Five years in, Franken’s approach wins over skeptical Senate

At first, Al Franken couldn’t stop talking about the porridge.

“I loved it. I can’t eat it anymore. I OD’d on it,” Franken quipped as visitors noshed recently on Mahnomin porridge, made with Minnesota wild rice, during one of his weekly Capitol Hill constituent breakfasts.

Franken’s food commentary, though, quickly gave way to policy talk. He explained to the visiting Minnesotans what he was working on, took questions and then stood for photos with anybody who wanted one.

It was a picture of a perfectly ordinary senator, an image Franken has worked hard to maintain since he took office in 2009. It may also be an extended response to the charges in his first campaign that the former actor and comedian was not really serious about politics and lacked the qualifications for Congress.

On Saturday, Democrats at their state convention in Duluth will endorse Franken for a second term in the U.S. Senate, a job he won by just 312 votes in 2008 after a six month recount and legal battle. Five years after taking office, Franken is confident his record will win him another term.

“I think the people of Minnesota have gotten to know me and know that I’m serious and know that I work hard,” he said. “I think that’s something they were skeptical about six years ago, and I guess had a reason to be. ‘Comedian’ was thrown around a lot. I think it’s different this time.”

It’s not just Minnesotans Franken has had to convince.

Perhaps more than most new senators, Franken has had to prove himself to fellow lawmakers. But he’s won over one of the Senate’s most curmudgeonly members, Iowa Republican Chuck Grassley, with whom Franken serves on the Senate Judiciary Committee.

“I know that he came to the Senate with the allegation of being a comedian,” Grassley said. “I don’t mean that to denigrate it as an allegation, but he was a comedian. But I can say that I think he’s worked hard to show that he’s a serious legislator.”

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