Photo: Chris Steller

Saying it protects the free market, U.S. Sen. Al Franken sounded optimistic in a speech today about the chances for preserving net neutrality by law. “For the first time, it looks like we might actually do this,” Franken told the Future of Music Coalition in Washington, D.C.

In his speech (pdf), Franken laid out the problem this way:

Right now, a blog loads just as quickly as a corporate webpage. … But recently, business executives from top ISPs have declared their interest in offering, quote, “prioritized” Internet service to companies who can pay for it. … That would transform the Internet from a free, open, and competitive playing field into a “pay-for-play” arena in which citizen bloggers, nonprofits, and small businesses are simply outgunned by major media conglomerates.

The stakes are high, Franken said:

As noisy and messy as it may be, the Internet is a democracy. And because of that, it is a critical part of our democracy. But, in the absence of strong legislation prohibiting ISPs from regulating content, that may not always be the case.

Net neutrality is especially important to people in rural areas who don’t have a choice of internet service providers, Franken said, and to people with unpopular ideas — ideas that are unpopular with their ISPs, anyway:

First, you may remember that in 2007, Verizon refused to allow the pro-choice group NARAL to send text messages to its supporters – even though they had signed up to receive them. Verizon’s explanation was that it had the right to block “controversial or unsavory” messages. Like, for example, that a woman should have control of her reproductive system. …

It is a twenty-first century reiteration of one of our most important constitutional rights – the right to free speech.

And it doesn’t interfere with the free market. It protects the free market.

Franken’s confidence arises from support he sees at the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), the White House, Congress, and even the U.S. Supreme Court, where he probed now-Justice Sonia Sotomayor on the issue during her confirmation hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee. He mentioned that today:

I asked her specifically about whether she thought that the American public has a compelling First Amendment interest in ensuring the Internet stays open and accessible. And if I could paraphrase her answer, it was “yes.”

Such is the life of a senator: only Sunday he shared a stage in Minneapolis with the president of Somalia, Sharif Sheik Ahmed, and today he’s on stage in the nation’s capital with the bassist of R.E.M., Mike Mills.

That was good for a few cracks from Franken about Mills’ little-known band: “I’ve had my eye on these guys, REM, and they’re going to take off — you just watch.”

But Franken made no mention of an R.E.M. song that Mills is said to have written, “What’s the Frequency, Kenneth?” The song was inspired by the 1986 attack on former CBS anchorman Dan Rather in which the question in the song’s title was hurled at Rather by his assailants — one of whom allegedly suffered from the belief that TV networks were trying to control him.

Minnesota’s two Democratic senators, Franken and Amy Klobuchar, both voted “aye,” with Franken’s “aye” resonating more loudly than those spoken from the floor because he spoke it into the Senate president’s microphone. Eight Republicans joined Senate Democrats in voting for Sotomayor’s confirmation. 

Then after calling for any senators who wished to vote or change their minds, Franken announced the final tally, that Sotomayor was confirmed as a Justice and that the president (of the United States) would be immediately notified.

Then Majority Leader Reid made a routine parliamentary move, triggering a roll call by suggesting the absence of a quorum.

That inspired a Franken chuckle, as the Senate floor actually remained packed.

It’s a training exercise for junior senators to sit in as president; according to spokeswoman Jess McIntosh, this was Franken’s second stint with the gavel.

And today he used it — rapping the rostrum to interrupt Sen. Jeff Sessions and announce the order of speakers: Sessions, Sen. Patrick Leahy,  Republican Leader Mitch McConnell and Majority Leader Harry Reid.

For a guy who only a week or two ago didn’t seem to know how to get a committee chair’s attention or put a document into the record, Franken displayed considerable parliamentary aplomb this afternoon, authoritatively intoning such standard utterances as ”The clerk will call the roll,” “Without objection,” and “The Senate will suspend the rules.”

Whose dulcet tones stirred Minnesota’s senior senator from her sleep? It was probably Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), but it could just as well have been been Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.).

Rather than hit the snooze button or throw the clock across the room, Klobuchar reported to work, where she led an hour’s worth of speeches in support of Sotomayor from Democratic women senators: Sens. Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, Debbie Stabenow of Michigan, Kirsten Gillebrand of New York, and Patty Murray of Washington State.

Klobuchar served as emcee, introducing each speaker, providing segues and delivering her own impassioned remarks on behalf of Sotomayor. Among several letters of support she read was one from former FBI director (and judge) Louis Freeh, who cited the example of a Minnesota-born former U.S. Supreme Court justice, Edward Devitt.

Klobuchar repeated parts of her statement during the Judiciary Committee hearings on the Sotomayor nomination last week, including her tale of meeting an airport worker at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport who asserted Sotomayor “always lets her feeling get in the way of the law.”

With reference to the travails of female trailblazers of jurisprudence such as Justices Sandra Day O’Connor and Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Klobuchar said, “We’ve come a long way.”

With reference to senators who have said they’ll oppose Sotomayor, Klobuchar added, “I hope my colleagues will also come a long way.”

Update: Here are video clips from Klobuchar’s remarks:

Photo: The UpTake

Anti-abortion group Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life called on Sens. Amy Klobuchar and Al Franken to reverse their Senate Judiciary Committee votes to approve Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor on Tuesday. In a letter to the senators, MCCL said that a legal board that Sotomayor once sat on advocated abortion rights.

