Senate update
Jul. 7th, 2009 10:17 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
calimacAl Franken is being sworn in as Senator from Minnesota today. Finally. The Governor signed the certificate of election on June 30, so that's the date I used in filling my promise that when the dust finally cleared from last fall's elections, I'd update my senatorial web site. (If anybody knows Mark Begich's middle name, could they inform me? And Wikipedia?)
Lots of giggles from the mediasphere about a comedian in the Senate. Paul Krugman says: the comedians are some of the other senators; Franken is a policy wonk.
The NY Times so-called news story quotes Franken's determination to be a work horse, not a show horse, and skeptically says, "Yeah, that's what Hillary said."
It is, and it's what she did. For her first couple years in the Senate, Clinton eschewed her celebrity status, kept her head down and her mouth shut, and worked hard. By paying her dues and learning her way around, instead of showing off, by the time of her second term she'd emerged as a power in the institution, which is the way the Senate is supposed to work. Franken, who is last in seniority and likely to stay that way for a while, has chosen a good model.
Lots of giggles from the mediasphere about a comedian in the Senate. Paul Krugman says: the comedians are some of the other senators; Franken is a policy wonk.
The NY Times so-called news story quotes Franken's determination to be a work horse, not a show horse, and skeptically says, "Yeah, that's what Hillary said."
It is, and it's what she did. For her first couple years in the Senate, Clinton eschewed her celebrity status, kept her head down and her mouth shut, and worked hard. By paying her dues and learning her way around, instead of showing off, by the time of her second term she'd emerged as a power in the institution, which is the way the Senate is supposed to work. Franken, who is last in seniority and likely to stay that way for a while, has chosen a good model.
