Think Progress

Franken takes the oath.

By Faiz Shakir on Jul 7th, 2009 at 2:30 pm

Franken takes the oath.

Al Franken officially became the junior senator from Minnesota earlier today when he took the oath of office, administered to him by Vice President Joseph Biden. After Franken completed the oath, “the gallery erupted in an unusual and lengthy applause that continued for several minutes,” according to the AP. Watch it:



73 Responses to “Franken takes the oath.”

  1. Bobwurst says:

    Senator Franken, that sounds nice… Now, if the republicans had any honor they’d give him his back pay out of their coffers…


  2. MCMetal says:

    As the sweet sounds of Limbaugh’s and O’Reilly’s heads exploding sails across the land ……….


  3. MCMetal says:

    After Franken completed the oath, “the gallery erupted in an unusual and lengthy applause that continued for several minutes,” according to the AP.

    Where’s Ex-Lax to argue the length of the applause , it’s volume , and if any boos were audible ?


  4. Purple State says:

    watchdog Says:

    The jokes just keep coming!

    Why, did Glenn Beck walk into the proceedings?


  5. e_to_the_pOTATO BUG says:

    haha!

    so does that narrow the filibuster margin now?


  6. Doodlebug Shayne says:

    Yay, hopefully O’Reilly’s and baddog’s heads will both explode.


  7. Doodlebug Shayne says:

    Hey fleabag, Franken gave up a lot of money and campaigned longer than Palin could be bothered serving as governor. Now that’s funny.


  8. fletc3her says:

    Congratulations to Al Franken for a well deserved win. I know that he will be a good and conscientious senator who will serve the people of Minnesota well.


  9. Bobwurst says:

    watchdog Says:
    The jokes just keep coming

    Actually the joke conceded and finally made way for democracy to march along, you running dog lackey of the bourgeoisie…


  10. AIO says:

    But, but, but Hannity told us a while back that Coleman had won.


  11. Buckie Boy says:

    Congratulations SENATOR FRANKEN, that’s right…SENATOR…AL…FRANKEN.

    Suck on that Republic Fascist Party.

    Finally someone who just might actually do something for the people instead of corporate lobbyists.

    This is going to make the Fascist Pigs all across the land heads explode…

    ….what a delightful sound.


  12. Rich H says:

    Kick some ass Al.


  13. joe cantwell says:

    “al franken will never set foot

    in the united states senate!”

    – bill o’reilly.

    **


  14. Chyron HR says:

    The jokes just keep coming!

    Everybody knows that Congress is a respectable place that should be full of wife-beating rock musicians!


  15. Zimzone says:

    Congratulations, Senator Franken.

    You’re an honest, intelligent man who worked extremely hard to get elected.

    You were in each little town in MN, talking to Nursing Home residents, small business owners and disabled individuals.

    Your opponent preferred to stay in corporate environments, where he enjoyed major financial support.

    You, however, recognized the historic importance of the late, great Senator Wellstone’s seat and were determined to gain it.

    Yes, you will hear catcalls, lies & whining from Republics. You also know they can’t help it, because they’re not intelligent enough to see the greater importance of service TO the electorate.

    Good luck to you, Senator. Minnesota and the Nation welcome you as our newest United States Senator.


  16. raynman says:

    I think the real joke for the state of Minnesota is still Michelle Bachmann


  17. kasinca says:

    So the wingnut GOP azz clowns call Senator Franken (Harvard Educated) a clown. Go figure.

    He attended Harvard College and graduated cum laude in 1973 with a bachelor of arts degree in political science.[9]

    What kind of education do the wingnuts have?


  18. Mr. Cobb says:

    The people have spoken.


  19. Purple State says:

    By the way, any pundits going to criticize THIS oath?


  20. Leftside Annie says:

    Congratulations, SENATOR Franken, on your well-deserved and hard-fought victory!!


  21. A Patriotic Anopheles Acting says:

    Godspeed Senator Franklin! The bitter GOPers sure are having a hard time with this. I can’t figure out whether they are jealous of a formidable intellectual opponent in the Senate (graduated cum laude from Harvard in political science and is a math geek), that he has been with the same woman for over three decades(something most GOPers can’t comprehend) or simply the fact that Regressives just CAN’T do comedy (their private lives aside). It may be varied combinations of the three examples to different degrees I guess. Maybe I shouldn’t be too surprised though. It’s been seven months and they are still having a hard time having a brown man as their President. Suck it up rightards, the Nation is passing you by. Complain all you want but the people have spoken. We’ll take the “socialist”, “communist”, “liberal” President and the former comedian Senator over a lying Regressive jack@ss anyday!


