Did Bill O'Reilly get Al Franken elected?

How partisan rancor influenced Minnesota's Senate race

The right is fuming over the prospect of Al Franken becoming a senator, said Steve Young in OpEdNews, but if it hadn't been for attacks by Fox News' Bill O'Reilly and other angry conservatives, the Democratic comedian probably wouldn't have run, "let alone won." Franken entered the race far behind GOP Sen. Norm Coleman, but "the more venom the right threw at Franken," the more money he raised.

The feud won't end any time soon, said David Neiwert in Crooks and Liars. Franken's "looming elevation" to the Senate is making Republicans crazy. Last week O'Reilly aired one of Franken's old comedy videos just so he could call the Democrat a "pinhead." Franken should have fun with it—"they're gonna savage him no matter what he does."

Partisan warriors might indeed propel Franken into the Senate, said Brian Darling in Human Events, but they'll be Democrats. Coleman, who led by 215 votes in the original count, challenged the Minnesota Canvassing Board's decision to declare Franken the winner, saying officials botched the recount. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid evidently knows better than the Minnesota courts and declared "the race in Minnesota's over."