From Politico.com

Sen. Al Franken ripped into White House senior adviser David Axelrod this week during a tense, closed-door session with Senate Democrats.

Read the rest on Politico.

Perhaps we need more comedians in politics. Since Lenny Bruce, quite a few comedians have schooled themselves on speaking truth to power. Think of Bill Hicks (the most astute in my opinion) or George Carlin or even the late night guys. A couple of days ago, Bill O’Reilley tried unsuccessfully to recruit Jon Stewart to run as his presidential running mate. Stewart declined, of course, citing “a boxful” of damaging photos in his attic that would keep him from working at the Post Office.

Maybe he ought to rethink this. President Obama’s straight up disclosure of his youthful misadventures with drugs may have demonstrated that honesty about one’s past is at least as acceptable in leaders as, say, George W. Bush’s vague dismissal of his young and foolish past. What’s not acceptable is hypocrisy as in Bill Clinton’s Monica problem or the drama unfolding around Tiger Wood, the apparent sleeze master of the golf circuit who presented himself as the most virtuous of creatures prior to the wife-bashing-in-his-car-windows incident.

And Stewart is trusted as a source, recent surveys have shown. That could be because he has shown over the years that he knows the difference between comedy and bullshit, a distinction with which many in either politics or the so-called news biz seem unfamiliar. Witness his recent appearance with one of the head bullshitters, Bill O’Reilley, on whom the distinction is lost.

So. What do you say? A grass roots movement for John Stewart for President?

-stan