Franken the Vote

Who knew after the decisive Presidential election that we’d have all of this drama about the US Senate in January?  As of now, Caroline Kennedy is making a strong, PR-powered push to replace Hillary Clinton as a senator from New York.  Kennedy first entered the collective consciousness of this election cycle when she joined her uncle, Senator Ted Kennedy, in endorsing Barack Obama for President.  Roland Burris is referring to himself as “the junior senator from Illinois” even though it looks unlikely that the Senate will seat him let alone allow him in at the start of business on Tuesday morning.  And the epic recount has been taking place in relative quiet (though not for Minnesotans) to decide whether Norm Coleman would return as Minnesota’s senator or be unseated by politically-minded comedian Al Franken.  It’s almost like the awful denouement to the 2000 presidential election, except that Minnesota is generally more civilized than Florida and has no one resembling Katherine Harris trying to ensure the results are in her candidate’s favor.

Only one of these three Senate “races”, so to speak, will change their parties’ headcounts in the Senate itself.  With the exception of the Franken-Coleman showdown, they are about the Senate appointees as individuals.  Sadly for Roland Burris, he actually seems abundantly qualified to be a US Senator.  But the taint of being a Blagojevich appointee would be hard to overcome.  Although his claim appears legal, accepting a Democratic senator who was appointed by someone who will likely be impeached and possibly indicted, would not be a great start to a Democratic majority in Congress.

I’m reluctant to criticize Caroline Kennedy’s gambit to become a senator.  There’s something to the power of myth in politics, and she could very well prove a committed and effective senator – eventually.  Before her highly publicized endorsement, universally treated as more of a celebrity endorsement than a political one, she was best known for being a torchbearer for her famous family name and the last remaining guardian of both Jacqueline and John F. Kennedy’s legacy.  She published a few editions of her mother’s and her own favorite poems for children.  Like many in her family she is an attorney and has a Harvard degree, and she also is a graduate of Columbia.  This makes her literary and intellectual, to be sure.

But her lack of political experience is disturbing.  Like Republican Senator Bill Frist (who tells anyone who will listen that he is a physician) and others who have entered national politics after other careers, Caroline Kennedy seems to have missed out on numerous opportunities to vote.  Her famous discretion and desire for privacy, which has always been held up as ladylike in the mold of her mother, is perhaps what has prevented her from speaking out on any political discussion at a national level until her endorsement.  However, there have been many instances when her fame and her highly regarded last name might have been lent to articulate a position on a good cause.  Other members of her extended family have contributed to public discourse on vaccines, become members of the national media (and gone on to be the first lady of California), and even contributed civically as a member of the local city council.

While having a woman replace Hillary Clinton in the Senate would be a nice gesture, and Caroline Kennedy is surely not the least qualified person to be a contender for a Senate seat, we need more than empty signs and signifiers of gender equality and family legacy to prove that the recent Democratic victory can rise above the tenor of politics lately.  Democrats need to prove that they would not appoint someone with less public experience than Sarah Palin to the Senate.

At least Al Franken has written several books on politics and the culture wars prior to seeking office – even if “big fat idiot” is in one of the titles and “lying liars” is in another.  Tongue-in-cheek books on politics at least count as an interest in government.

Just as I couldn’t bring myself to join email petitions and Facebook groups that called on women to oppose Sarah Palin, I can’t altogether oppose Caroline Kennedy.   I just wish she’d apply some of her supposed gifts – charm, discretion, and brains – to prove that she would learn quickly on the job.  (To be clear – I totally opposed Sarah Palin and consider her unqualified to be not only the Vice President, but also the office she currently holds, the Governor of Alaska.) 

Al Franken will be a great senator, provided the results hold up against the lawsuit Norm Coleman is about to file.  (In the words of Keith Olbermann, “he’s suing on the grounds that he lost.”  That joke was almost Minnesotan in its dry eloquence.)  He’ll no doubt make mistakes and have plenty to learn, but anyone who moves back to Minnesota to pursue office in his home state, writes and speaks so passionately to a wide audience about politics and public interest, is bound to serve the public with similar passion.  His performance as Senator will certainly outshine Minnesota’s last semi-celebrity politician, former Governor Jesse “The Body” Ventura.