Franken tackles Bush, Hanukkah in Hussein’s palace

Al Franken spent part of last Hanukkah in one of Saddam Hussein’s former palaces.

Franken… Al Franken spent part of last Hanukkah in one of Saddam Hussein’s former palaces.

Franken was touring Iraq as part of a United Service Organizations show, and the U.S. Army housed him, his brother and two other Jews who were on the tour in one of the ousted dictator’s castles.

An army chaplain gave Franken a menorah, the nine-branched candelabrum used in celebration of Hanukkah. Franken and his companions lit the menorah in the foyer of the palace. A 30-foot chandelier hung over their heads and there were pillars displaying Hussein’s name, written in gold, surrounding them.

Franken wanted to send a message to the dictator who had suppressed religious freedom in Iraq and facilitated suicide bombers in Israel.

“We celebrated Hanukkah right there in the foyer just as a ‘F— you,'” Franken said.

Franken told the story of his latest USO tour to a sold-out crowd in Carnegie Music Hall Saturday night.

The former “Saturday Night Live” writer and performer and best-selling author also spoke about his recent clash with Fox News and took numerous shots at President Bush who, in November, Franken said is “going down.”

Despite entertaining troops in Iraq, Franken was critical of the war and the rationale for it.

“We need to ask some tough questions,” Franken said. “What did the president know? Why didn’t he know it? Did he understand his intelligence briefings? Did he know he didn’t understand his intelligence briefings? These questions must be asked often, and in an accusing manor.”

Franken spoke as part of “Not Quite Kosher,” a fundraiser for Jewish life at Pitt and Carnegie Mellon University, and for Table to Table, an organization that feeds the hungry in Israel.

The night also featured the Chicago comedy troupe Second City and sketches by Jewish students from Pitt and CMU. The event was a joint production of the United Jewish Federation, the Jewish University Center and the Sanford N. Robinson Memorial Lecture Series.

Daniel Marcus, assistant director of the JUC, said the event took weeks of preparation.

“This has been a real great success in terms of student leadership,” Marcus said.

Marcus added that the organizations were not afraid to host a performer as politically forthright as Franken.

“He is here as a comedian, not a political analyst,” Marcus said.

Despite this, as soon as he arrived on stage, Franken took aim at President George W. Bush.

“Words are not this president’s strong suit,” Franken said, going on to criticize the president for initially calling military operations in Afghanistan “Operation Infinite Justice” and the war against terrorism “a crusade.”

“[Bush campaign strategist] Karl Rove should have gone to the streets of Washington, D.C. and waved down a Pakistani cab driver and ran this stuff by him,” Franken said.

“‘Infinite Justice? Please do not call it that. Only Allah can dispense infinite justice. What else have you got? What? A crusade! Oh, no!'” Franken said, speaking the imagined response.

Franken also criticized the president’s economic record.

“At the start of the 2000 [presidential] campaign, when Bush said he was against nation-building, I didn’t realize he only meant our nation,” Franken said.

Franken noted that, during the combined terms of both President Bush and his father, more jobs were lost than created in the United States.

“If Bushes had run the country since inception to present day, not a single American would have worked,” Franken said. “We would all be hunter-gatherers.”

Franken also commented on the war in Iraq. He said he feels the Bush administration lied about weapons of mass destruction, but at this time last year, he was not so certain.

“I was very agnostic about the war,” Franken said.

Agnostic as Franken was, he decided to entertain troops in Iraq, Kuwait, Afghanistan and Uzbekistan last December. It was his fourth USO tour.

“I always get more from USO tours than I put in,” Franken said. “Don’t let anyone tell you differently. We Democrats love our troops.”

Still, one of Franken’s touring mates was skeptical. Country singer Darryl Worley feared Franken would be too political.

“What did he expect me to say?” Franken asked. “‘Your president lied to you and you are dying for no reason. Now, Mr. Darryl Worley!'”

Franken’s USO act was apolitical. Shortly after Saddam Hussein was captured, Franken impersonated Hussein in handcuffs and costume.

“I used to have 20 or 30 palaces, but when the kids move out I wanted to downsize,” Franken said, doing his best Hussein. “The hole you found me in was my favorite hole. I had the air duct and I could roll over.”

When troops were driving Franken out of Baghdad, one person pointed out the building where Hussein was being held. Franken asked permission to do his impression in front of the former dictator but was not allowed.

Franken also discussed his clash with the cable network Fox News, which began at a Book Expo last May when Franken promoted his latest “Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right.”

Fox News personality Bill O’Reilly, featured on the cover of “Lies,” shared a panel discussion with Franken and shouted at Franken to “shut-up” and called him an “idiot.”

Days later, Fox News sent Franken’s publisher a letter saying that they intended to sue him for using their motto “fair and balanced” in the title of his book. Franken was not intimidated.

“I’ve been in this business 30 years, and satire is protected speech, even if the object of the satire doesn’t get it,” Franken said.

Franken went to court several months later and the judge dismissed the case as “wholly without merit.”

“They have been using ‘fair and balanced’ much less since then,” Franken said. “I think it is because the judge gave them a new motto: ‘Fox News: Wholly Without Merit.”

Franken ended his set with one last, more seriously toned, shot at Bush.

“After 9-11, I had never seen this country or the world so united,” he said.

“This president had an opportunity to lead the world into a new American century of mutual sacrifice and mutual purpose, and he blew it,” Franken added. “He blew it, and there is a lot of anger, and that’s why he’s going down.”