People Like Him

There's a pretty fair little article in the New York Times about Al Franken and his possible U.S. Senate run. A great many Lefties are already looking hopefully forward to the prospect - myself included. It sounds as if quite a few Republicans support his candidacy as well, absurdly reasoning that even a muppet like Norm Coleman can beat Franken, and that if Franken did make the Senate, he would become a national embarrassment to the Democratic Party, a la Howard Dean (in their opinion), and help the Republicans in the long-term. National wags cite the Jesse Ventura "experiment," saying that Minnesotans have learned their lesson on celebrity politicians.
Ha. We've done no such thing. Passion is never a weakness, my friends, for a politician or anyone. Celebrity doesn't enter into it. It's about passion and the willingness to never pull punches. I've long thought Franken a perfect fit as successor to Wellstone, for just that reason, and when the enough people finally see him as something more than a Saturday Night Live character and listen to what he has to say, and how he says it, I think he'll flourish.
We'll likely have to wait awhile before Franken announces anything officially. In the event that he decides he won't run, I hope he makes his decision at the last possible moment, just so we can all have the satisfaction of watching Coleman needlessly squirm his way through the "what do you think of Franken" questions for another three years. That at least is worth a good laugh.