Last night, I happened to stumble on the CSPAN rebroadcast of Al Franken making his senate run announcement on his radio show. I listened for a moment and was kind of drawn in. I’m not a big fan of Franken’s, but he was giving what seemed to be an emotional and heartfelt explanation of why he was running. It involved a long story about how his mom was in a home and not doing well with some kind of dementia. One day Franken visited her and she was in really bad shape. He recounted how Paul Wellstone, his friend and inspiration, gave him solace and comfort later that night at a fundraiser. Franken exaggerated the generosity of Wellstone’s concern from my perspective. After all, Franken was a friend, a famous guy, and a political asset for the Senator. It’s not shocking that he would go out of his way to ask Franken how his parents were doing. But, that’s a quibble as that’s how Franken wanted to remember a deceased friend and hero. Anyway, Franken tells Wellstone at some point how out of it his aged mother was, unable to have a conversation with her son. And Wellstone responds “you know, touch matters so much” or something like that. Franken later talks about how he put his arm around his mom, and how much it meant to him.

As, I said, I found it compelling, in part because it seemed so heartfelt, in part because of my own experience with my Dad’s passing. But then while he’s talking — indeed, reading from prepared text — about how much that advice — about touch meaning so much — he says something like, “touch means so much — not exactly the kind of advice Dick Cheney would give.”

And suddenly I remembered: Al Franken’s an enormous jerk. Really? Dick Cheney wouldn’t say something kind and supportive to a friend suffering like that? How do you know Al? Or is it just a guess because welfare state liberals have a monopoly on interpersonal kindness?

I don’t think that it was entirely cynical. But it’s clear Franken intends to exploit Paul Wellstone’s memory — and his own mother’s — to win a Senate seat.Indeed, he’d mentioned how he’d been telling this story for a long time. Well, here’s some advice: Stop.