Amy Klobuchar had quite a year. Elle magazine's Lisa DePaulo tagged her as possible presidential material. CBS's Face the Nation floated her name as a replacement for retiring Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens. And she brought much-needed levity to the hearings for Stevens's actual replacement, Elena Kagan—she might even be funnier than Al Franken. Among all that, Klobuchar notched a year of soul-crushing work in the Senate to pass the kind of legislation only die-hard political geeks, senatorial press offices, and tiny groups of concerned citizens write home about: rules to prevent deceptive online sales tactics, a framework to collect and destroy unwanted prescription meds, and national standards for formaldehyde levels in new automobiles. And she got the big stuff right, too, pushing for federal disaster relief for tornado-ravaged Wadena, voting to reform Wall Street and health care, and holding BP's feet to the fire over its appalling Gulf of Mexico oil spill.