  22. Luis Chapulin M says:

    Proud Says:
    Isn’t it nice when a court hands you an election victory. I guess we will never have to hear about Bush v Gore ever again.

    Well, if Al Franken’s brother was a Governor and his court was the one deciding who got elected, it would be a fair comparison.


  23. Chyron HR says:

    Isn’t it nice when a court hands you an election victory.

    That must be why Coleman kept fighting to have the courts overturn the election results.


  24. bug says:

    Zimzone; Thanks for mentioning Wellstone. The country lost a good man (and a good family) when he died.

    Good luck Al, represent the people.


  25. kasinca says:

    Proud Says:
    ——————————————————————————–

    Isn’t it nice when a court hands you an election victory. I guess we will never have to hear about Bush v Gore ever again.

    Bush vs Gore was the man with the least votes sueing the man who had the most votes and a wacked out republican supreme court appointing the loser. Franken passed three recounts and three appeals and only morons are not able to accept defeat. When are losers like you going to accept your irrelevant role of loser party with no power? Get with is Sparky, you look stupid to the majority. You are a loser! You don’t matter. Your whining is silly kid stuff.


  26. Luis Chapulin M says:

    watchdog Says:
    The jokes just keep coming!

    Yeah, I can see TP hasn’t banned you yet. You keep coming back.


  27. barfly says:

    Proud Says:

    Isn’t it nice when a court hands you an election victory. I guess we will never have to hear about Bush v Gore ever again.

    Did Franken’s daddy appoint a majority to the court?

    No?

    Proud sour grapes. They’re in season.


  28. joe cantwell says:

    proud,

    you can’t lead

    if you quit.

    ***

    no court in the

    land can change that.

    ***

    amen.

    † † †


  29. spencers mom says:

    prod doesn’t seem to understand the difference between a recount that was completed, and one that was aborted by the Bush Crime Family’s SCOTUS.

    But I wouldn’t expect nuance and analysis from prod.

    PEACE


  30. A Patriotic Anopheles Acting says:

    Proud to be perrenially stoopid Says:
    “Isn’t it nice when a court hands you an election victory. I guess we will never have to hear about Bush v Gore ever again.”

    Sorry @sswipe, Senator Franklin unlike George W. Shithead actually WON the popular vote. The only reason that this stretched out so long and had to go to the State Supreme Court was because Regressives like Coleman refused to accept the will of the people and put politics (delaying an inevitable super majority for the Dems) over the needs of the people of Minnesota. Try again fool


  31. hormiga brava chavez says:

    Good! Yeah for Senator Franken! Now if all the “centrist” Democrats will get their a$$es in gear maybe we’ll have the change we need!


  32. A Patriotic Anopheles Acting says:

    …or better yet Proud fool don’t try again, just leave


  33. Perry logan says:

    Thank God he didn’t say it was all a put-on.


  34. Wayne says:

    Proud Says:

    Isn’t it nice when a court hands you an election victory.

    Facts seem to elude sticking in that thing you persist in calling a brain, don’t they?

    Lets go over the facts again, for the moronic trolls.

    The election results were too close, thus by LAW, automatically forced a recount, according to Minnesota State Law. Got that so far, moronic troll?

    Coleman LOST the recount that was mandated by Law. Still following, moronic troll?

    Coleman is the one who decided to take this to court. Coleman LOST in every court case and appeal.

    So Coleman is the one that forced the court to intervene and wasted months fighting the results of the recount that showed Franken won to begin with before Coleman took the election to the courts for the courts to decide. Not Franken.

    Read carefully troll, I won’t tell you again.


  35. joe cantwell says:

    A Patriotic Anopheles Acting Says:
    …or better yet Proud fool don’t try again, just leave

    July 7th, 2009 at 3:00 pm

    ***

    proud,

    stay, don’t quit.

    : )


  36. A Patriotic Anopheles Acting says:

    Wayne you’re wasting your time, It’s his willful ignorance that he’s most “Proud” of.


  37. evangenital says:

    Franken will leave quite an imprint during his first term as Senator. He will shake up a lot of the indifferent Dems, and he will really give it to the repiggies.


  38. A Patriotic Anopheles Acting says:

    joe cantwell ssshhh, you’re going to blow my attempt at reverse psychology. I love his inanity as much as the next regular here.


  39. NinerFan says:

    proud: “Isn’t it nice when a court hands you an election victory. I guess we will never have to hear about Bush v Gore ever again.”

    Sorry, but you’ll still hear about it because in this case, the votes were counted. In Bush v Gore, the votes were NOT counted by court order. Now, if you really want to know who would have won if the Supremes had allowed the votes to be counted, google on “The Keating Report” AND “2000 Election.” Open the pdf file and scroll down to about page 6, “Results.”

