Vetting Al Franken

While national attention continues to focus on the blood feud between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, I’ve been watching Ladies Logic for updates on Al Franken’s bid for the Senate in the Midwest. One question leaps to mind. In a year when Democrats should be running unbound like some sort of Politicians Gone Wild video, how did Franken become the frontrunner in this race?

The fallout continues for Team Franken. Friday and Saturday saw stories in the Star Tribune on the Franken tax issues. Both stories have a common theme….that it is the fault of those nasty Republicans that Franken is having these troubles….

While Republican opposition researchers (or in this case a FORMER Republican opposition researcher) may have uncovered these financial “irregularities”, let’s be perfectly clear here….the government of the states of New York and California are the ones making these charges…not the Republican Party.

Franken may have been a very entertaining comedian, but it seems that his political team has made some frankly rookie mistakes which should never have passed muster for a candidate at Senate level politics. The linked post should be read in full, but it seems at this point that even the Democrats are beginning to wonder if they need to bail out on this effort, or if it’s simply too late.

The DFL is at a cross-roads in the Senatorial campaign. They can either find another candidate between now and their state convention, they can find someone to run a primary challenge to Franken (which will no doubt help Senator Coleman preserve campaign funds since he won’t have a challenger until September) or they can stay with a Franken campaign that is self destructing at a rapid rate.

Decision time is almost upon us. What will the DFL do? We shall probably know in the very, very near future.

There’s more to read (now with an update and a video) but you can check that out at the source.