I cringe at the thought of putting anything related to Al Franken under the heading “politics.” Chomsky should stick to linguistics, and Franken should stick to comedy. But since on the one hand it seems likely that he may actually run for office, and on the other it is plain that he’s leveraged his comedic notoriety to position himself as a pundit, I suppose this post falls under the “politics” category.
There’s a well argued satire/critique of Al Franken on the web at LyingLiar.com. Among other things, this rebuttal to his chapter about Ann Coulter is worth a read.
Whether one likes or dislikes Franken, there is no doubt that he is a “puppettbagger.” This expression was floated during the 1984 Congressional elections when a guy from the Love Boat (I beleive his name was Fred Grandy) won and another guy from the Dukes of Hazard lost. It means taking success in the fluff entertainment field and crossing over into politics without ever earning the position from the ground up.