By Anne Marie Pecha, Observer Washington Bureau Chief
Almost four years ago, the now-defunct Minneapolis Observer predicted that Al Franken would run for Norm Coleman’s U.S. Senate seat. Since Franken’s past words are all the rage these days, and since he won the DFL endorsement this afternoon, we thought that perhaps the politically engaged, yet nostalgic, among us might enjoy revisiting this -- may we say prescient? -- Observer Talk interview from our September 2004 issue. --The Editors

NEW YORK -- Comedian, author, and Republican foil Al Franken is considering a run for the U.S. Senate seat currently held by Sen. Norm Coleman. The move would represent the latest in a series of high-profile career changes for the 53-year-old St. Louis Park native, who gained a measure of local notoriety in the early seventies as a member of Dudley Riggs’ comedy troupe at The Brave New Workshop before graduating to national fame as a regular on Saturday Night Live. More recently, Franken has made headlines with his politically charged books (Rush Limbaugh is a Big Fat Idiot and Other Observations, and Lies and the Lying Liars who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right). Earlier this year, Franken jumped into the radio talk show arena with The O’Franken Factor, a nationally syndicated daily talk show produced by Air America Radio. (The show’s name was changed in July to The Al Franken Show because, according to Franken, “No matter how hard we tried, conservative entertainer Observer Washington Bureau Chief Anne Marie Pecha about his Minnesota ties and political aspirations.

How serious are you about running for the Senate?
It’s a little premature to talk at great length about it. I really am not looking that far ahead, but I just put it out there that I was considering it.

Why did you pick Minnesota in the first place? What gave you the idea to run in Minnesota rather than in New York, where you live now?
Well, I feel like a Minnesotan. I’m a Minnesotan. I really am.

What about you is Minnesotan?
There’s a lot about me that’s Minnesotan. I’ll give you an example of how Minnesotan I am. My son, Joe, is a Vikings fan and a Twins fan. Timberwolves he doesn’t feel one way or the other about because I grew up in Minnesota before we had the Timberwolves, but he’s a huge Vikings fan and he’s a Twins fan. So, remember that awful NFC championship game where we lost like 40-nothing to the Giants?

Um, I’m originally from Nebraska. We only know college football.
Oh, okay. Oh yeah. Well, anyway, it was the Vikings and the Giants for the NFC championship and my son wore his Cris Carter jersey to school on Friday -- number 80, Cris Carter -- and this is a school in New York. And they’re playing the Giants and he gets all kinds of crap, of course -- you know, friendly crap from his friends. We lose 40 to nothing. Forty to nothing! The worst game I’ve ever seen, just crazily bad. On Monday, he went to school with his Cris Carter jersey.

Keeping the faith.
Keepin’ the faith. And that was, to me, that was a very Minnesota thing to do.

It was proud moment for you?
It was a proud moment for me because my son had character.

If you were to run on the DFL ticket in 2008, your opponent would most likely be the incumbent, Norm Coleman. How long have you known him?
I met him a few years ago. Pat Proft, who is a friend of mine, he and his wife did a thing for, I think, some food bank, and so Norm came to that and I met him there. He was a perfectly nice sort of guy.

It would have been before . . .
Yeah, it was before -- obviously before he was senator. He was mayor [of St. Paul]. He may have been a Democrat then. I can’t remember.

It might have made it a nicer meeting.
I don’t know. It doesn’t matter when you’re both doing some [charitable work]. We came to do something for the food shelves or whatever it was.

Did you know Paul Wellstone for a long time?
You know, I wasn’t that close a friend of Paul’s, but I was a friend of Paul’s and I worked for him. I campaigned for him and I raised money for him.

How did you meet him?
My parents were very enthusiastic about Paul when he ran the first time, and they told me about him right away. But I think the first time I ever did an event for him was the second race. I just got a call from them and they asked me to come and I said, “Yeah!” So I did a number of events for him, and I’d see him at other things too. Sometimes I saw him in Washington, sometimes I saw him in Minnesota.

