The Other Franken

By Sniffles

If you faithful readers know us cats (and you do), you know that we're pretty lefty. But we have no patience for liberal politics that elevate the perfect over the good — or that insist on ideological purity when getting 80 percent instead of zero percent is a pretty good deal.

That's the one thing Ronald Reagan said that we endorsed: He didn't shun fellow Republicans who agreed with him 80 percent of the time.

So we're very interested in the Iowa Senate race. In last night's primary, a former admiral named Mike Franken beat an admired Democratic Congresswoman, Abby Finkenauer, and a rural doc named Glenn Hurst. None of these candidates was objectionable, mind you. We're just fascinated — and hopeful — that Franken won.

See, we like Finkenauer a lot, but in a massive screw-up, she almost didn't get on the ballot. For those of us who care about process, that was unimpressive. And Dr. Hurst only got 5 percent of the vote, so as swell as he may be, he never really was in the game.

Both Finkenauer and Hurst, to their credit, lined up behind Franken last night. And call us crazy — but we think maybe a white-guy former Naval commander might appeal to a ton of Iowans this fall who are fed up with Charles Grassley.

Iowa is a red state these days. We need to put up a candidate who is acceptable to Iowans and who can effectively use Grassley's advanced age as the cudgel he deserves. Politely, of course! We cats PURR.