Lies & the Lying Liars Who Tell Them_ A Fair & Balanced Look at the Right - Al Franken [148]
My fellow Fellows. Esteban Lopez-Escobar, I didn’t understand a word you said. Margie Reedy, great documentary. Terry Samuel, see you on the Hill. Mike Tomasky, thanks for your help and friendship.
The joke at TeamFranken when we needed to know something quick was “Norm!” That’s Norm Ornstein at the American Enterprise Institute. Though AEI is considered a conservative think tank, Norm is actually further to the left than Noam Chomsky and just fools them over there. That’s not true. But he’s a great friend, an amazing repository of knowledge, very funny, and a great sounding board.
The most emotional chapter to write was, of course, the case study of the Wellstone memorial. Thank you, David Wellstone, for your help. You know how I felt about your parents. And Marcia did have a smile that lit up a room. Jeff Blodgett, Paul’s campaign manager, thank you for all your help and all your work. I’ll be seeing you and David and Mark at Wellstone Action events. David McLaughlin, thank you for allowing me to use your beautiful words about your brother. And thank you, Ann Mulholland and Robert Richman.
Don Simpson, thank you for your unbelievable work on the illustrations. You are a joy to work with and a real artist.
Wade Sanders was my consultant on “Operation Chickenhawk.” A Swift Boat commander in Vietnam himself, and former deputy assistant secretary of the Navy, Wade gave so generously of his time. Thank you for that and for your service to our nation. And thanks to John Kerry for hooking us up.
Max Cleland. Thank you for speaking with me. You are a hero.
Bobby Kennedy, Jr., spent a morning with me and three members of TeamFranken and told us pig shit stories that we will never forget. Thank you for your commitment and your fight. You are an inspiration.
Supply Side Jesus was Bradley Whitford’s idea. That’s right. The same guy who plays Josh Lyman on The West Wing. He didn’t write it, though. He’s just an actor. Bob Gunn, thank you for your help with Jesus and for the emotional support.
Rick Davis, John McCain’s former campaign manager, thank you for sharing your insights into the South Carolina campaign.
Joe Lockhart, Howard Fineman, Jonathan Alter, Walter Isaacson, George Stephanopoulos, Mike McCurry, Susan Zirinsky, Joe Peyronin, Andrew Heyward, Erik Engberg, Mark Halperin, Dan Radmacher—thank you for allowing me to understand your worlds a little better.
Thanks to my national security team: former National Security Advisor Sandy Berger; former Secretary of Defense William Cohen; Jim Walsh, executive director of Managing the Atom at Harvard; former Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Policy Ashton Carter, now codirector of the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at the Kennedy School; former director for counterterrorism on the National Security Council Daniel Benjamin, now senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. And my old classmate from college former Deputy National Security Advisor James Steinberg, vice president and director of Foreign Policy Studies at Brookings.
To my economic team: Bob McIntyre at Citizens for Tax Justice, Andrew Lee, Joel Friedman and Richard Kogan at the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities, Jeffrey Liebman from the Kennedy School, William Gale and Thomas Mann at Brookings.
Paul Krugman, thanks for being an inspiration.
Margie Kriz of the National Journal, thank you for your insight on Bush’s environmental policies.
Karl Struble, Max Cleland’s media consultant—thank you for your insight into the 2002 Georgia campaign.
Jim Kennedy from President Clinton’s office, thanks for your help and friendship.
Thanks to friends Hazel Lichterman, Bob Franken, Eli Attie, and Geoff Rodkey, who gave a read or two along the way.
A special category to Republicans who either called me back or