Voice of Minnesota: Al Franken, Comedian

As a follow-up to President Bush’s speech on troop increase, we have asked Al Franken, comedian, talk show host, and possible 2008 senate candidate, for his reaction.

This is too little, too late.  Obviously, the war was a huge mistake from the start, but when we made the original mistake of going in, President Bush also made the mistake of not sending enough troops. I called for more troops to be sent in December of 2003 — over three years ago.  I think it would have helped, then.  But we’ve made too many mistakes since, starting with allowing fraud, abuse, and simple raw incompetence to sabotage the reconstruction of Iraq.

more insideWhile Sen. Coleman is right to say that sending in more troops now would only create more targets, he had his chance to do the right thing years ago by following through on his oversight responsibilities as chairman of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations.  It was his job to do oversight on the reconstruction, and we’re in this intractable mess in no small part because he wasn’t up to that job.  For him to say the right thing now is also too little, too late.