He's Not Even All That Funny

I'm certainly not sorry to see the back of Senator Norm Coleman and I can understand political junkies getting all hubba hubba over the possibility (the near certainty?) that the Democrats will scrape out another win here. Yet is it just me or am I correct in sensing a somewhat muted tone among the pro-Franken (or is it the anti-Coleman?) camp--recognizing that we are about to replace a lizard in a suits with a guy whose main lifetime achievement seems to lie in the field of calling attention to himself--? Let's be candid here, Al Franken suffers from a disability that you would think might be a problem for a comic--he's not all that funny. Going to bed with Arianna Huffington on primetime basic cable had a certain shock appeal and asking leading conservatives for anecdotes about their abstinence moments was--well that one, actually, you'd have to say was pretty clever (but didn't he back away from it?). But being a senator should be, done right, a difficult job, requiring a lot of savvay and a lot of hard work, not just the knack for getting your face out. If Franken is really the man for this sort of thing, then maybe New York needs to take a fresh look at this lady.

Update: I have to admit, he gets off a zinger here.