Summary

After having spent several chapters retelling his best and most memorable experiences in the Senate, Franken shifts his attention to his first big mistake as a Senator: rolling his eyes at minority leader Mitch McConnell on the Senate floor. With no external prompt necessary, Franken immediately apologized for his behavior, an apology that McConnell graciously accepted. It would be the most civil of the interactions between the two, as Franken is outspokenly critical of McConnell’s “campaign of obstruction” in his role as minority leader (235). Franken comically dubs this campaign and the framework in which it falls “Operation Curdle,” a nickname for the four step Republican strategy against President Obama: “abdicate their responsibility to govern, obstruct the president’s agenda, complain that things weren’t getting better, and wait for Americans to get fed up” (240). The unintended result of Operation Curdle, however, was...