Al Franken is a big fat phony

Yesterday, the real honest-to-God Left at Counterpunch delivered an effective body blow to the so-called Leftist radio network Air America, focusing primarily on host Al Franken and his refusal to address immediate withdrawal from Iraq. Wrote columnist John Walsh in “Al Franken is a Big Fat Phony”:

“Coverage of Iraq is largely confined to the corruption of Halliburton and the general idea that whatever has gone wrong there is the fault of George W. Bush and the Republicans. That the war was a ‘mistake’ is laid at the feet of Bush, with no mention of the Democrats’ role in voting for it, including J. Kerry and H. Clinton. ‘Incompetence’ over the waging of the war is a frequent complaint, as though it would be better for an ‘unjust and unnecessary war,’ in the words of Jimmy Carter, to be waged more competently. ...

“Most of Air America Radio is only marginally different from Franken, who is little more than a shill for the Democratic Party establishment. Franken faithfully parrots its pro-war line. Fundamentally, he is just like Rush, who is a Republican partisan, not a principled conservative. Franken is simply a Democratic partisan, a pitiful hack at heart. A progressive he is not. And disappointingly, Air America has turned out to be little more than a mouthpiece for the DNC and one more way to divert the anti-war movement to DNC-approved ‘issues’ like DeLay, Bolton and the other trivia that are like so many straws in the wind compared to the carnage in Iraq.”