The Senate’s newest member, former comedian Al Franken, is making clear that he is taking the new job seriously and it’s no longer funny business for him.

Sworn in as a senator less than a week ago, there were no jokes when Franken faced a packed house in the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing room and expounded on the loftiest of government institutions – the U.S. Supreme Court — and President Barack Obama’s nominee, Judge Sonia Sotomayor.

It was a life-immitating-art moment. Franken had played a senator on the Senate Judiciary Committee on television comedy show Saturday Night Live during the Clarence Thomas confirmation hearings.

But there were no jokes this time, barely a smile.

“Last Tuesday, I swore to support and defend the Constitution of the United States and to bear true faith and allegiance to it,” Franken said.

“I take this oath very seriously as we consider your nomination, Judge Sotomayor.”

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Photo credit: Reuters/Richard Clement (Franken at

Sotomayor hearing)

Al Franken, a big-time comic turned Washington politician, received plenty of applause but no laughs on Tuesday when he finally took his seat as a member of the U.S. Senate.

In fact, one of the few jokes publicly told on Capitol Hill about Franken had the former writer/performer on the popular TV show “Saturday Night Live” as the punchline.

“Senator Franken gave me a few jokes he thought I should share with you, but I didn’t like them, so I’m not going to do it,” Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid told reporters.

Republican and Democratic senators shook Franken’s hand and gave him a standing ovation after he was sworn in as a member of their chamber — eight months after last November’s election.

Franken took office a week after the Minnesota Supreme Court upheld his razor-thin victory over Republican Norm Coleman.

Reid delivered a preemptive strike against any perception that the new senator will be back on stage as a congressional comic.

“Al Franken is very smart,” Reid, who named the new senator to the powerful Senate Judiciary Committee, told reporters. ”He’s Harvard-educated. He has written volumes, books.”

One of Franken’s best known books was a 1996 denunciation of conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh titled “Rush Limbaugh is a Big Fat Idiot.”

Senator Charles Schumer said a subdued Franken received thunderous applause at a weekly luncheon for Senate Democrats. ”He didn’t make jokes. He talked about how he had worked so hard to get here to serve to make people’s lives better.”

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Photo credit: Reuters/Kevin Lamarque (Franken sworn-in as senator by Vice President Biden)

Former comedian Al Franken on Monday made it clear in his first appearance in the U.S. Capitol as senator-elect that he had not come to entertain.

Franken did not crack a single joke, nor did he take a single question as he spoke briefly to reporters outside the Senate chamber. Instead he vowed to work hard and tried to downplay expectations now that his election has clinched a super-majority of 60 for President Obama’s Democrats in the Senate.

“A lot has been made of this number 60.  The number I’m focused on is the number two.  I — I see myself as the second senator from the state of Minnesota,” Franken said. (The other Minnesota senator is Amy Klobuchar).

Franken said voters expected him to work on the economy, energy, education and health care issues. “I am going to work day and night to make sure that our kids have a great future and that America’s best days lay ahead,” he said.

Majority Leader Harry Reid welcomed Franken to the chamber with a pledge that Democrats would not use their expanded numbers to “ram” legislation through the Senate despite a full plate of proposals on healthcare and climate change.

On the other hand, Reid said he hoped Republicans would stop being “the party of no” — a favorite moniker Democrats use for Republican resistance to dramatic changes that Obama’s party is trying to push through Congress.

Franken was declared the winner of a Senate seat in Minnesota last Tuesday after one of the longest Senate races ever, as the Minnesota Supreme Court rejected former Senator and Republican Norm Coleman’s legal arguments that an earlier recount was unfair.

Franken’s election gave Democrats the 60 Senate votes needed to stop procedural delays known as filibusters. This should help Obama’s party push through changes on complex issues such as climate change and healthcare, although the party has traditionally had trouble ensuring all its members vote the same way.

Franken is expected to be sworn in on Tuesday by Vice President Joe Biden, who also serves as President of the Senate. The last one he swore in was Illinois’ Roland Burris.

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- Photo credit: Reuters/Kevin Lamarque (Franken on Capitol Hill on Monday)

Plenty of current and former U.S. senators had memorable professions before they got to Washington: country fiddler (Robert Byrd of West Virginia), astronaut (John Glenn of Ohio), jewelry-maker (Ben Nighthorse Campbell of Colorado). But none were dogged by a satirical persona, as is already happening to newly-confirmed Democratic Senator-elect Al Franken of Minnesota.

