Al Franken's Senate Run, His Old,Bad Jokes, and Michael Kinsley's Logic

Michael Kinsley has a column in washingtonpost.com, "The Real Joke in Minnesota", and an essentially identical one in Slate, "Al Franken's Quandary. The Minnesota Senate candidate has been telling jokes for 30 years. How does he explain away the bad ones?" Here is my reaction to the logic of one of Kinsley's arguments.

Kinsley's legendary mastery of logic has failed him. About Al Franken's problem explaining away bad jokes, he writes

"If comedy writers are thinking, 'I'd better not say that because it may not be funny and in 13 years I may decide to run for the Senate,' we will end up with fewer good jokes on TV and fewer interesting people in the Senate."

The whole premise of Kinsley's column is that Franken, as a recovering comedian, would make an interesting senator, but that his comedic excesses may in fact trip him up. So, the better the comedian, the more interesting the senator, if he runs for the Senate and gets elected. If there is indeed a negative correlation between a person's success as a comedian and his success as a political candidate, and if even mediocre comedians would make interesting senators - a reasonable assumption- then we should change Kinsley's conclusion to read:

"we will end up with fewer good jokes on TV but more interesting people in the Senate."

Franken is running against incumbent Norm Coleman. Former Governor Jesse Ventura recently got into the race as an independent, or at least sounded as if he was about to. Quoting from a post by Jake Tapper, "Jesse Ventura To Run for Senate?" to the ABC News blog, "Political Punch":

Ventura called Franken an opportunist and a carpetbagger. "He hasn't lived here in 30 years, and he's only coming back to Minnesota for the convenience of his own political agenda. Why didn't he run in the states he was living in? Clearly, for being a Harvard graduate, he's not too smart on taxes, is he? Everybody laughs, saying I came from wrestling. But at least I knew when I wrestled in 40 states, I had to pay taxes in those 40 states. You just have to do the paperwork. I find it unbelievable that someone who could go to Harvard didn't know that or let it slip. Blaming his accountant is worse, because now he's turning into a politician. He's not accepting responsibility for his actions."

Ventura's reference to taxes concerned the fact that Franken didn't file taxes in the states where he earned money from his appearances, as he should have. I am a longtime fan of Franken and I have supported his Senate campaign, as in sending money. I have been getting mostly upbeat emails and phone calls. Here is my reply to the latest email.

What have you guys been smoking? What about Jesse Ventura? What about the tax mess? What about your losing in the polls? I have tried to get through to Al Franken for years, but I have never succeeded. My opinion is that he is just too conceited to get elected. He only listens to those who feed his over-sized ego. I wish things were otherwise. If Al Franken really cared about the mess this country is in, he would drop out in favor of someone with less baggage (end of email).

Comedians tend to be vain and mean, and Al Franken is no exception. I enjoyed his Air America radio show, although I could never get through. Only "hate emails" got quoted. His producer there, Andy Barr, is now his campaign manager. Franken has his heart in the right place. The problem is with his mouth. A generic Democratic opponent would defeat Norm Coleman. Unfortunately, "Franken" happens to be a brand name.

Added (7/22): It now appears that Jesse Ventura is not running after all.