Go Franken

A few months ago, I found myself agreeing (to a limited extent) with Al Franken. It seems he tackled to the ground a critic who was heckling a speaker with whom Franken agrees. I don't agree with Franken's violent methods, but I do agree with his statement afterwards, something to the effect that shouting someone down is stupid, and you don't have any legitimate expectation of free speech when your "speech" isn't really speech so much as it is shrieking louder than the other guy.

Granted, I wasn't there. So I'm just going to agree in principle that people who engage in shouting matches rather than reasoned debate are fools, and I won't feel too sorry if someone puts the smack down on 'em.

Then I read this.

There's not much text, but you have to click the link to see the pictures, which are worth much more than a thousand words. It seems that Franken is only opposed to shout-downs when he isn't the one doing the shouting. Otherwise, shouting is fine. Thanks for clearing that up, Al.

Update: Read the abstract of the old story here. I'm still looking for the full story.

Update: I gave up looking, and I'm not about to pay the New York Post to get into their archives, but you can find a bit more information on Powerline.