Next Step (for Franken): Win Over GOP Colleagues

[question everything]

JULY 1, 2009

Next Step: Win Over GOP Colleagues

By NAFTALI BENDAVID
WSJ

The next task for Minnesota's new junior senator will be to complete his transformation from edgy comedian to influential politician. To prepare, Al Franken has studied the experiences of former Sen. Bill Bradley, the basketball star who won his seat in 1979 after a Hall of Fame career with the New York Knicks. Mr. Bradley kept his head down and worked on unglamorous issues such as tax policy. Mr. Franken is determined to follow suit.

"We've talked about this -- how do you come in with a certain cachet, as Bill Bradley or Jay Rockefeller or Hillary Clinton had to do, and make sure you don't p -- off your colleagues from the get-go?" said Norman Ornstein, a close friend of Mr. Franken's and a scholar at the conservative American Enterprise Institute. "He will be very cognizant of that."

Mr. Franken faces an obstacle previous Senate arrivistes didn't. In his years hosting a liberal radio show and writing books such as "Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right," he might find it hard to work with some Republican colleagues. Mr. Franken has friends in the GOP, but has thrived on insulting conservatives... Mr. Franken rose to fame as a writer and occasional performer on "Saturday Night Live" during its early days as a 1970s pop-culture phenomenon. In later years he developed his most famous character, Stuart Smalley, a self-help guru whose mantra was "I'm good enough, I'm smart enough, and doggone it, people like me."

(snip)

By 1986, he was campaigning for Democratic candidates, and a decade later he wrote the bestselling book "Rush Limbaugh is a Big Fat Idiot and other Observations." He hosted the "Al Franken Show" on the Air America radio network from 2004 to 2007, on which he announced his Senate candidacy. Minnesota Sen. Paul Wellstone's death in a plane crash just before the 2002 election gave Mr. Franken's goal an emotional underpinning. The comedian had campaigned hard for the liberal senator and the men were close. After Norm Coleman captured the seat by defeating former Vice President Walter Mondale, who stepped in as the Democratic candidate after Mr. Wellstone's death, Mr. Franken became determined to recapture it, as did Wellstone family members. "I wanted, for my dad, to win the seat back and put what I consider a Wellstone Democrat back in that seat," said David Wellstone, the late senator's son, who campaigned for Mr. Franken.

(snip)

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124640600035176727.html (subscription)

Printed in The Wall Street Journal, page A3

[Demoiselle]

1. First he needs to win over his Democratic colleagues...

...the ones who "aren't moved" by the American people's overwhelming support for public health care, for example.
Screw the GOP.

[Tansy_Gold]

4. Exactly. If anyone knows the futility of "winning over" the GOP

it oughta be Franken.

Give 'em an invitation. You wanta join us or not? If not, so long. end of discussion.


Tansy Gold, who would never make it in politics 'cause she has no patience with total idiots

[Kelvin Mace]

2. Franken doesn't have to do any such thing

The GOP is NEVER going to like him or work with him, so Franken worrying about their "feelings" is a waste of time.

[CrispyQ]

3. I wasn't aware of the connection between Franken & Wellstone.

Thanks for the link.

[endarkenment]

5. Why is it that our party has to win over theirs while they treat us like traitors?

Oh wait, this is the mouth organ of the fascist-fundaloon-thug party. Never mind.

[elocs]

6. Franken will learn from Wellstone's example that in order to get things done

he must learn to work with the GOP: http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/political_wrap/july-dec02/wrap_10-25.html

David Brooks:

One of the things that really impressed me, and this as a senator, he wasn't a particularly good senator when he started; made a lot of unnecessary enemies, didn't really play the game. But he decided pretty quickly that he didn't want to just be a noble loser. He wanted to actually get some things done and he made some allies; he worked with people like Jesse Helms, who he earlier said he despised; worked with John Ashcroft, won support from veterans groups, not automatic. So he really improved as a senator and was always a man of conviction, always very popular with conservatives.

"He wanted to actually get some things done..." What a novel concept that Wellstone was able to grasp, but is lost on many here at DU. Even my own senator Feingold, who is held in some esteem here, has worked closely with some senator named "McCain". Those who maintain an all or nothing attitude usually end up with nothing. Wellstone understood that as well as Feingold and I'm sure Franken will too. I have also heard that Ted Kennedy is the Senate's most respected senator, even among Republicans, so he also clearly understands that you do not have to agree with Republicans, but you do have to work with them.