Good Enough, Smart Enough

Why Al Franken will be a superlative senator.

Norman Ornstein, The New Republic Published: Tuesday, July 07, 2009

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A full six months after the freshman class of senators was sworn in to the 111th Congress, Al Franken is now joining its ranks. Partly because of the circumstances--an election decided by 312 votes out of 2.9 million ballots cast, a protracted legal battle--and partly because of Franken's own background and fame (or notoriety), he will receive a bewildering degree of attention and media scrutiny. Much of that scrutiny will be aimed at waiting and watching for him to falter as a senator: by showing his shallowness, flying off the handle, revealing an ignorance about complex policy nuances, taking extreme and unreasonable positions, or finding the real work of the Senate boring and tuning out.

Given his background as a satirist and experiences before entering politics, from Saturday Night Live to talk radio, it is not surprising that many people, including many political sophisticates, are expecting little from Senator Franken. But as a close friend of his for more than 20 years, I expect something else. I expect him to become a first-rate senator who will dive into the key issues with gusto and depth, who will rely upon his deep relationships with experts to come up with innovative ideas, and who will use his personal skills to build bipartisan relationships.

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