If you ever hear people complaining about all those fine conservatives like Richard Brookhiser writing for Time magazine, as if it were a right-wing rag, remember that Time is now using ex-Wonkette dirty-blog writer Ana Marie Cox – posing as a serious political reporter. Contained in this week’s Time is Ana’s ode to Al Franken, titled “Don’t Laugh at Al Franken.” The article comes complete with a flattering full-page photo of the leftist comedian-turned-Senate contender from Minnesota.
Cox’s profile isn’t all sweetness. It contains my old friend Mark Drake warning of Al’s anger issues and the long list of ugly things Franken has said recently on politics. But if Al’s angry, Cox contends, so is the Left. (But, ahem, Minnesota voters aren’t unanimously lefties.) She cheers Franken for leaving Air America since his radio show was “dead weight” on his career. After all, how funny is it to discuss at length the superiority of European universal health-care schemes? It’s certainly not funny for Franken’s big radio salary to be paid with dirty “loans” from a New York Boys Club, but that’s not mentioned in Time.
On his personal life, Cox sets the bar as low as humanly possible: he’s not dead of a drug overdose like John Belushi or Chris Farley. “On the surface, he looks great next to the SNL alums who have been caught with a hooker or killed by drugs. Franken, 55, lives in a nondescript town house in downtown Minneapolis with his wife Franni and their dog….And while he has admitted to using cocaine in his TV days, his only real habit now is Diet Pepsi.”