by Rachael Alaimo-Monson
Daily Lobo
Best selling author and political satirist Al Franken shared the stage Sunday night at Popejoy Hall with an orange construction cone supporting a sign proclaiming it a "Free Speech Zone."
Franken addressed a wide range of topics but spent a good portion of his hour-long speech on the shortcomings of the current Bush Administration.
"I've never seen this country as united as it was after 9/11," the 53-year-old father of two said. "This president had an opportunity to lead this country into a new century in a sense of mutual purpose and mutual sacrifice and he blew it."
Franken is on tour promoting his latest best-selling book Lies: And the Lying Liars Who Tell Them - A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right, which takes stabs at Fox News, Bill O'Reilly, Political Analyst Ann Coulter and other political conservatives.
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Lies is the result of Franken's collaboration with a group of Harvard students he calls Team Franken who helped him research the book when he served as a Fellow with Harvard's Kennedy School of Government last year.
The sold out crowd of 2,000, which included Mayor Martin Ch†vez and Lieutenant Gov. Diane Denish, booed, hissed and laughed out loud for most of Franken's speech.
A 20-minute question and answer session followed. UNM senior Eric C de Baca, was one of a seemingly small minority of students who attended the event.
"I like to keep up with political events and I saw him in a debate with Bill O'Reilly," he said. "He was really fiery, animated and hilarious so I thought I'd come check it out."
Franken, a 1973 Harvard grad, is an Emmy winning TV writer, producer, actor and comedian perhaps best known for his work on Saturday Night Live.
The night was full of surprises for Franken, who got a call from his wife prior to the show with news that he won the Grammy for Best Spoken Word Album Sunday night.
Franken was also surprised to learn that one of his favorite conservative targets, Ann Coulter, would be speaking in the next part of Popejoy's 21st Century Speaker's Series.
Franken, however, admonished his audience repeatedly to buy tickets saying he wanted to "shock the (expletive) out of her."
Instead of spending Christmas at home this year in New York City, Franken was part of an eight day USO tour during which he performed for troops in Kuwait, Afghanistan and Iraq.
"It's one thing for a president to lie about sex," he said. "It's another for the president to lie about why we are sending our young men and young women into harms way."