    It would be nice if people like “proud” would take this advice and go find out the truth about that election, but I suspect that he just doesn’t want to know.


  40. Jim Wolf359 says:

    Wow! I just got a chance to watch the vid. That was quite a reception that SENATOR AL FRANKEN recieved. And well deserved. Be proud Minnesota. You sent a good one to serve you.


  41. joe cantwell says:

    proud,

    keep fighting

    like a barracuda!

    :\


  42. Levi the Dungbeetle says:

    Coleman is why we, as Americans, must remove all Republicans from all levels of government.


  43. pags2 says:

    This is the best news this week. But we still have the rest of this week for another Republican scandal.


  44. NinerFan says:

    Sorry, but I just checked and it’s a little harder to find the consortium results than I figured. Just google on 20040526_KeatingPaper.pdf and you’ll get the information that seems to escape all conservatives today – the proof that if they counted all the votes in Florida, Al Gore would have been president.


  45. Pennsylvanianne says:

    Most courts at the county and state level, when considering election problems, rule in favor of the will of the people, as the Minnesota Supreme Court did in this case. The only time I have ever seen a court rule AGAINST the electorate was in the case of Bush v Gore, where a majority of the voters voted in favor of Gore. Instead of ruling that all the Florida votes be counted, the GOP-packed Supreme Court ignored many of the votes of Florida and ruled in favor of their godfather’s son, W. We then were treated to eight years of lies and propaganda in favor of a six-year war that resulted in the deaths of more than 4,000 American service men and women, torture I never thought Americans would commit, the outing of a CIA agent who had the audacity to be married to a truth teller, the deaths of thousands of innocent Iraqis, the destruction of our previously eminent reputation in the world and the implosion of our economy. I hope the Supremes who voted in favor of ignoring the voters of Florida can live with the horrible ramifications of their decision.
    All that said, I smiled all through Sen. Al Franken’s oath of office. He is an intelligent and thoughtful man who is used to hard work. The GOP would like to deride him as a clown, but they always look at the surface of things. It is well known that “drama is easy, comedy is hard.” I know he will do an excellent job for his state and this country. Congratulations from Pennsylvania, Sen. Franken!


  46. Levi the Dungbeetle says:

    I am at a loss for words to express how pleased I am at the seating of Senator Franken. As a child, I watched his comedy routines, and as an adult, I have watched his rise to political power.

    I now look forward to watching him speak before the Congress and utterly destroying every Republican with his signature dry wit. This is going to be an entertaining Congress.

    Congratulation Senator Franken. You are symbolic of the beginning of the end for the fascist Republican Party, and it just galls them to no end. Senator Franken, as your first order of business, I recommend you try to have Michelle Bachmann recalled, or at least examined by a psychiatrist.


  47. Mike Hunt says:

    What an absolutely beautiful sight!!! Now that you’re there Al, kick ass, take names. If we find you “paling around with” Repugnicans many of us will be sorely disappointed.


  48. NOLIESPLEASE says:

    Isn’t it nice when a court hands you an election victory.

    I want to take that sentance and shove it up the authors ass while Bush and Chaney look on!!!! Fu**en Retard!!! DIE WITH NO HEALTH CARE A HOLE!!!


  49. sscncturn64 says:

    This must be a tough day for limpdick. Im sure hes doubled up on his oxycontin intake today. I love watching this fat bastrd go crazy trying to defend the repugs,even he knows their finished.


  50. Levi the Dungbeetle says:

    I was thinking how much fun it will be to watch the downward spiral of the Republican Party. Today we reached a threshold, we are at an axis point. With each election, there will be less and less Republicans, so the amount of seats from filibuster will continue to grow.

    Today the magic number is zero. I can’t wait for the next election.


  51. Jim Wolf359 says:

    Somewhere in heaven, Paul Wellstone and Hubert Humphrey are smiling.


  52. whirlaway says:

    How sweet it is! Go Franken!! Go make mincemeat of the Regressives (and the closet Regressives in the Democratic Party as well)!!!


  53. pete says:

    I see the stupid trolls are still trying to sell the “Supreme Court gave him the election” crap. You couldn’t drive a point through their skulls with a forge hammer.


  54. RobertSeattle says:

    Dudes – please add SENATOR in front of Franken – that just irks the heck out of the wingnuts.


  55. LeslieBurton says:

    I never thought this day would ever come. Congratulations to Senator Franken.


  56. jbrantow says:

    Re;Proud Says:
    Isn’t it nice when a court hands you an election victory. I guess we will never have to hear about Bush v Gore ever again.