I didn’t realize that you had so many ties to Minnesota until I started reading in your new book about Paul Wellstone and your mother and brother. Are your mother and brother still there?
No. My mom died in December. And my brother lives in Paris. So, when my mom died, that was the last family, but I do have a number of friends in Minnesota, mainly from when I was growing up.

Where do they live?
Well, I grew up in St. Louis Park, but they all live all over. I spent a couple of years in Albert Lea -- from the time I was 4 to the time I was 6. And so I don’t remember much about Albert Lea. We moved up to St. Louis Park, and lived there until I was 18 and went to college. My parents moved to Hopkins. So pretty much all my ties are really in St. Louis Park, and then my friends, and also going back all the time, people I’ve met in the intervening years. Dudley Riggs’ Brave New Workshop is where I started doing comedy, with my partner Tom Davis. And I’ve met people through the Wellstone campaign.

How often do you travel to Minnesota?
Until my mother died in December, I was in Minnesota like once every other month. That’s why I’d see these friends.

So a lot of flying Northwest?
A lot of flying Northwest. It was sporadic. Sometimes I’d be in a couple times in one month or a few times and then I wouldn’t be there for a few months, but I would try to visit Mom, and because my brother lives in Paris, I was the one who was kind of taking care of things. Sometimes I’d be there for long stretches because of the way she got sick and stuff when my dad died about 10 years ago. That’s why I have such strong connections -- my parents were there. So all my adult life I would just go back and forth. I remember once coming back -- in fact, I think for the last event I did for Paul I told this joke at the beginning: I come back, I turn on the local Minnesota Public Radio and the first thing I hear is a really long story about a decision that the Supreme Court of Minnesota has made about whether game wardens could go into your ice-fishing hut. And I said, “You know you’re back in Minnesota when that’s the big story.”

Do you have much knowledge of Minnesota-specific issues at this point?
I really don’t, and that could be a legitimate criticism of me if I decide to do this. I’ll have to demonstrate that I pay attention to Minnesota. But I really don’t have to decide for two years, and my focus is on one race at a time. My focus right now is on this November and building this radio station. But you know, I think the issues that I’m mainly interested in affect everybody in the country.

Those would be . . . ?
Those would be things like health care and finding a way to insure everybody. Things like economic justice and making a more equitable tax system. Paul led the charge on trying not to let us give Homeland Security contracts to these companies that have tax havens in Bermuda. So, I think most of what I am concerned about affects everybody and affects everybody in Minnesota. There are going to be local concerns, and if I do this I’ll go around the state often and try to find out what people’s concerns are. And I know Paul, who was a great senator from Minnesota, did stuff on wiring and getting rural Minnesota on the Internet, all that kind of stuff. Those kinds of issues are all real important. I’m sort of against industrial hog farming, but I don’t feel comfortable weighing in on things I don’t know about. I know a little of the gun stuff that Pawlenty’s done and I’m not sure I approve of.

Do you know Mayor Rybak?
He’s a good guy and I like him a lot.

If you were to run for the Senate in Minnesota, what would your family do? Would they move to Minnesota?
Certainly my wife would. My kids -- I betcha my daughter would. And my son, let’s see, in 2006 -- what year is he going to graduate? -- he’d still be in college. I don’t know. And this is part of the discussion in the family. And this is certainly why my son is not very enthusiastic about the idea.

Because he doesn’t want you to go to Minnesota?
I’ve said that part of the reason I’m thinking of going for the Senate is so that I can spend less time with my family. [Laughs.] And he doesn’t want me to do that, and I understand that.

It seems like you’re very busy as it is.
Well, I obviously wouldn’t be running for the Senate and doing the radio show at the same time, but I can do the radio show in Minnesota while I’m exploring the idea.

What kind of a campaigner would you be if you did run?
Well, a sloppy one, I guess.

Would you use comedy?
I would definitely use humor, but I’d be also deadly serious. I think you can be both at the same time. Sometimes humor can be used as a cudgel. A lot of people who don’t listen to my radio show think of me as divisive and that my material is very hard-hitting. Sometimes it is, but it’s usually aimed at people who deserve it. I think I’d be 99 percent more serious than Norm.