Political/Historical Comment

Although there may still be another appeal, it's beginning to look like pressure is building for Norm Coleman to give up his seemingly un-winnable challenge to the election of Al Franken to the Senate. I don't know what kind of statesman Franken will turn out to be, but I have to say I've almost always enjoyed his work as a comedian, going back to when I first saw him on Saturday Night Live in the 70s. Obviously we've had a fair number of politicians emerge from the ranks of show business, especially since Reagan (there was Sonny Bono, Jesse Ventura, Gopher from Love Boat, Arnold, etc. etc.). I don't remember there ever being someone who emerged specifically from the ranks of comics, though, and I find that interesting. One can go back to Will Rogers and more pertinently (which I'll try to explain in a moment) to Mort Sahl, to find individuals who made their living largely from telling jokes about political issues and figures. Sahl was unique in that he truly projected a personal point-of-view in his material, where his predecessors (including Rogers) were more apt to lump all pols and their actions/statements together. In researching Sahl's career, I found that while some suggested he should run for office, he seems to have feel he had greater freedom and potential impact playing the loyal opposition on stage. Dick Gregory became almost as famous an activist as a humorist, but as far as I know, never seriously sought elective office (although I vaguely recall that he may have been tangentially involved in the '68 presidential race, though he probably got less attention than Pat Paulson). More recent politcal comics like Bill Maher and Dennis Miller seem to incite a kind of enmity from one side or the other suggesting a stiffly polarized campaign should they choose to run, but then, many would've said the same about Franken. If one only knows Franken's work from the early part of his career (that is, corresponding to the times he spent as a writer/producer/performer on Saturday Night Live) he may seem an unlikely candidate to make the leap into politics, but of course, he's spent much of the past few years as a radio host on Air America, and apparently sees himself as something of an heir to the late Paul Wellstone. Plus, I get the impression that even when people disagree with Franken, they often still find him at least somewhat likeable, in a way that couldn't be said of a Miller or Maher. I remember one of his bits from around 1980 where he talked about the next ten years being the "decade of Al." He seemed like such a modest, preposessing sort of guy that it was funny to imagine he was really that big a megalomaniac. Anyway, I'm looking forward to seeing what he pulls once he's finally seated. I just hope he doesn't fade into the background, but that would be so contradictory to the arc of his career to this point, I don't see that happening.