A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Senate Unknown - 2010

From the publisher

The Al Franken-Norm Coleman race was destined to be a dramatic showdown long before the courtroom wrangling that decided the election. The biographies of Franken and Coleman provide a virtual composite of the Baby Boomer experience and the contradictions inherent in that generation's politicians. But who knew that the paths of these two native New Yorkers from Jewish backgrounds would converge in Minnesota, in a U.S. Senate race for the ages? "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Senate "describes how Franken and Coleman's head-to-head run in 2008 was spurred into motion by Coleman's 2002 U.S. Senate victory. That campaign pivoted on the tragic death of Franken's friend, Senator Paul Wellstone, in a plane crash. When Republicans accused Democrats of turning the Wellstone memorial service into a carefully choreographed political rally, Franken was outraged. After Coleman was elected, Franken immediately set upon a mission to unseat him. The unprecedented recount and legal drama that followed was an appropriate coda to what had already been an extraordinary U.S. Senate race. Besides being an incredibly compelling story, "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Senate" is essential reading for anyone interested in modern senate campaigns.

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