Al Franken destroys Focus on the Family's Tom Minnery at same-sex marriage hearing

It's good to know that Focus on the Family is still around to provide unintentional comedy when that organization's narrow-minded rhetoric slams head-first into reality. Case in point: On Wednesday during a Senate same-sex marriage hearing, Focus on the Family, represented by senior lobbyist Thomas Minnery, referenced a federal study that found children who lived with both their mother and father were better off than other kids. Compelling stuff; too bad Senator Al Franken was at the hearing -- and had read the study.

From the video below, it's clear Franken has lost none of the comic timing and razor wit of his Saturday Night Live days. Zeroing in on Focus on the Family's use of the study to suggest that "nuclear families" with both mothers and fathers are the best environment for kids, Franken asked, "Isn't it true, Mr. Minnery, that a married same-sex couple that has had or adopted kids would fall under the definition of 'a nuclear family' in the study that you cite?"

"I would think that the study, when it cites 'nuclear families,' would mean a family headed by a husband and wife," the lobbyist responded cautiously, possibly sensing a trap.

"It doesn't," replied the senator, to a round of laughter. "The study defines a nuclear family as 'one or more children living with two parents who are married to one another and are each biological or adoptive parents to all the children in the family.'"

Booyah! Score one for rationality and reality, suckers! The exchange was part of a hearing on the Respect for Marriage Act, a bill introduced by Senator Diane Feinstein and co-sponsored by Franken that would repeal the Defense of Marriage Act, the federal law that defines marriage as the union of a man and a woman.

Down at Focus on the Family's world headquarters in Colordo Springs, though, they may not have found find Franken's wit all that amusing.

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