Pioneer Press 5/26/09
By Anne Schroeder Mullins Politico
Updated: 05/26/2009 08:49:50 AM CDT
It's not quite a John Hancock moment, but Senate candidate Al Franken left his mark on one of Washington's elite power restaurants.
Trattoria Alberto of Capitol Hill is a quaint Italian restaurant on 8th Street Southeast, blocks from Capitol Hill, that is frequented by myriad representatives and senators.
So many happen upon the fine establishment — it's a favorite of lobbyists, as well — that a few years ago the restaurant started asking lawmakers who dined there to autograph the restaurant's own copy of a facebook. (It speaks volumes about the restaurant that it even has a facebook. A facebook, to those uninitiated, is a yearly booklet that has pictures of and information about all the current members of Congress.) Representatives like John Sullivan, Jerry Lewis, Corrine Brown, Vern Buchanan, John Boccieri and Dennis Kucinich and Sen. George Voinovich have all come, eaten and happily signed. One person familiar with all these signings was overheard saying, "I don't know if they like it, but they sign it."
Another person who has signed the facebook without his face even being in it? Al Franken, who's still in an ongoing battle with Norm Coleman for one of Minnesota's U.S. Senate seats. Franken came to the restaurant a few months before the election, we're told, and signed away — only he signed on top of Coleman's signature.
In the book, he drew a big box with an "X" inside it, signed his name and then, over to the right, put the election percentages, with the header: "CNN DECLARES FRANKEN."
After Franken's name, there's a "53%" and after Coleman's name there's a "47%."
So he's off, by a little.
Franken, always the jokester, was confident even then.
As for those in Franken's camp, they didn't comment.
Coleman spokesman Tom Erickson told Shenanigans in response to Franken's antics: "Proof positive that leopards never change their spots."
No comments:
Post a Comment