Democrat Al Franken, the former Saturday Night Live writer and comedian probably best known as the desperate, self-loathing character Stuart Smiley – “I’m good enough, I’m smart enough, and doggone it, people like me” – has finally been declared the new senator from Minnesota.
The election, now eight months past, was a squeaker and Republican incumbent Norm Coleman – like the desperate Smiley – wrung out almost every possible challenge to the results of a January recount that turned Coleman’s 206-vote lead into a 225-vote win for Franken.
Coleman cried foul, and after a two-month trial contesting the recount, Franken’s vote total rose to 312. Coleman persisted, appealed his case to the Minnesota Supreme Court in April, and yesterday the jurists returned an unambiguous 5-0 decision, declaring Franken the new junior senator from the Land of 10,000 Lakes. (Actually, a state recount of Minnesota’s lakes resulted in a total of 12,000.)
Al Franken
Although he might have taken his increasingly hopeless cause to the U.S. Supreme Court, Coleman quickly conceded to Franken and told reporters “2008 is over.”
When Franken is sworn in, Senate Democrats will enjoy a filibuster-proof 60-vote “supermajority” – if and when they can get those votes – although persistent health issues may remove senior Democratic senators Robert Byrd and Ted Kennedy from the equation.
Franken’s seat will be doubly hot as soon as he enters the fray over both health care reform and the impending confirmation hearings for Obama Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor. He is to serve on both the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee and the Judiciary Committee.
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