Why is the SNL skit a point of debate?

[question everything]

I saw it, I thought it was funny, how McCain has to say, after every comment that he "approved the message."

I don't know why Franken has to say that he did not write it, why the Coleman campaign has to go after him..

[Eric J in MN]

1. Did Norm Coleman criticize Al Franken for suggesting a skit to SNL? NT

NT

[mascarax]

2. Norm's Campaign Did

There's a statement on the colemanforsenate web site.

Apparently, there are no other pressing matters for Norm and his staff to address.

[Eric J in MN]

4. OK, I found a Pioneer Press op-ed linked from

...Norm Coleman's website:
===================================================================================

http://www.twincities.com/allheadlines/ci_10525474

The Coleman campaign leapt on Franken's glancing return to "Saturday Night Live."

"Al Franken can't help himself. Once again he proves he's more interested in entertainment than service, and ridiculing those with whom he disagrees," Coleman campaign manager Cullen Sheehan said in a statement.

Franken said he didn't write a single word of the sketch — which features McCain recording his disclaimer to tag ads with increasingly incredible claims about Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama — but found it funny when he saw it on television Saturday.

And the provision of the germ of an idea to his old friend doesn't define his campaign, he said.

"The Coleman people can ... do all kinds of distractions if they want to," Franken said. "This campaign is about working families and middle-class families. That's what the campaign is about — getting jobs and education and making sure that the next senator is working in the interests of families of Minnesota rather than the special interests."
===================================================================================

[Lydia Leftcoast]

3. Because the Republican fake outrage machine actively seeks things to be

indignant about and then tells all its media outlets to foment anger among the rubes.

[question everything]

5. Yes, but even the Franken campaign was quick to distance itself fron SNL

even before the Coleman campaign ran with it.

I think he should have owned it, especially when Coleman is running campaign showing Franken as "angry" - which is justified, anyway - who believes in injecting some humor on occasions.

[trotsky]

7. Bingo.

It's literally all they have. Can't run on their record, can't run on the economy, can't run on the war, they've got nothing but fake outrage and they're going to ride that horse to the glue factory.

[Minnesota Raindog]

6. There's more to this story

http://minnesotaindependent.com/9913/in-its-hand-wringing-over-mccain-skit-gop-fails-to-note-mccain-campaign-contributions-from-snl-producer-lorne-michaels

Norm Coleman’s campaign and his henchmen are bloviating overtime about Al Franken’s reported contribution to a Saturday Night Live skit last week mocking John McCain. The skit was conceived from some comments made by Franken in a phone conversation with his old friend and boss, SNL creator and Executive Producer Lorne Michaels.

Yet Michaels, who was the one who pushed for the skit skewering McCain, escaped any criticism at all from the Coleman camp or the GOP. Perhaps that’s because McCain himself has hauled in $5,300 in campaign contributions from Michaels since 2000—$2,300 in the current election cycle.

Michaels contributed $1,000 to McCain 2000 in February 2000; $1,000 to Friends of John McCain in October 2004; $1,000 to McCain’s Straight Talk American PAC in October 2006; $1,000 to John McCain 2008 in March 2007; and $1,300 to John McCain 2008 in May 2007.

[dflprincess]

8. Why's Coleman going after Franken for this?

'Cause Normie's got nothin'. He can't run on his record so his campaign has to try and make issues out of non-issues.

I think it's time for Franken to start making an issue of Norm never looking at war profiteering while he chaired the subcommittee on permanent investigations.

This is from today's Post and will no doubt get ignored what with the Wall Street bailout taking all the media's time.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/artic...

13 Billion in Iraq Aid Wasted Or Stolen, Ex-Investigator Says


A former Iraqi official estimated yesterday that more than $13 billion meant for reconstruction projects in Iraq was wasted or stolen through elaborate fraud schemes.

Salam Adhoob, a former chief investigator for Iraq's Commission on Public Integrity, told the Senate Democratic Policy Committee, an arm of the Democratic caucus, that an Iraqi auditing bureau "could not properly account for" the money.

While many of the projects audited "were not needed -- and many were never built," he said, "this very real fact remains: Billions of American dollars that paid for these projects are now gone."

He said a report that went to Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and other top Iraqi officials was never published because "nobody cares" about investigating such cases. Many investigators, he said, feared for their safety because 32 of his co-workers have been murdered.

Adhoob said he reported the abuses to the U.S. Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction, an agency charged by Congress with helping to root out cases of waste, fraud and abuse in the nearly $50 billion U.S. reconstruction effort. SIGIR spokeswoman Kristine Belisle said her agency continues to "actively follow up" on Adhoob's information, but she would not discuss ongoing investigations. ..

The companies also overcharged for military helicopters and tried to deliver aircraft that were more than 25 years old, he said. Instead of demanding the money back, Adhoob said, the Defense Ministry renegotiated with the companies for "a series of mobile toilets and kitchens -- which have never been delivered."

Adhoob said some of the investigations conducted by his agency and others uncovered "ghost projects" that never existed or instances in which Iraqi and U.S. contractors did poor-quality work. In one case, $24.4 million was spent on an electricity project in Nineveh province but an oversight agency found that it "existed only on paper."

[question everything]

9. Franken mentioned this during the Saturday rally

and when I asked this of someone from the campaign, she said that this week they are going to hit on this, hard. I think that I caught a glimpse either yesterday or today.

[cynthia]

10. I didn't see the SNL skit you mention

does anyone have a link to it?

[trotsky]

11. Here you go.

Overall, fairly funny. Darryl Hammond does nail McCain's speech pattern pretty well.

http://www.nbc.com/Saturday_Night_Live/video/clips/mccain-approves-open/669582/

[cynthia]

12. thanks

you're right, Darryl Hammond does McSame's voice too well. Some of these SNL actors are masters of the voice impersonation.