Al Franken's # 1 Best Seller, [The Title's Just too damned long] is NOT the least bit funny. Oh it has its moments, but the Truth as he exposes it, is not funny.

Liberals have been on the receiving end of trash-talking demogogues for too long. And for so long that when the Truth is given to the Lies that are accepted as everyday truth (got that?) it's not only NOT FUNNY, it's ENRAGING.

To realize that the Right Wing has got away with their series of Big Lies for over 20 years with impunity is NOT FUNNY, it's ENRAGING.

To realize and finally have Americans begin to understand how they've been had for so long is NOT FUNNY, it's ENRAGING.

However, to see Franken's book and visibility on the rise is gratifying..and it's not too late. To see him, Molly Ivins, Joe Conason, Paul Krugman, David Corn, Sid Blumenthal and Michael Moore so much more visible is gratifying as well.

There's hope.

Franken's book has its moments of humor to be sure. He is, after all, a comedian. But he's also a very angry political observer in the best tradition.

The manner in which he skewers louts like O'Reilly, Hannity, Limbaugh, Coulter and the Usual Gang of Idiots ont he Right is delicious. But again, I couldn't put the book down, but I also couldn't containt my anger.

I don't drink, so rather than have a tumbler of Scotch nearby, I kept a bottle of Ginger Ale handy.

Rather than cite numerous examples of Franken's truthtelling, I prefer to cite only two such examples.

First is his rather long recounting of Paul Wellstone's Memorial service which the GOP and Right Wing Media lambasted and portrayed as a shameless political event that somehow slimed Pual's memory by attacking Republicans. This smear of the Memorial Service was so intense and widespread that it resulted in the defeat of Walter Mondale in Minnesota and quite possible the defeat of Jean Carnahan in Missouri.

Franken's recounting of the entire episode and his debunking of the widespread smears from the GOP and those pundits on Cable media and on Talk Radio is searing as well as prfoundly heart-wrenching.

You see, Franken was actually at the event. He was a very close friend of Paul Wellstone and the Wellstone family.

His sadness at Wellstone's death and his outrage at the vile and biased coverage and the lies about the Memorial service are very real and NOT FUNNY.

After revealing the tawdry lies spread by the Right Wing Media about Wellstone's Memorial service, Franken writes:

It was the right, not the left, that tried to cheapen Paul Wellstone's life bvy dishonoring his death. It was the right-wing media, not the friends and family who spoke at the memorial or the people who came to it, that seized on an opportunity to use a tragedy for political gain. It was Rush, and the Republican party, and the Weekly Standard , and The Wall Street Journal, and Fox-and then it was CNN and MSNBC and all the newspapers that wrote hundreds of articles-that got it wrong. Somne of them did maliciously. Some of them just picked up the story. Some were evil, some just lazy.

Sometimes I wonder why people do what they do for a living and how they feel about their work. What is it about their work that gives them a sense of a job well done? As a comedian, I know I've done my job when people laugh. David Wellstone builds low-cost housing for the poor. I think he feels a real sense of accomplishment when a family can move into its own home for the first time.

WHAT DO YOU SUPPOSE GIVES RUSH LIMBAUGH THAT WARM GLOW? MAYBE IT'S WHEN HE GETS INTO A REAL GRROVE LIKE HE DID THE DAY AFTER THE WELLSTONE MEMORIAL. MAYBE IT WAS WHEN HE SAID:

People took the occasion of his death and hijaced his soul last night and told us what was in it. For their own personal gain. It was despicable. It was DESPICABLE. The wrenched Wellstone's soul right out of the grave, assumed it for themselves, and then used it for their own blatant selfish personal ambitions.

OR MAYBE HE [LIMBAUGH] REALLY GOT THAT NATURAL HIGH [WE NOW KNOW BETTER-my words] WHEN HE SAID:

SHOW ME WHERE THE GRIEF WAS. WHERE WAS THE GRIEF? WHERE WERE THE TEARS? WHERE WAS THE MOURNING? WHERE WAS THE MEMORIAL SERVICE? THERE WASNT ANY OR THIS?

Franken goes on to cite one particular eulogy at length by the younger brother of Wellstone's driver who was a graduate student. I won't quote it here, but I was in tears at the end.

No tears? No grief? Just what travesty, what lies, what sins were committed by Rush and his cronies in the Print and Cable Media and on Hate Talk Radio? These lies and smears were so calculated and so vile and so viciously used to defame Wellstone and the Democrats that they all but ensured GOP victories in the Minnesota and even in the Missouri senate races.

And where was the outrage against those who perpetrated such unpardonable sins?

Do you understand why I say that this book is NOT FUNNY, it's ENRAGING?

But there is a reason it's still Number 1 on the New York Times Bestseller List. It's brutal in its unmasking of the lies and the lying liars who tell them. And try as he might, Bill O'Reilly cannot bloviate, bluster and whine his way out of the lies he's caught in.

Al Franken is funny. But he's also very smart. And in places this book is very funny. After all these years, it's just that I've lost my sense of humor being on the receiving end of the cruelty and smears from these Right Wing bastards.

Buy this book and treasure it. Don't throw it against any walls!