“While Judge Sotomayor served on the governing board of the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund (PRLDEF), the PRLDEF was actively involved in litigation that attempted to advance the abortion agenda,” wrote Scott Fischbach, executive director of MCCL. “In fact, briefs that were filed by PRLDEF at the time urged the Court to regard abortion as a ‘fundamental right.’”

Despite the association outlined by Fischbach, Sotomayor has not yet ruled on an abortion or reproductive rights case.

“Women and unborn children in Minnesota have suffered long enough from the devastating results of Roe v. Wade and deserve a United States Supreme Court that will protect them from an aggressive abortion industry,” Fischbach wrote in the letter to Franken and Klobuchar.

MCCL’s letter is unlikely to change any positions. Both Franken and Klobuchar have indicated their support for reproductive rights as well as reducing the need for abortion through family planning.

The clip was 18 years old yet couldn’t have been more timely — or uncanny. It showed Franken portraying Simon during a Senate Judicary Committee hearing on the nomination of Clarence Thomas to the U.S. Supreme Court, just as the current Franken was playing himself, as a real senator, during hearings on the nomination of Sonia Sotomayor to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Earlier all that was available online was the transcript of the sketch. Then on July 17 the Economist’s Democracy in America blog noted that “NBC has finally re-released the video.”

The clip was posted at Hulu.com, a site that NBC co-owns. But by July 19, the video had been removed. Did Franken use the power of his office to get the network to make unavailable his past violation of the senatorial solemnity?

“No,” responded Franken spokeswoman Jess McIntosh to a Minnesota Independent inquiry.

NBC won’t comment on who decided to post the Franken-as-Simon video — or to take it down. Sharon Pannozzo, the network’s East Coast entertainment publicity director, said by email that the length of time NBC shows remain posted at Hulu varies, and brief appearances — some as short as 24 hours — are “very common.”

That leaves fans of Franken’s screen humor to scan the likes of YouTube, where SNL clips are quickly removed but random gems like a recently uploaded scene from the 1976 movie “Tunnel Vision” sometimes reappear.

Photo: The UpTake

Minnesota’s two Democratic senators, Amy Klobuchar and Al Franken, joined the Judiciary committee this year (in Franken’s case, this month), and their votes on Judge Sonia Sotomayor’s nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court — scheduled for tomorrow — will be historic: Never before in its 193-year history has the committee had even a single Democrat from Minnesota, let alone two.

Wisconsin is the only other state that now has both senators on the committee. Sens. Russ Feingold and Herb Kohl, also both Democrats, have been serving together since 1995.

In its history, Wisconsin has had only one previous Democrat on the committee.

Hatch seemed confident that his legalistic inquiries, touching on abortion, gun-rights and the original intent of the Constitution, are of concern to at least 2 million of the 2.7 million people he represents:

Judge, you’ve been great throughout this process, and I appreciate it. But I have some questions I’d like to ask, but I think you can answer yes or no. Of course, you can qualify if you feel like it. But I would like to get through these, because they’re important questions to me and millions of other people that I represent.

On two of his three questions, Hatch could be certain that at least one other person cared. He said those questions came from individual Utah citizens in response to his call for questions for Sotomayor.

Franken, however, hedged his bet a bit on whether “millions” of his 5.2 million constituents truly sweat the issue he was asking about — net neutrality:

OK. Well, then you know that [the 2005 Supreme Court decision known as] Brand X deregulated Internet access services … This is frightening. It’s frightening to me and to millions of my constituents. Or lots of my constituents.

Franken has been careful not to overstate his home-state support, frequently noting that more people voted against him than for him in November’s election (counting the votes for Republican Norm Coleman and the Independence Party’s Dean Barkley) and vowing to work to earn their trust.

Like Sotomayor, Edward D. Stanton came from a humble background (and like her or not, he was also, by one account, “determined and imperious, devious but devoted, self-centered and self-confident, quick to judge and condemn, irritable and irascible”).

Stanton is best known for serving as President Lincoln’s secretary of war during the Civil War (he called Lincoln a”gorilla” upon his election but soon turned loyal; he famously tried to stop the president from attending Ford’s Theater the night of Lincoln’s assassination.)

President Grant named Stanton to the Supreme Court in 1869 despite the nominee’s asthma and a heart condition. The U.S. Senate confirmed him, but Stanton died four days later.

Observers say as long as Sotomayor manages her diabetes well, it may not mean a shorter life or term on the bench.

Photo: hulu.com

NBC just dug a timely video out of its vaults: Al Franken playing a U.S. senator on the Senate’s Judiciary Committee, questioning a U.S. Supreme Court nominee. Now viewers can compare and contrast his 1991 and 2009 performances.

Here’s Franken in 1991 on SNL, in a spoof on the Clarence Thomas hearings (Franken starts at the 5:00 mark):

UPDATE: The video, posted by NBC at its Hulu site, is now down. The Minnesota Independent has contacted Hulu to find out why. Until we hear back or they put it back up, you can read the transcript of the sketch here (though it’s much better on video). 

And here’s Franken this week, playing himself, in the real Sonia Sotomayor hearings (via The UpTake):