Making Frankenaid
Apparently the right-wing is secretly really psyched that Al Franken won, because now they can criticize him! Or something. As Dave Weigel observes, there’s a certain lack of logic here. It’s worth considering that Franken had a lot of obstacles during this campaign that won’t be a problem as he runs for re-election. A lot of folks had trouble taking a comedian seriously as a potential Senator. By 2014, everyone will be used to the idea. And time has a way of making “carpetbagger” concerns go away.
Beyond that, I’m fairly certain that people are going to come to see that like him or not, Franken is deadly serious about progressive politics. His career transition really didn’t happen all that suddenly, and certainly wasn’t the most obvious or easy thing for him to do with his life. But he did it because he thought it was important. His past career gave his opponents a certain amount of fodder for criticism, but going forward you’re not going to see anything like that. No seat is ever safe in Minnesota, which is both pretty closely divided and has a habit of sometimes electing real liberals, but the toughest race for someone with an unusual background is the first one.
43 Responses to “Making Frankenaid”
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January 7th, 2009 at 9:23 am
there’s a certain lack of logic here
Since when has that stopped rightwingers before?
I predict that Franken will remain in the Senate for many terms to come. Coleman is DONE. Come 2014 (yeah, bitches!), I don’t think Pawlenty or any other Rethug will be able to beat Franken.
January 7th, 2009 at 9:25 am
He graduated in 1969 from The Blake School, where he was on the wrestling team. He attended Harvard College and graduated cum laude in 1973 with a bachelor of arts degree in general studies.
In 2003, Franken served as a Fellow with Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government at the Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy.
Later he visited Iraq where he headlined two USO shows while traveling with Russell Burnham, the U.S. Army Soldier of the Year. Franken has done seven USO tours to date, his most recent being in mid-December 2006.
All courtesy Wiki
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Republicans underestimate Franken. I venture a good many of them haven’t a notion of his intellectual heft nor his public service.
January 7th, 2009 at 9:25 am
Go Al. Loved his radio show, but he’ll be even better in the Senate.
January 7th, 2009 at 9:29 am
It’s true that the toughest election for someone with an unusual background is the first one, but the toughest election for *anyone* is the first one.
January 7th, 2009 at 9:37 am
I hope so. Despite the vigor with which the right goes after Al (and he gives as good as he gets), I’ve never been convinced of where he really sits on the political spectrum. In his writing he seemed very supportive of establishment Dems.
He might be a little more centrist and a little less Wellstone-like than we suspect.
January 7th, 2009 at 9:44 am
They’re just comparing the silly and lightweight Franken with the hard-hitting heavyweight that was the Republicans’ VP candidate.
January 7th, 2009 at 10:10 am
We’ve had some goofy elections lately, but MN is a solid blue state. Coleman would never have been elected if not for a)Wellstone’s plane crash AND b)the memorial service. Pawlenty is a great politician, but can only squeak by against weak opponents with a push from 3rd party candidates. 5 of our 8 reps (with gerrymandered districts designed to get R’s in) are now Dems, none of the D districts are competitive, and all of the R districts are. I think the truest test was 2006, with a strong Dem candidate (Klobuchar) vs. a strong R (Kennedy). 58-38 Klobuchar. No contest. Ferchrissakes, we never even voted for Reagan. Give us some credit!
January 7th, 2009 at 10:17 am
Howie,
He might be a little more centrist and a little less Wellstone-like than we suspect.
Does anyone really expect him to be like Wellstone? I think it’s very clear that he’s a mainstream liberal, which is much, much better than Coleman, but if he’s planning to be a force for the Left he’s done a really good job of hiding it so far.
January 7th, 2009 at 10:17 am
There must be something I’m missing.
He’s Jewish? (Though unlike Frank, he isn’t Jewish and gay.)
January 7th, 2009 at 10:24 am
It’s because Franken is sharp as a tack and has publicly kicked ass and humiliated the blow-hard right wing heros Limbagh, O’Reilly, Coulter, etc…repeatedly.
