Which Side Again?
The campaign for a candidate for public office in Iowa sent a news release last week, promoting that the candidate would “deliver a major foreign policy speech, where he will contrast his decades of foreign policy experience with the lack of leadership in Washington as it relates to the war in Ukraine, OPEC’s aggression, and threats to democracy across the globe and right here in the United States.”
That’s pretty strong language, but we’re only three weeks away from the election, so you do expect some of it.
And it’s pretty standard stuff for a Republican…taking issue with the current “lack of leadership in Washington” on Ukraine, OPEC, and threats to democracy across the world.
Except this was not a Republican…it was Democrat U.S. Senate candidate Michael Franken.
In past interviews we’ve had on KXEL, Franken promoted his foreign policy credentials, but suggested that he would strongly support the Biden Administration as a U.S. Senator. In fact, when I said he would be the junior senator from Iowa—true, because he’d be the one with less seniority—he said he’d soon become the leading Senator from our state.
Now comes a “major foreign policy speech” that would take on “the lack of leadership in Washington” tied to his own party. I’m not sure what to make of it, other than an attempt to convince independents that a vote for Franken would not be a Democrat rubber stamp…that’s contrary to the statements he made to us during the primary season when he was currying favor with partisans.
Also interesting that he’s not accepted an invitation to return to KXEL since winning the primary. Maybe because we recall what he said then, and how it’s not quite consistent with what’s being said now.
