: otherwise, he wouldn’t be running.
His whole ‘comedy’ bit was saying “I’m Al Franken” as though somebody should care.
Now this bit is even lame as irony.
landlines on May 5, 2008 at 12:25 PM
SCUM. SCUM. SCUM.
Gartrip on May 5, 2008 at 1:14 PM
When things get truly awful for Mr. Franken, he can always go back to Late Night with David Letterman. With Dave, Franken can count on a suck up interview in which Dave and Al discuss which one of them is cooler. If anyone has noticed, Dave will dis McCain and Romney and once in a while Hillary but never Obama and when Franken is a Dave guest, he is treated as though he is a movie star.
Larraby on May 5, 2008 at 2:03 PM
Hey! I didn’t vote for him and I live here.
Not a Minnesotan by birth or choice, btw. But it beats Berkeley.
Blue-eyed Infidel on May 5, 2008 at 2:36 PM
Most “shrinks” would say the conservatives are the ones deranged. That the “anger” is and expression of suppressed hostility that the conservatives have foisted on the liberals. Then they would cite the example of blacks and hispanices, blah, blah, blah
right2bright on May 5, 2008 at 3:11 PM
I’m good enough, I’m smart enough, and doggone it, people
likecaught me.I wonder who they’ll pick to be Frank Lautenberg here? And will the Minnesooooootans vote for him?
Squiggy on May 5, 2008 at 3:25 PM
Our state’s DFL Party would elect a democrat if caught robbing a bank so that the money could be distributed between NAMBLA and Osama Bin Laden…as long as the candidate was anti-Bush and pro-big government and high taxes!
sabbott on May 5, 2008 at 5:32 PM