    You continue to show your ignorant lack of history…..in Franken vs. Coleman……all the votes were counted…….unlike Bush vs Gore where the vote counting was stopped. GOPers love to revise history….The truth hurts huh?


  57. pags2 says:

    RobertSeattle Says:

    Dudes – please add SENATOR in front of Franken – that just irks the heck out of the wingnuts.

    So does President with the name Obama.


  58. Wayne says:

    pete Says:

    I see the stupid trolls are still trying to sell the “Supreme Court gave him the election” crap. You couldn’t drive a point through their skulls with a forge hammer.

    Well that is because you cannot sharpen the point to be small enough to keep from slipping off their tiny skulls…

    =D


  59. getplaning says:

    Amazing what happens when all the voters get to cast their votes, and all the votes cast are counted.


  60. Levi the Dungbeetle says:

    19 Proud said,

    I guess we will never have to hear about Bush v Gore ever again.

    Wrong again wingnut. You are going to be hearing about Bush vs. Gore for at least a generation. That is how long it will take before Americans will forgive the fascist Republican Party for its crimes against America and humanity.


  61. ralph the wonder locust says:

    Luis Chapulin M Says:
    Proud Says:
    Isn’t it nice when a court hands you an election victory. I guess we will never have to hear about Bush v Gore ever again.

    Well, if Al Franken’s brother was a Governor and his court was the one deciding who got elected, it would be a fair comparison.

    Luis, it still wouldn’t be comparable.

    You see, in MInnesota the courts let the recount continue until it was complete.

    That’s the difference.


  62. PatrioticLiberalChristian says:

    Proud Says:
    Isn’t it nice when a court hands you an election victory.

    Yes, it is nice. It is also fair, honest, commendable, hopeful, democratic, responsible, justified, rejoicing, gratifying, and just plain delicious when it is an election victory that was also EARNED. Oh, and we are PROUD of Senator Al Franken, Democrat from Minnesota.


  63. MapleStreet says:

    And yet despite the conservatives decrying the Senator Franken recount while praising the Gore recount,

    Despite the introduction of electornic voting machines with documented deficiencies,

    8 years of a republican president has not resulted in the introduction of electronic voting machines providing an audit trail to assure the lack of tampering.


  64. Luis Chapulin M says:

    ralph the wonder locust Says:
    You see, in MInnesota the courts let the recount continue until it was complete.
    That’s the difference.

    That’s true, and a big difference it is.


  65. Levi the Dungbeetle says:

    Republicans will do everything they can to interfere with the election process. They know they won’t be winning any elections for a long time, so their efforts to defraud Americans of their votes will continue unabated.

    Vote every Republican out of every level of government.


  66. ElBruce says:

    Proud Says:

    Isn’t it nice when a court hands you an election victory. I guess we will never have to hear about Bush v Gore ever again.

    Franken won the the completed recount. The court merely declined to overturn the completed recount on behalf of Coleman, when he completely failed to produce any grounds or evidence for why they should do so.

    The SCOTUS in 2000 overturned the election count, throwing out a number of eligible votes and stopping the recount before it was completed.

    That’s a big difference there.


  67. Zooey says:

    Congratulations, Senator Franken!


  68. faulknercindy2003 says:

    the great thing is that somewhere Bill Oreilly’s head is exploding yesssssssssssssssssss


  69. EugeneDebs says:

    Watchpunk says

    The jokes just keep coming!
    <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

    And the morons like you keep posting


  70. EugeneDebs says:

    ProudMoron Says:

    Dont you ever get embarassed at how stupid you are? In Minnesota ALL THE VOTES WERE COUNTED. In Florida THEY WERENT, when they were if all valid votes were counted Al Gore won by any counting scenario. That is a pretty big difference. The kind of difference only someone as patently stupid as YOU would miss


  71. Zooey says:

    Let me get this straight…

    Prod apparently thinks that if an election must have a court rule on the results of said election, then that election must be stolen.

    Finally, a troll admits that Bush stole to 2000 election.


  72. Awibod says:

    Watching that was the sweetest 3 minutes and 50 seconds I have seen in a long time. Go get em Senator Franken.

    And I am so glad that this is making everyone at Hoax News especially O’Reilly sick to their stomachs. Franken succeeded at what none of them have the nerve or intelligence to try and accomplish.


  73. woke says:

    Proud Says:
    Isn’t it nice when a court hands you an election victory. I guess we will never have to hear about Bush v Gore ever again.

    >>>
    Yes, it was so very gracious of Coleman to step down immediately and not intentionally delay the inevitable for the good of his state and nation like Al Gore, who won HALF A MILLION more votes than lilaWol in 2000, despite thousands of dem votes being purged by the Fla repug sec of state.



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