Fresh off his narrow and long-awaited victory, Sen.-elect Al Franken (D-MN) will be going on a victory lap of sorts, headlining the Tom Harkin Steak Fry in Iowa this September.
The Harkin event is of course a frequent stop for prospective or actual presidential candidates, leading Jonathan Martin to jokingly (?) wonder if Franken has his eye on 2016. There is of course a simple explanation, consistent with everything we’ve known for years: You can’t keep Al Franken away from a big, raucous Democratic fundraising event.
I attended just such a gathering for the Democratic Party of Wisconsin, held in a backyard in Madison in November 2003. Franken stood up in a super-crowded tent that was filled way beyond the hosts’ expectations, on top of a heater that had been put in to warm up the space, and opened his speech by joking about how safe he felt. It was a fun time.