He’s also not the typical spineless Dem who cowers when confronted. Franken fights back with well-researched counter points and just beats the hell out of them with intellect that they can’t counter-act.
January 7th, 2009 at 10:25 am
There must be something I’m missing.
It’s not that mysterious – imagine how you’d react if Sean Hannity got elected to Congress or something.* Senate Democrats are generally wimpy, and here comes a celebrity pundit who made his living breaking Republicans and conservatives over his knee. You don’t want to deal with that.
*Yes, unfair comparison between a Harvard grad and a college drop-out. I know.
January 7th, 2009 at 10:29 am
Part of the disdain for Franken is he’s funny. Funny in a way not involving beer, farts, incest, racin’ & rasslin’, scatology or drunken lounge lizards. A room full of Republicans will roll in the aisles after a few minutes of Larry the Cable Guy at the podium. Franken will have gone over their heads from “hello”.
January 7th, 2009 at 10:37 am
Don’t forget, he seduced poor, innocent Arianna Huffington away from the right-wing with his insidious, semetic charm. They’ll never forgive him for that.
January 7th, 2009 at 10:40 am
I repeat, the country is going to hell in a handbasket.
January 7th, 2009 at 10:43 am
The disdain comes from being not just a liberal, but Stewart Smalley. They can’t get over that a comedian who was most known for a perceived weak character should get any respect.
January 7th, 2009 at 10:44 am
I think C-SPAN should be happy.
January 7th, 2009 at 10:48 am
It’s rather funny, the attacks by the Rethuglicans on Mr. Franken for being an actor/comedian. This is the same party that had/has such notables as George Murphy, Ronald Reagan, Fred Gandy, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jim Bunning, Jim Ryan, etc.
January 7th, 2009 at 11:03 am
Minnesota is not “pretty closely divided.” Its been hosting three way elections for the last ten years that have thrown a monkey wrench into things. What you saw in the last election was fairly typical I think. A liberal base going to Franken. A dem leaning moderate group going for Barkley and the repubs to Coleman. In fact, the big debate in the state right now is whether to go to instant runoff voting that might alter this.
But in general, I think you’re right that Franken will be a serious senator. That’s why he won – because enough people believe that to be so.
January 7th, 2009 at 11:34 am
“And time has a way of making ‘carpetbagger’ concerns go away.”
Not for Liddy Dole.
January 7th, 2009 at 11:39 am
OK, I have a confession to make. Deep down I kind of wanted Al to lose so he would come back to his radio show. Isn’t that horrible? Whew, that’s a load off my chest. Anyway, go Senator Franken!
January 7th, 2009 at 12:13 pm
And time has a way of making “carpetbagger” concerns go away.
Not really sure what you meant by “carpetbagger” here. Franken is from Minnesota. The only carpetbagger in the race is Coleman, a New Yorker who came west.
January 7th, 2009 at 12:30 pm
Out of curiosity, does “general studies” have some special meaning in Harvard lingo? Since seeing it in Franken’s bio I’ve been wondering what it entails. (Not that a 57-year-old guy who graduated in 1973 is really running on his college credentials.)
January 7th, 2009 at 12:36 pm
“Winning” by 200 votes, with a candidate who’s a major national celebrity, against a nonentity like Norm Coleman, is a lot like losing, it looks like to me. Which, come to think of it, is something the Minnesota Dems seem to have a special gift for. Who else could have put up a Humphrey and lost to that wrestler guy? Or squandered Wellstone’s legacy by handing it to famed loser Walter Mondale? Franken will be a fine centrist senator and therefore a big step up from Coleman, but this doesn’t feel like much of a win.
January 7th, 2009 at 12:45 pm
“Winning” by 200 votes, with a candidate who’s a major national celebrity, against a nonentity like Norm Coleman, is a lot like losing, it looks like to me.
