I guess we all hear what we expect to hear.
The Strib reports:
After being publicly and privately urged to do so, Franken tackled the issue of his sometimes sexually explicit humor head on, with the outright apology that many had been waiting for.
Here's what Mississippifarian heard:
I’m listening very closely to Al Franken at the DFL convention right now, and as God is my witness, he didn’t apologize for writing rape jokes, he apologized for offending some of his supporters.
Here's what Franken said:
I've had some tough conversations this week. It kills me that things I said and wrote sent a message to some of my friends in this room and people in this state that they can't count on me to be a champion for women, and for all the people of Minnesota.
I'm sorry for that.
I'm sorry for that, because that's not who I am.
I'm a husband — married to my favorite person on earth, Franni, for 32 years. I'm a father of a son and a daughter who we taught to respect everyone and who we're incredibly proud of.
And for 35 years, I was a writer. I wrote a lot of jokes. Some of them weren't funny. Some of them weren't appropriate. Some of them were downright offensive.
I understand that.
And I understand that the people of Minnesota deserve a Senator who won't say things that'll make them feel uncomfortable. But I'm in this race because there are some people in Washington who could afford to feel a little less comfortable.
I understand that.
Bush, of course, “understands” whenever he doesn’t want to concede a point. That’s what Franken appears to be doing here.
His apology comes down to: “I’m sorry I made you think I won’t stand up for women. I will.”
Earlier, Joe Loveland wrote a speechlet for Franken on his tax issues. I'd have suggested a more direct apology on the sex joke thang well before he got to the convention:
Sometimes we all say stupid things. In one context they might come across as humorous or satirically cutting. But then someone you care about says, do you realize what you just said? And then you look at it again, and say, oh my god, that’s not what I meant at all!
In 35 years of trying to be funny for a living, I have failed in public many times, and I’m not about to go back and apologize for every one of those. But there were a few times where I got it really, really wrong. My Playboy satire was one of them and the SNL rape skit was another.
In the business of satire, you intentionally say the opposite of what you personally believe — intending to shine the light on a disgraceful truth. That’s what I attempted with both of those pieces. As I look at them now, I wasn’t a good enough satirist to accomplish what I set out to do. And worse, I hurt people I care about and perhaps even helped reinforce attitudes that I abhor.
I’m sorry I wrote those words. I'd erase them if I could. All I can do now is say, I apologize for hurting any woman, even unintentionally, with words I wrote, because that's not who I am. And that's not how I will express myself as your next U.S. Senator.
None of this would be good enough for Minnesota Democrats Exposed, of course. Michael Brodkorb says, in this Freudian typo:
Franken apologized that his humor raised doubts that he wouldn’t “be a champaign for women” in the U.S. Senate. He didn’t apologize today for joking about drugging and raping a woman.
For MDE, this was never about anything but how many times he could stuff Franken's name in another salacious little paragraph.
For this reason, Franken hates making such an abject apology. This "issue" has nothing to do with his attitudes or the policies he'd support. So he might add:
The people of Minnesota don't need to fear putting an ex-satirist in the Senate. They need to be afraid of politicians who have made a career of saying the opposite of what they really mean because they want to deceive you — because it advances the interests of people in power. They say they support affordable health care for all, but they do the bidding of the insurance industry. They say they want energy independence, but they mean oil companies should have their way...
