A 68% improvement over Paul Wellstone

St. Louis Park (MN) native and satirist Al Franken shares a phonecall from US Senator Norm Coleman, who came under fire recently for bragging to a Washington political magazine, "To be very blunt, and God watch over Paul's soul, I am a 99 percent improvement over Paul Wellstone." By the end of the "call," Coleman dropped that number considerably:

On the phone, Coleman sounded anguished. "I believe I owe it to the people of Minnesota and to Paul's soul to explain that other 1 percent where Paul was definitely better than me."

"Yes, I was curious about that," I told him.

"Well, for one thing, I guess you'd have to say passion. Paul was definitely more passionate than I am. Which I think came from his deep conviction," Coleman explained.

"So passion and conviction?" I asked.

"Yes. And probably authenticity. That was an area where I'd have to say he was head and shoulders above me. I mean, let's face it, Paul Wellstone was the real deal."

"So authenticity too?"

"Yeah. Paul was genuine. As I say, that's something I could use some work on," Coleman admitted.

"So we have passion, conviction and authenticity, right?"

"Yeah. You know, now that I hear it coming from another person, I'd have to say that's more than 1 percent. I'd give those 3 percent," Coleman conceded magnanimously. "So, come to think of it, I'm probably just a 97 percent improvement over Paul."

Read the rest. (Thanks, Adrienne.)