A Congressional Encounter

In honor today of Minnesota's second Senator (finally), I have decided to recount (pun intended) my first and only meeting with the junior Senator Franken. While brief, it was memorable.

Last summer, while working for a small rural newspaper, I was asked to sit in on an interview with the then-plain-Mr. Franken and take pictures. He was stopping through for some reason or another, and offered to talk with us. My editor thought it would be fun for me to sit in and listen, and also take some of the pressure off the reporter writing the story by letting her focus on her questions and note-taking while I snapped away candid shots (or as candid as you can be in a conference room). I was excited to get to meet him and sit in on what would no doubt be an interesting conversation.

As a disclaimer, the following impressions come from a purely journalistic and professional perspective, not a political or personal one. The reason I say that is because the whole experience was terribly strange.

First, I introduced myself and informed him and his handler I would be taking pictures while he was answering questions. He said that was fine, and then mispronounced my name. My name is two syllables, fairly common, not hard to pronounce, so I was a little taken aback. I corrected him, so he apologized, again mispronouncing my name. I was going to let it go, but the look of shock on my face (I promise, no one has ever mispronounced my name, first or last) led his handler to pronounce my name to him again. He looked at her, questioned my name, getting it wrong again, and then finally, after another correction from the handler, got it right. Well. Now that we've got the names down, let's start the interview.

To give him some credit, he was a very interesting person. When the reporter could get him off the subject of badgering Norm (we didn't want to have to call the Coleman camp for a response on this piece), he had some insightful thoughts and clearly laid out his plans for office. When it came to picture-taking, well, that was more of a task. The first picture he stopped what he was saying to look directly at the camera and smile. I excused it, and politley told him I was taking candid shots and he should pretend like I wasn't there. In the end, the first picture was the only decent one I could get. The camera must have made him very uncomfortable, because with every click he shifted in his chair and got a disturbed look on his face. Even kind of creepy.

Finally, the interview was over. The reporter and I showed him out of the office, and while walking to the door Mr. Franken proceeded to put his arm around me in a sort of "half-hug" that I was shocked to receive. It was very uncomfortable, even the reporter did a double-take. Maybe he was trying to apologize, maybe he thought a hug would get him a vote, but either way, it lacked professionalism and created an awkward situation. Thankfully, he soon walked out the door.

And so, although I didn't know it at the time, that was my first, only, and probably last encounter with the former-comic-turned-Senator. Short, but not so sweet.