* Franken has had more than one run-in with National Review editor Rich Lowry. Once, Franken suggested that Lowry had dedicated his new book to his male lover, when, in fact, the “Robert” in question was Lowry’s brother.  Slate.com reports that on another occasion, Franken, “upon hearing … Lowry claim that liberals had sissified politics,… challenged Lowry to a fistfight.”

* Franken, who objected to former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger’s Vietnam War policies in the 1970s, used his influence to prevent Kissinger’s son from obtaining tickets to Saturday Night Live years after the war had ended.  [Peter Schweizer, Do As I Say (Not As I Do): Profiles in Liberal Hypocrisy (New York: Doubleday, 2005), p. 66.]

* At a Washington dinner, Franken once said the following about John McCain, who spent several years as a prisoner in a North Vietnamese POW camp: “Essentially, he sat out the war. ” When some audience members booed, Franken retorted: “Well, isn’t the idea to capture the other guys?”  [Peter Schweizer, Do As I Say (Not As I Do): Profiles in Liberal Hypocrisy (New York: Doubleday, 2005), p. 62.]

* At another Washington dinner, Franken made a joke about the menstrual cycle of one of Newt Gingrich’s daughters.  [Peter Schweizer, Do As I Say (Not As I Do): Profiles in Liberal Hypocrisy (New York: Doubleday, 2005), p. 62]