What does a 'Senator Franken' mean in the Senate?

Now that former U.S. Senator Norm Coleman of Minnesota has officially conceded the 2008 election and its legal challenges, which the Minnesota Supreme Court rejected earlier today, to Al Franken, now what?

(And, not, now what, on an election certificate. Gov. Tim Pawlenty would be a Grade A liar if he did not sign one.)

No, not that.

What does any of this mean on a practical level? Not quite as much as many would crack it up to mean.

First, just because you have 58 Democrats, plus two generally supportive independents, doesn’t guarantee cloture. Cloture is something decided on a bill-by-bill, even amendment-by-amendment basis.

Let’s look at a few key issues.

National healthcare? Party-swapping Arlen Specter might vote against cloture, based on opposition to the bill by unions. (In addition to Hagen or Ben Nelson possibly doing that, of course.)

Waxman-Markey? Stabenow might vote against cloture to protect the Formerly Big Three.

EFCA, if it ever gets to the Senate? Nelson or Hagen are obvious cloture-opposition potential.

Foreign policy? Joementum is a guarantee not only to vote against cloture, but take a neocon stance, on anything in the Middle East.

Beyond that, Sen. Franken's level of influence is dependent on what sort of legislative shepherding leadership President Barack Obama and Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel display.