Re: Al Franken: Can't help but think. . .

I personally have no doubt that Al Franken is perfectly qualified to be Senator from Minnersota, and, in fact, he's probably smarter and better informed, both technically and philosophically, than the majority of people who have become Senators over the years in our country. But I can't help but wonder, if it were not for his public persona as a goofy comedian, whether (a) whoever the Democratic candidate had been in his place wouldn't have won easily (given the Obama coattails); and (b) the Minnesota court, if faced with the situation it's now faced with, wouldn't have acted with dispatch to get the winner of the election certified.

All of which is to say, in this still-deeply partisan political climate, and with the level of frankly unfair scrutiny that has now become routine in politics, Democrats need to put forward candidates who are solidly Democratic but also conventional enough that their personal lives or past careers do not become distractions. We Democrats NEED Franken's vote, and we need every single vote we can get. At least partly due to the incomprehensible (to me) unwillingness of the leadership to call the Republican Obstructionist Party's bluff and actually force them to filibuster when they threaten to, we do not have an effective majority in the Senate.