This Saturday’s trio of videos doing the rounds takes as its topic Minnesota’s new Senator, Al Franken, who eventually took his seat after a load of legal wrangles – as we covered here and here earlier in the year.

Al Franken was a controversial choice for a politician since he already had a career as a comedian and polemicist – you may be familiar with such fence-sitting, equivocating titles as Lies (and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them) and Rush Limbaugh Is a Big Fat Idiot

Unsurprisingly, the American right hate him.

Now, however, he is Senator – and proving to be a good one too.

Here are three videos of his exploits. The first contrasts American Republican values with the tendency of the American Republican party to invoke Christian values.

The second gives an example of Sen Franken out in the field responding to a mob over healthcare issues. There is a disturbing trend for opposing political activists to shout down any sort of debate about healthcare in the US, so it’s to his credit that he actually managed to have a discussion of sorts:

Still with us? Sorry these have been a little long for this slot; the final one is much lighter. One of Sen Al Franken’s key talents is the ability to draw a detailed map of the US from memory. There are several examples of this on YouTube, but this recent one is much sped up.

(If you’re interested – there’s a version here with his spiel)