Should the GOP really be afraid of Al Franken?

I was doing my usual run-through of todays Political articles, when I happened to run upon an article that struck me as rather strange.
Im sure we are all familiar with the botched Senate race in Minnesota in which Democrat Al Franken (a former comedian) and Republican Norm Coleman have been going back and forth with accusations of improper vote counting and so on. And then on January 5, 2008 the State Canvassing Board officially declared Franken as the winner by, a small margin. (Some say that he only won by 225 votes, but that is still being argued). But this did not stop Norm Coleman from demanding a recount and even filing a lawsuit contesting the ruling.
Well, while this storm was blowing over, the GOP has come forward and began accusing Al Franken of being unable to fulfil his duties in office does to his past invloving comedy. Franken has previously worked on Saturday Night Live as a writer, and has been also part of a few skits in recent times. And the GOP's main arguement has been that this will affect his job. At first when I read this article, I agreed with the GOP to a certain point. But after sitting and pondering it for a while, I started to think that maybe the accusation was a bit preposterous. Are they really claiming that a man's past as a comedian might affect his job as a Senator? Especially Al Franken, who was never accused of doing anything slightly 'comedic' while on his run for Senate?
Upon further investigation, I have classified this as a immoral attempt by the GOP to taint a man's reputation, especially a man who has had to struggle harder than the other Senators to secure his seat in the House of Representatives.
I have attached the link to the said article below

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0109/17233.html