Or not. Al Franken Knocks Down Dean Heckler.
Wise-cracking funnyman Al Franken yesterday body-slammed a demonstrator to the ground after the man tried to shout down Gov. Howard Dean.The tenor of the piece struck me as odd. Lots of concern about Franken's health, but not a word about the well being of the person he tackled. "Police arrived soon after"; so are there any charges pending against Franken for assault?
The tussle left Franken's trademark thick-rim glasses broken, but he said he was not injured.Franken - who seemed in a state of shock and out of breath after the incident - was helped back to his feet by several people who watched the tussle. Police arrived soon after.
"I got down low and took his legs out," said Franken afterwards.
Henry Hanks has more on Franken's unusual intrepetation of the 1st Amendment.
Posted by at January 27, 2004 05:25 PMso if he's neutral, you think he'll be available for security at republican rallies?
People like franken make blogging too easy....
Posted by: lj on January 27, 2004 07:45 PMAh, Franken shows the Left's version of free speech ... assault and battery.
Posted by: Robin Roberts on January 27, 2004 07:54 PMNope, still notations of "brownshirt" activities from the usual suspects who thought that not playing the Dixie Chicks on the radio amounted to Aschroft ripping up the constitution.
And those people wonder why they lose?
Posted by: Ricky on January 27, 2004 08:30 PMIn all fairness, if you've ever been unfortunate enough to have any sort of interaction with a LaRouchite, the urge to bodyslam them gets overwhelming after about 30 seconds.
Posted by: apostropher on January 27, 2004 11:23 PMActually I have and no that wasn't my reaction after 30 seconds. My reaction was to run. Of course the guy I was talking to had bad breath and wasn't shouting. Of course if he was shouting I'd have just walked on by and let airport security deal with him.
Posted by: Steve on January 28, 2004 06:20 AMNot being familiar with LaRouche, I have just spent a little of my time browsing his website.
I'm having a little trouble condensing my findings into something coherent. I can say that I am truly amazed.
Posted by: Ron on January 28, 2004 07:45 AMGuys like Al Franken are why we need conceal carry laws. I don't care who is doing what, assault is assault. I would have pressed charges against that gap toothed cokehead.
Posted by: Eric Krieg on January 28, 2004 08:43 AMUnfortunately, the rapid escalation and willingness by many to resort to the use of a firearm in a minor scuffle is why we don't have a concealed carry law in my state. It's completely unfair to those whose lives could be saved in a real life or death encounter.
Al Franken needs to be charged and held accountable, period.
Posted by: Mike M. on January 28, 2004 11:11 AMSo you think that it is good that Franken assaulted someone and got away with it?
I live in Illinois, by the way. No conceal carry here. That hasn't saved Chicago from having the highest murder rate in the country.
Conceal carry doesn't lead to the wild west. What it does do is give losers like Franken pause. He might assault some little LaRouche freak because, well, I hear Franken is a big guy. But if he thought that freak might have a weapon, I don't think Franken would have had the cahonnes to do what he did.
And if that cokehead just happened to get shot while in the middle of assaulting someone, well, it would have been justified.
I guess it all comes down to what you think of assault. If you are comfortable with the strong lording over the weak, and beating the crap out of anyone they don't agree with, I guess I can see how you're against conceal carry.
Posted by: Eric Krieg on January 28, 2004 01:13 PM