Thursday, July 02, 2009

Junior and Senior

Jon Chait calls out Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) for condescending Al Franken:
[A]s I've written, and which Norm Ornstein attested on the Diane Rehm show yesterday, Franken is a policy wonk. Anybody who's spoken with him or read his books (as opposed to just read the titles) knows this. He probably knows more about public policy than 90% of his colleagues. I've never met Franken, but the inability of people to understand that somebody can have a career in comedy and satire and also knows a lot of public policy galls me.

There are plenty of folks who refuse to accept that Franken actually might be a smart, serious guy who is qualified for the job. Unfortunately, there is no reason for their fixation other than a deep, deep desire to hold onto a superficial, know-nothing form of political punditry.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm over that election...although I still think Norm is the business ;)

Burt Likko said...

"Qualified for the job?" He's an American citizen, a resident of Minnesota, and over the age of 30. And he won the election. Therefore, he's qualified for the job. That doesn't mean he was the person I would have preferred.

David Schraub said...

I'd have preferred Paul Wellstone. But in the race between Norm Coleman and Al Franken, I preferred good ol' Al.