Oct 2, 2008 2:40 pm US/Central
Franken Opposes Wall Street Bailout
ST. PAUL (AP) ―
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Franken's campaign says he'll explain why at a press conference at the Capitol later Thursday.
Al Franken For Senate
Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Al Franken would have voted against the $700 billion financial industry bailout passed by the U.S. Senate, he said Thursday.
Franken said he felt the bill lacks the regulatory measures to stop a similar Wall Street meltdown in the future, and that he wanted more help for homeowners struggling to pay mortgages.
"We were trying to drain a basement that is filled with water and it's raining out and we have a roof with a huge hole in it," Franken said at a State Capitol news conference. "We're draining the basement without fixing the roof. We needed to fix the roof here."
Franken's opposition puts him on the other side of the issue from his Republican opponent, Sen. Norm Coleman, who voted for the bailout bill Wednesday night. Minnesota's Democratic U.S. senator, Amy Klobuchar, also voted for the bailout.
The bill passed the Senate on a 74-25 vote. Presidential candidates Barack Obama and John McCain both supported it. Franken had expressed reservations about the bill before the vote but didn't announce his position until Thursday.
Franken said he wouldn't blame anyone for their vote "because it was a really tough call." But he did bash Coleman for supporting what he described as a lax regulatory climate that contributed to the financial crisis.
A night earlier, Coleman portrayed his vote as a necessary move while noting it may not please many of his constituents. He said calls to his office had run strongly against the bailout. Mark Drake, a spokesman for Coleman's campaign, said the senator "demonstrated leadership" in his support for the bill and criticized Franken as taking an extreme position.
"At the end of the day, you've got to be willing to work with folks to get something done. It's too important not to do anything," Drake said.
Support and opposition to the bailout among Minnesota politicians and candidates have defied traditional political alliances. Coleman and Klobuchar joined Democrats Keith Ellison, Betty McCollum and Jim Oberstar and Republican John Kline in voting for it; while Franken's opposition echoes Republicans Michele Bachmann and Jim Ramstad, and Democrats Tim Walz and Collin Peterson, who helped defeat a previous version of the bill earlier this week in the House of Representatives.
The House is scheduled to vote on the Senate-passed bill on Friday.
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Norm Coleman was born in New York City in 1949. Al Franken was born in New York City in 1951.
(© 2009 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
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