Al Franken's take on politics

(CNN) -- Al Franken is a funny guy, but he takes politics very seriously -- and isn't shy about his liberal politics or taking digs at the Republicans. Here's Franken on a variety of topics.

On the Democrats and September 11:

"I think there was a lot of timidity after 9/11 -- [but] that was actually rightfully so. We rallied 'round the president and rallied 'round the country, and should have.

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"And that's something, probably, the Republicans would not have done. If it had been Gore, they would have been all over him. They would have said, 'The Clinton-Gore administration let down our guard,' and it would have been his CIA, and his FBI, and ... they would have been all over him to attack the next day. ... I think the Democrats did the right thing."

On Enron and the problems of corporate America:

"I watched [former Enron executive Jeffrey] Skilling's testimony very closely. ... I think he's very smart. I think whatever prison he goes to he'll be the smartest guy there.

"And now, it's kind of putting a cloud over all of corporate America. ... I talked to a group the other day and I told them Xerox is under a cloud, but I understand they're getting Cardinal Law as their new CEO."

On environmentalism and ANWR:

"I'm an environmentalist. ... [But] after the second plane hit the World Trade Center, I kind of said, 'Drill in the ANWR [Arctic National Wildlife Refuge]. Increase CAFE standards and drill in the ANWR.' I would have loved to see some kind of compromise there, and I know that some of my very close friends and people I do things for in the environmental movement would say that's anathema to what they believe. But if the Democratic Party aggressively came out for a real energy policy, as opposed to this fake energy policy, it would resonate with people. ...

"So instead of worrying about [ANWR] ... I wish that Democratic politics weren't so dictated by not offending various groups."

On tax cuts:

"I also think we should be willing to rescind some of these tax cuts, the down-the-line tax cuts -- in effect, the higher brackets -- and not be afraid of being accused of raising taxes. ... We made increases in the top brackets in 1993 and it didn't cause a recession like every Republican said it would. It was part of what led to the greatest expansion in the history of our economy, because it let everybody know we were serious about balancing the budget.

"But now we're just frittering away all the progress we made on balancing the budget by giving these stupid tax cuts. People don't need it. I wish there was a little more courage [from the Democrats]."