If today's performance by Sam Seder is any indication, the future of post-Al Franken Air America is bleak indeed.
During a discussion of Iraq war profiteering of Bush/Cheney-linked firms such as Halliburton and Bechtel, Seder launched a surreal diatribe against Bill Clinton. Entertaining a caller's assertion that President Clinton was a major Halliburton shareholder, Seder attacked Clinton's own "low grade wars" of the 1990's. The implication is that Clinton somehow filled and dined at the same war-time corporate trough now feeding the Republican defense establishment.
This is not to say that Bill Clinton should be immune to criticism, far from it. Don't Ask, Don't Tell, the Lewinsky bimbroglio and the botched heath care reform are just a few of the sore points, and NAFTA remains a source of heated debate in both parties.
But Clinton's foreign policy interventions brought democracy to Haiti, halted the bloodbath in Bosnia and stemmed the ethnic cleansing in Kosovo. Unlike Iraq, those moves, all criticized by the right, will not be remembered for out-of-control war profiteering. Instead, they represent successes in a post-Cold War landscape where America's multilateral stewardship headed off growing violence, political chaos and humanitarian disaster.
As Al Franken moves on to his Minnesota Senate race against Republican Norm Coleman, the tenor of Air America seems set to move further to the left. But while Franken enjoyed the support of activists and Democratic political leadership alike, other Air America voices will struggle to fill the void. Portland's Thom Hartmann, set to fill Franken's slot, is a thoughtful analyst and author on the left, but through no fault of his own lacks Franken's star power.
As for Sam Seder, let's just say he was great in Next Stop Wonderland.