Right. Except for the six year term as a Senator. I don’t mean to be unkind, but this is one of the stupider things I’ve read today. (Granted, I’ve had a lot of work to do…)
January 7th, 2009 at 1:16 pm
This shows why instant run-off needs to be implemented. I don’t think Franken would have won had there been a run-off
January 7th, 2009 at 1:36 pm
I have a funny Franken political story back from 1992. I was living on the Westside of Manhattan and had gone into H&H Bagels at 80th and Broadway about 11:00 one night. It was during the time of the Democratic Presidential primaries, and I was supporting Jerry Brown who I liked a lot from my years growing up in California. Anyway, I was wearing my Brown for President button, and who should be in front of me in line, but Al Franken, who turned and saw my button. I never met the guy before, but he immediately launched an aggressive attack on my support of Brown. Al hated Brown’s favorable statements about a flat-tax (actually not something I liked either). Al really let me have it, and afterward I was pretty amused by the whole thing.
January 7th, 2009 at 1:38 pm
Not really sure what you meant by “carpetbagger” here. Franken is from Minnesota. The only carpetbagger in the race is Coleman, a New Yorker who came west.
Perhaps Matt’s never heard Norm Coleman’s speaking voice? It’s not exactly straight out of Fargo. As Franken himself put it at the outset of the campaign, “I’m the New York Jew who actually grew up in Minnesota.”
January 7th, 2009 at 1:46 pm
SLC, and Sonny freakin’ Bono:-)
January 7th, 2009 at 1:48 pm
Franken won because the people in Minnesota looked him over and realized that he was good enough, that he was smart enough, and dog-gone-it, people just like him. Oh, and the Republican party is an absolute embarassment right now.
Coleman had plenty of opportunity to curry the moderate, middle vote, but then the nutter base would have stayed home. So he pandered and still lost. Once Franken is in and takes up Wellstone’s mantle, he’ll do well in 6 years.
January 7th, 2009 at 2:36 pm
If you’ve read his books, you’ll already know that Franken is serious about progressive politics.
He had me from his wrap up after a reasoned trashing of Limbaugh’s Social Security policy: “See, he’s a dick.”
It helped focus attention on the problem, which was the messenger, Rush. Recently, MY critiqued the “clean coal” ads that failed to highlight the people who traffic in such BS, and AF’s writing shows how effective such highlighting can be.
January 7th, 2009 at 2:49 pm
“Winning” by 200 votes, with a candidate who’s a major national celebrity, against a nonentity like Norm Coleman, is a lot like losing, it looks like to me.
So you’re concerned that he didn’t cover the spread? And this matters to those of us who aren’t bookies because…? He’s still Senator for the next 6 years, and Coleman isn’t. And after six years of incumbency, a lot of people will get over their “I can’t believe we’re electing somebody from Saturday Night Live to the Senate” phobia.
January 7th, 2009 at 3:56 pm
I wouldn’t be to sure that Senator Franken is a done deal. If Mc. Coleman can get this into federal court and up to the Supreme Court, who knows what goatfucking fucktards like Alito and Co. will do.
January 7th, 2009 at 4:58 pm
Coleman would have won in a landslide if it weren’t for Barkley. Any party that elects Jessie Ventura is not moderate-Dem leaning, although Ventura is an atheist, he has that going for him. In six years Franken probably won’t be given that sort of head start.
January 7th, 2009 at 10:08 pm
Coleman would have won in a landslide if it weren’t for Barkley. … In six years Franken probably won’t be given that sort of head start.
In six years, Franken will have an even bigger, though different, kind of head start– the kind that comes from being an incumbent senator.
January 8th, 2009 at 3:17 pm
This shows why instant run-off needs to be implemented. I don’t think Franken would have won had there been a run-off
No, the GOP needs to oppose instant run-off voting, because then Gore would have beaten Bush.
There are plenty of good reasons to support IRV. “I didn’t like the outcome of this particular election” is not one of them; that way lies Calvinball.
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