Alexander Burns of Politico (featured Sunday on Yahoo!) sees no chance of Norm Coleman retaining his Senate seat, but he devoted an article to Al Franken's unique position as a potential top-dollar fundraiser -- for conservatives and Republicans. "With only a longshot court appeal standing in the way of Democrat Al Franken's election to the Senate, Republicans are gritting their teeth and bracing for the arrival of a new senator whose every utterance will sound like nails on a chalkboard to them." Already, he's a drag on the Democrats:
Polling results this week confirmed Franken's precarious position: more Minnesotans have a negative impression of him than a positive one, by a 45 percent to 37 percent margin. Those would be dismal numbers under any circumstances, but for a newly-elected senator they would be particularly alarming.
Even professors favored by the media establishment aren't sanguine:
According to Carleton College political scientist Steven Schier, Franken's record as a "flamboyant and aggressive partisan" would make him ripe for criticism back home. "I think it's impossible to overstate the hostility Minnesota Republicans feel toward Al Franken," Schier said. "He will be a very useful fundraising tool."