Al Franken of the WWE
: The NY Post reports that Al Franken tackled a heckler at a Dean rally:
Wise-cracking funnyman Al Franken yesterday body-slammed a demonstrator to the ground after the man tried to shout down Gov. Howard Dean.
The tussle left Franken’s trademark thick-rim glasses broken, but he said he was not injured….
Franken said he’s not backing Dean but merely wanted to protect the right of people to speak freely…. “I’m neutral in this race but I’m for freedom of speech, which means people should be able to assemble and speak without being shouted down.” …
“I was a wrestler so I used a wrestling move,” Franken said.
That might seem like an odd contradiction — I’m in favor of free speech and so I body-slammed you to shut you up — but it turns out he was going after a Larouchie. Now it all makes sense, eh?
Better watch out, Bill O’Reilly.
: UPDATE: Nick, a commenter, says the Post is tabbing it up and he points us to two other versions of this most momentous event. From NRO:
But just then, a second protester stood up and began his own high-volume tirade.
“Dean’s a liar!” he hollered.
At that point, comedian Al Franken rose from among the journalists and others near the stage and said, “Let’s get him out of here.”
Franken and a few others hustled the second man outside. As they did so, the first ill-mannered LaRouchite reemerged…
Throughout all this commotion, Howard Dean’s fuse stayed long and moist.
Bad visual.
And CNN does a Larouchie roundup:
Franken, a comedian and self-described liberal well-known for his attacks on the Bush administration and conservative-leaning media, helped carry out one of the disrupters. In the process, Franken’s glasses were knocked off his face and broke in two.
Putting them back together with electrical tape, he quipped he had been “deputized” by Dean’s security.
