Courtesy of Left Bank Books
Since 2009, the citizens of the state of Minnesota have been represented in the United States Senate by one of its funniest native sons, Al Franken. Sen. Franken, of course, had been well known nationally for decades prior to his election—he was a writer and performer on Saturday Night Live and spent three years hosting The Al Franken Show on Air America.
And since the early '90s, he’s been writing books. 1999’s Rush Limbaugh is a Big Fat Idiot subtly intimated his political leanings.
Left Bank Books brings Sen. Franken to the Ethical Society of St. Louis at 7 p.m. on Saturday, August 12 for a sold-out event in support of his latest, Al Franken, Giant of the Senate. The book walks readers through Franken’s Minnesota childhood and days on Saturday Night Live, his four decades of marriage, and up through his present-day adventures as a liberal in Trump-land. There is an entire chapter devoted to the inability of headline writers to resist using the phrase “No Joke” in their stories about his nascent political career.
Franken, though, has played it pretty straight while in office. St. Louis Magazine caught up with him by phone after a particularly dramatic and late night on the Senate floor after Republican senators killed the so-called “skinny repeal” of the Affordable Care Act.
What’s next for health care, after the drama of the “skinny repeal?”
We’re trying to move on, turn the page, as our leader says, and do this in a bipartisan way. I’m on the health committee, so I’m looking forward to that. I’m looking forward to finally rolling up our sleeves together to address the strengths and weaknesses of the Affordable Care Act.
Why write the book now?
I don’t know if I’ll write another book, not while I’m in the Senate. This one sort of happened by accident. My wife and I were supposed to spend a five-day vacation in a lodge in Minnesota and she got sick. I had always threatened to myself to write about this. I had my laptop and I started writing and I thought, "This could turn out like The Shining, or it could be productive and fun."
Chapter 17 in the book, "My First Powwow" is a lovely and revealing story about your visit to a powwow by the Red Lake Band of Chippewa. Tell us about that, and about your work on the Committee on Indian Affairs.
Working on Indian Affairs is kind of a tough job because anything regarding Indian Affairs is usually woefully underfunded. Health services, education—it’s about fighting for funding. And then it’s fighting for good policy. There’s all this legacy trauma that is there.
The powwow chapter, which was at Red Lake Reservation, was sort of about a fish out of water, my first powwow. But it was also tremendous fun, ultimately, but also very sobering at the end where I met the soldier who had been kicked out of the army [because he had never seen an eye doctor on the reservation, so he failed the vision test].
What has been the most rewarding part of your time in the Senate?
It’s really when you get something done that helps people. I think the ACA was one of the best things we’ve done. We know there are weaknesses in it—that’s what we need to address. We can do that.
I got a diabetes prevention program in the Affordable Care Act. It saves money, it improves peoples’ health, and it works. The data showed that it works, so now Medicare covers this program for anybody in Medicare who’s got a higher than normal glucose level and is pre-diabetic to take this program. It’s 16 weeks of exercise and nutritional training. It really works. It saves money and it makes people healthier.
Sometimes they’re very little things, making sure we do constituent service in Minnesota.
How do you enjoy the behind-the-scenes parts of legislative work?
I worked behind the scenes too in my other jobs, but it’s a different line of work. I’ve always been interested in public policy. It’s very gratifying when you get something done. The only way to do that is on the inside. That’s one very significant way of getting things done—being in the Senate and being one of 100, and one of two from your state. I enjoy doing that. I really like my colleagues by and large. The day to day work is often fun.
How can we maintain optimism and grace in a country so divided and distracted and fractured?
As I go around on the book tour, the people who come to my events tend to be Democrats and progressives and people who are a little freaked out by what’s going on right now, and anxious, and it just seems to be a phenomenon around the country. I think people are anxious about this administration and it hasn’t kind of let up. There’s a lot of "one day at a time." It’s just, focus on what we’re doing today. It doesn’t mean you can’t plan ahead a little bit. I’m looking forward to what came out of last night. We’re going to have to work together. I’m looking forward to rolling up my sleeves and working with my colleagues to improve how our health care system works. Not everyone gets to do that. I’d say take some time off from it every once in a while, or if you’re interested in what’s going on I’d say go to some event where someone might make you laugh about it. That might be me. Don’t drive yourself crazy.
