Since a "proxy" is someone who is authorized to act for another, isn't that sort of part of the definition of a representative of "the people," even one with such a lofty title as "senator"?
Finally joining the Senate, Democrat Al Franken envisions playing the "people's proxy" during Sonia Sotomayor's Supreme Court hearings.
"As someone who will have been in the committee a grand total of six days and isn't an attorney I kind of see myself fulfilling a certain role for Americans watching the hearings," Franken said Monday in an interview with The Associated Press.
"So I kind of see myself as people's proxy, not that the other senators aren't, but certainly that's the kind of role I want to play," he said.
I presume he means to be a proxy just for the people of Minnesota, not the people of the whole country, and mostly the liberal Democrats of Minnesota at that. And since he is a liberal Democrat who will vote like a liberal Democrat, that is, vote to confirm Sotomayor without a second thought, I'm not sure what all this proxying blather means anyway. I'm a people, too, after all, and I doubt he'll do much proxymating for me, unless I see him snorting with derision at some of the inane comments made by the nominee and the other senators.
