Live, From the Left, It's... Liberals are looking to a 'Saturday Night Live' alum for salvation. Backstage with Al Franken, air warrior.

Publication: Newsweek

Publication Date: 29-MAR-04

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Byline: Weston Kosova

Al Franken is eating a sandwich--demolishing it, really--blissfully unaware of the barrage of wet, sticky mouth sounds he's sending into the microphone that hangs in front of his face. It's the third day of recorded rehearsals for Franken's daily radio show on Air America, a left-leaning, all-talk network that launches next week, and he's trying to choke down a quick lunch during the few minutes of commercials between segments. On the other side of the studio desk, the show's cohost, Franken's friend and radio pro Katherine Lanpher, is experiencing every note of the gastric symphony. She shoots him an amused, exasperated look. "Bet you're glad you didn't have the chips," she deadpans. It isn't the first time Franken has broken a cardinal rule of radio. "I tried to tell him yesterday he can't eat on the air." She laughs. "Listeners don't want to hear... that."

But Franken is lost in his thoughts. He's pecking ideas into his laptop, cracking up at his own punch lines, trying to decide which of the many archenemies of the left is next in line for his special brand of verbal pounding. George Tenet? Dick Cheney? George W. Bush? Ten seconds...

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