LIES: AND THE LYING LIARS WHO TELL THEM

AL FRANKEN

 (Review: Jim Abbott)

 

     Fifty of three hundred polled Historians put George Bush as “the worst U.S. President ever.” James Buchanan, the pre-Lincoln, scandal-ridden, pro-slavery President has previously almost universally been accorded that title. Al Franken makes a case that someday, maybe soon, Bush will take it.

     Lies is another of the pre ’04 election expose books that apparently didn’t get enough exposure. They are all getting 2nd looks now.  As continued Capital City Corruption and Administration Admonishments mount, Government approval ratings continue to fall.  Though too late to do anything about Bush (yes, there is impeachment talk but alas there is no Monica), a shifting American Mind-set appears more receptive to critiques of the neo-con takeover.

     Franken’s humor is directed at the liberal mind.  That’s “liberal” as in “open, broad-minded and not bound by authoritarianism”—(and why did that ever become a bad word?) It is a book that will raise the hackles of the Religious Right. There’s a cartoon series on SUPPLY SIDE JESUS where a pro-wealth (Republican?) Jesus shifts the story of the rich man and the camel:  “It is easier for a rich man to enter heaven seated comfortably on the back of a camel than it is for a poor man to pass through the eye of a needle.”

     Franken even prefaces the book with his motivation for writing it coming from a conversation with God.  GOD: “…then go after Bush.  You know, big tax cuts for the rich, surging unemployment, screwing the environment, pissing off the rest of the world. That stuff.  And that’s your book.”

     Franken sets his sights wide: Ann Coulter, Rush Limbaugh, Fox TV, the liberal bias myth—any and all neo-cons. And he finds…Lies.  Lies Exposed in Franken style, which may be offensive to many—but hey! This is God and Politics.  And, with a pack of Harvard researchers backing him up, odds are with Franken for them being real lies.  And that’s no lie.