On June 30th, 238 days after the election last November, Minnesota’s Supreme Court ruled unanimously that Al Franken is entitled “to receive the certificate of election as United States Senator from the State of Minnesota”. The margin of victory was just 312 votes, after months of recounts, court hearings and general frustration. Norm Coleman, his Republican opponent, announced that he would not appeal to the United States Supreme Court, which might have dragged things out even longer.

Not everybody in Minnesota has been gripped by the fight. One town was so bored that it planned to choose a winner by staging a race between two piglets named after the candidates. But national Democrats have been waiting breathlessly for the contest to be resolved. When Mr Franken is seated, probably in the week of July 6th, he will become the Senate’s 60th Democrat, giving his party the number it needs to break a Republican filibuster, so long as they all turn up (two of them are seriously ill) and vote as they are told to.

Even if the race had not dragged on or if Mr Franken were not the cherished 60th senator, his rise to power would have been remarkable. He became famous in the 1970s as a rowdy comedian on “Saturday Night Live”. He went on to become a commentator on Air America, a radio station positioned somewhere to the left of San Francisco, and wrote books such as “Rush Limbaugh is a Big Fat Idiot”.

... contd.