C.J.: Carleton Student finds encounter with Ciresi better than Franken

Carleton College student Peter Fritz, a Republican, had a much better encounter Wednesday with DFL U.S. Senate candidate Mike Ciresi than his opponent for the nomination, Al Franken.

As you may recall, Franken had a small moment with Fritz, who got mocked and interrogated by Al. (See Jan. 24 column, if curious about details.)

Ciresi was having lunch on the same part of the Northfield campus where Franken roughed up Fritz. "I knew he [Ciresi] was there, stopped by to see what he had to say. He was taking questions. Everyone was fairly impressed, in terms of his command of policy and the way he was going through different things. We talked briefly about UN reform and I think we disagree on the way to use the UN but he had some good ideas and there was a very respectful, interesting conversation."

So Fritz had a much better conversation with Ciresi? "Absolutely," said Fritz.

"He did really well."

Maybe there's an endorsement in this from Fritz for Ciresi. Something like: Ciresi is serious about civility.