Letter to Editor, Law & Politics: Norman's Inquest

I had to chuckle when I read Senator Coleman's opening shot against prospective DFL opponent Al Franken in your cover story: Norman's Conquest, April/May 2008, No. 169. Senator Coleman's attempt to reduce Mr. Franken's collective work over the past decade and a half as a political analyst, citizen activist and spokesperson for such causes as the anti-predatory lending campaign way back in 2001, well before it was on the public's radar, as merely an "angry satirist" shows just how little Coleman knows of his opponent.

Contrary to the false perception created by commentators who never listened to his show, Mr. Franken hosted one of the best radio programs in the country dedicated to serious discussions on government policy. Far from the undeserved label of "the left's answer to Rush Limbaugh", Franken's program on Air America Radio had some of the most informed guests, from all shades of the political spectrum, and every topic discussed was extensively footnoted with references to the original source materials on the program's excellent companion web page.

To answer the Senator's rhetorical question, I would much rather have Mr. Franken representing my children and I in the U.S. Senate than the man who ran as a Democrat and was elected to his first term as St. Paul Mayor and then switched parties in one of the most notorious and despicable examples of political hypocrisy and opportunism ever recorded.