opinion

What's so funny? It's odd how the Republicans lambasted Al Franken's past off-color writings during the just concluded campaign. . . and on these screens, continue to pillory Franken . . . promoting him in their angry rhetoric from occasionally smutty comedian to full-bore professional pornographer . . . yet when the telescope is turned the other way, the Republicans say, "Hey, it's just a light-hearted satire and can't you take a joke?" Unless we are to concede way too much territory to the "politically correct" thought police, we ought to learn to put up with the existence of satire. So it's not the color of a politician's skin that matters anymore---it's the thickness of his (or her) skin! Having made that point, I'll also say that some satire truly is in bad taste. Therefore, Mr. Franken did apologize, as a candidate, for stuff he wrote long before he entered politics. I do not expect Mr. Limbaugh or his gag-writer to apologize, however. They don't have any class.

it was much more than a republican that sent that out. it was a "divide america" that thinks the war is among the two parties. the gop is missing the boat .. it isn't about branding everythying one way and demanding mindless fealty. the democrats have been struggling through the problem of how to run a big tent - some years it works for the wrong reason. However, they are 20 years ahead of the republicans and if they get it figured out - its the kind of machine that will not fall apart easily - cause it nows how to grow into ideas and out of ideas at the same time. Good luck.

I thought the election of Barack Obama signaled a move in this country past race. Still, I guess some things die hard with a vengance. If the only card left in the Republican deck is the race card, then they have a huge problem.

All failures...the brand only covers the deep south and has no national currency. The RNC marginalizes itself, and keeps doing it. Divide and conquer yourselves RNC, the rest of think you are pathetic and have moved on!

Contrast the Republican 'outrage' over Al Franken's satire and their defense of Saltsman's CD distribution. Hypocrisy anyone?

The biggest power-players, who (or their spouses) are worth many tens of millions, such as Nancy Pelosi, Rockefeller, etc. are members of political parties out of convenience, more so than any conviction to ideology -- especially on economic and military issues. Both of the corporate parties were in favor, based on the votes, for the Iraq war, prohibiting single-payer health care, and not championing anything useful like a shortened work week, longer vacations (4-6 weeks like Europe), etc. So as the Republican brand dies, I think we can simply expect more Republicans joining the tent in the Democratic Party that just got bigger. Remember, even Ronald Reagan was once a Democrat...

Chip the Right-Wing Moron//
Made a CD//
The songs he thought were funny ones//
Were just pure stupidity.//

He didn't get the hub-bub//
Why the big uproar?//
It was simply what Republicans//
All said behind closed doors.//

Does is matter to any of you GOP bashers that Obama was first termed "the magic negro" by David Ehrenstein, an African American writing for the LA Times? Here's a link to the article http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-ehrenstein19mar19,0,5335087.story?coll=la-opinion-center If MSNBC reporter Erin Burnett got away with calling President Bush a monkey then I see nothing wrong with this.

...Al wasn't an elected by the people representative at the time he was doing satire, so these occurances aren't even close to the same. Nice try though.

...and you wouldn't be slamming Obama if he sent materials to his co-harts that slammed bigot, morons who clung to guns and religion... Sure.. got it... right....