Rush Limbaugh Is a Big Fat Idiot And Other Observations (Al Franken) - Delacorte Press - 1996 - 271 pages

Twelve years before he conducted his successful senatorial campaign, Al Franken wrote this book to expose the lies and hypocrisy of Mr. Limbaugh, the leading hate-radio voice, and other right-wing demagogues, including Newt Gingrich, Phil Gramm, Pat Buchanan and Pat Robertson.  Although the book contains a healthy dose of Limbaugh lies and distortions, Franken admits on page 18: "It was bad enough that I'd been forcing myself to listen to Limbaugh every day.  Well, that's a lie.  I'd listen every once in a while.  Okay, I might as well come clean.  At a certain point I started doing everything I could to avoid the man."

In retrrospect, it is evident that running for public office was the farthest thing from his mind when the best-selling book was written.  It is primarily a work of humor with fictional license but well-documented facts about the subject.  The "humor" in this book and other works was thrown back at him by Norm Coleman and the Republican party during the hard-fought campaign.  Written long before anyone had heard of 9/11, George W. Bush, Valerie Plame and extraordinary rendition, Franken's book presents a readable and funny record of the times and attitudes that led to the disastrous events that occurred from 2001 to 2008 during the last (one could only hope) Republican administration. [JAM 7/8/2009]