Kinsley's legendary mastery of logic has failed him. About Al Franken's problem explaining away bad jokes, he writes

If comedy writers are thinking, "I'd better not say that because it may not be funny and in 13 years I may decide to run for the Senate," we will end up with fewer good jokes on TV and fewer interesting people in the Senate.

The whole premise of Kinsley's column is that Franken, as a recovering comedian, would make an interesting senator, but that his comedic excesses may in fact trip him up. So, the better the comedian, the more interesting the senator, if he runs for the Senate and gets elected.

If there is indeed a negative correlation between a person's success as a comedian and his success as a political candidate, and if even mediocre comedians would make interesting senators - a reasonable assumption- then we should change Kinsley's conclusion to read

"we will end up with fewer good jokes on TV but more interesting people in the Senate.