Say Anything Blog

USA Today is reporting, via AP, that Al Franken has decided, finally, to run for the US Senate next year.

Comedian Al Franken has decided to run for the U.S. Senate from Minnesota in 2008, a senior Democratic official from Minnesota said Wednesday.

Franken told the official, who did not want to be identified because Franken has not made an announcement, that he had decided to run in a recent conversation.

Andy Barr, the political director of Franken’s Midwest Values Political Action Committee, declined to comment.

The news was not unexpected. Franken has been calling members of the Minnesota congressional delegation to get their input on a run, and he announced this week that he would be leaving his show on Air America Radio on Feb. 14.

According to Air America’s Chapter11 Bankruptcy Protection petition, Franken is owed over $650,000 in back pay.  Leaving aside the question of whether any of Franken’s material has ever been worth that kind of money, the question remains why Franken still remains at Air America when it is clear that there is not money to pay any of the network’s bills.

Of course one could also argue that the very last thing the federal government needs is one more Democrat who knows nothing about money and finance… or yet another Democrat office holder to laugh at.  Heaven knows there are more than enough of those around already.