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Chronicles Of The Senatorial Ego

Could Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar be any more condescending?

Ms. Klobuchar said she had talked regularly with Mr. Franken and offered various bits of advice.

“I’ve forged friendships with Republicans, and that’s important,” she said. She also said he needed to study the example of other celebrities who had come to the Senate, including Hillary Rodham Clinton, Bill Bradley and Fred Thompson; Mr. Franken has said he has done so and has talked with Mrs. Clinton’s former chief of staff.

“It’s important he go against the grain of his past career and really get to know the issues,” Ms. Klobuchar said.

A couple things here. I don't know anything about Klobuchar in particular. But Senators, in general, are wildly egotistical and deem themselves to be far smarter and better-informed about policy than they actually are.

Second, as I've written, and which Norm Ornstein attested on the Diane Rehm show yesterday, Franken is a policy wonk. Anybody who's spoken with him or read his books (as opposed to just read the titles) knows this. He probably knows more about public policy than 90% of his colleagues. I've never met Franken, but the inability of people to understand that somebody can have a career in comedy and satire and also knows a lot of public policy galls me.

--Jonathan Chait