Make that Sen. Al Franken, probably, but ...
It looks like Lorne Michaels and "Saturday Night Live" alumni continue their march to take over the world.
Having already captured Hollywood and moving in on network TV, they've now targeted the United States Senate, which could seriously use some daytime laugh lines and satire.
After, what, nearly two months of counting and recounting, the Minnesota State Canvassing Board a short time ago said that neophyte politician and profound Democrat comedian Al Franken had clobbered incumbent Republican Sen. Norm Coleman by 215 votes out of a total of 2,424,637 acceptable votes.
As Huffington Post notes, that's a victory margin of 0.0077, which henceforth shall be called a "Minnesota mandate."
Of course, that's not the actual end. Coleman has lost in state court, claiming that some ballots were counted twice while other disputed ballots went uncounted.
And now his people are talking about going to federal court. A few more details here.
Although the new Congress doesn't open until Tuesday, the Democrat-controlled Rules Committee ordered Coleman's Washington offices closed and locked today while majority leaders vowed to seat Franken and Republicans suggested they might fight that.
So this change thing hasn't seemed to catch on back there yet.
But wait. The announced election must still be certified by the Minnesota governor. His name is Tim Pawlenty. He's a Republican. As the Ticket noted earlier today, there's been some trouble certifying the appointment of a Democrat by the governor down Illinois way.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has vowed to block Roland Burris from taking Barack Obama's vacant seat Tuesday, while the president-elect prepares for his Jan. 20 inauguration. So the Land o' 10 Billion Lakes may become the second Land o' One Senator for a while.
For a quick trip down memory lane with the now almost honorable Al, click on the "Read more" line below.
-- Andrew Malcolm
Lots of vowing going on back in Washington. But all you need do to receive cellphone alerts on each new Ticket item is register here. RSS feeds are also available here. And Amazon has Ticket Kindle feeds as well.
Photo credit: Associated Press
Andrew Malcolm's immigrant parents repeatedly stressed the importance of active participation in a democracy. Early lessons included learning the alphabetical list of states by watching televised roll calls of national political conventions. That childhood exposure led to a lifelong fascination with politics, including 40-plus years of covering them and a brief stint practicing them as press secretary to Laura Bush in 1999-2000. A veteran foreign and national correspondent, Malcolm served on the Times Editorial Board and was a Pulitzer finalist in 2004. He is the author of 10 nonfiction books and father of four.
Johanna Neuman is a veteran Washington correspondent for both The Los Angeles Times and USA Today, having covered presidents and politics as far back as Ronald Reagan. A former president of the White House Correspondents Assn., she authored a book on media and foreign policy, “Lights, Camera, Wars.” Most recently she was co-author of the 
Subscribe to this Blog
I'm counting on Al to be a great defender of the first Amendment and to bring irony and satire to the debate of national issues on the Senate floor.
Posted by: jss | January 05, 2009 at 03:52 PM
The british have to put up with prince Charles until he dies so the good thing about Franken is we can throw the bum out in 2015.
Posted by: A face only a mother could love | January 05, 2009 at 04:33 PM
That's it!!!!! the country's up for grabs!!!!!
Why do we keep electing people with no leadership skills or experience!
Posted by: steve rodriguez | January 05, 2009 at 04:58 PM
LOL, " a Minnesota mandate" Those folks at the Huffington Post are funnier than Saturday Night Live!
- BZ
Posted by: BlueZolar | January 05, 2009 at 05:35 PM
Congrats to Senator Franken on his hard fought honorable battle to represent the good people of Minnesota. The US Senate will a better place now that Al Franken is on board and the Republicans have deservedly lost yet another seat. In fact, Al Franken, is as qualified and as able as anyone in the political scene to be president. I'd like to see him run, I'd like to see him be president some day.
As president, it's about service, service for the greatest country on the face of the Earth and the honor that goes with it. I think Al Franken fits that description.
Posted by: Democrats 4 Ever | January 05, 2009 at 09:02 PM