Franken, formerly a comedian and writer for “Saturday Night Live,” created the character Stuart Smalley, a cardigan-wearing self-help guru, often pictured gazing lovingly into a mirror and intoning, “I’m going to do a terrific show today! And I’m gonna help people! Because I’m good enough, I’m smart enough, and, doggonit, people like me!”

Stuart showed up in many Web headlines noting Franken’s victory in the Minnesota senate race over Republican Norm Coleman, especially those with a conservative bent.

“No Joke! Stuart Smalley Headed to Senate” — www.thefoxnation.com

“Stuart Smalley Goes To Washington! Al Franken Gives Dems Super-Majority” — www.werushdaily.com

“Covering Al Franken: Stuart Smalley Saves The Senate!
Commentary: Can Journalists Look Past The Goofy Persona Of The Politician?” — www.cbsnews.com

So we ask you: Is there any way Franken can shed the ghost of Smalley? Does he need to?

Franken is lucky in at least one respect. The decision that cleared the way for him to take his Senate seat came during a quiet week in Washington. President Barack Obama holds a town hall meeting on health care in the Virginia suburbs. The morning television shows focused — again, still — on Michael Jackson and preparations for a memorial service at his California estate, Neverland. The Mark Sanford saga continues, with sympathy running high for the South Carolina governor’s wife Jenny after Sanford described his Argentine inamorata as his soulmate.

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Photo credit: REUTERS/Eric Miller (Franken and his wife Franni in Minneapolis on June 30, 2009)

There’s a real school’s-out feeling around Washington today. Congress left town last week after the House voted for bill to curb climate change, and most lawmakers won’t be back until after the July 4 holiday weekend. The Supreme Court issues its last rulings of the term, with a full sheaf of decisions expected — but then the justices will be gone for the summer.

President Barack Obama’s hosting Colombian President Alvaro Uribe at the White House, with a joint appearance in the afternoon. In addition to a full plate of U.S.-Colombian issues, the two leaders could address last weekend’s military coup in Honduras. Obama has already called for peaceful resolution of “tensions and disputes” but he may have more to say.

Later in the day, Obama celebrates the accomplishments of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Americans at a White House reception. This community has criticized the president for what they see as foot-dragging on repealing the Defense of Marriage Act — which defines marriage as between one man and one woman and says states need not recognize gay marriages performed in another state — and the U.S. military’s Don’t-ask-don’t-tell policy.

On Capitol Hill, even though most members of Congress are back home, there’s one decision most will be interested in — a possible ruling by the Minnesota Supreme Court on just who has won a hotly contested Senate seat: Republican Norm Coleman or Democrat Al Franken. If Franken is declared the winner, it would give Democrats a 60-vote majority, which means Republicans can’t delay legislation with a jaw-fest called a filibuster.

Outside Washington, questions still swirl around the death of Michael Jackson, with lawyers, doctors, relatives and others opining on morning television about the circumstances of the pop star’s demise, and the fate of his three children.

There was plenty of attention focused on an expected day of reckoning set for a New York City courtroom, too: the sentencing of Ponzi schemer Bernard Madoff. Legal experts suggest he’ll get a virtual life term.

Photo credit: Reuters/Jim Young. A cyclist rides past magnolias in bloom on Capitol Hill, March 3, 2009

Democrat Al Franken went to Washington on Wednesday — but not to to claim the Minnesota Senate seat Republican incumbent Norm Coleman lost in the November election. Franken, a comic turned politician, called on Vice President Joe Biden at the White House to talk about policy issues and the still-unresolved Minnesota contest he hopes will end with a win for the Democrats.

“Minnesotans are eager to see Congress make progress on the administration’s agenda and I’m eager to do my part in that effort,” Franken said after his meeting with Biden.

He’s going to have to wait a while. A state court ruled last month that Franken should be certified the winner of the Minnesota Senate race.  But it’s far from over. The widely anticipated ruling merely signaled the end of another round in a long-running battle. Coleman’s legal challenge continues — and he has said he may take his case all  the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.

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File photograph of Franken, Eric Miller/Reuters

Nearly five months after the 2008 election, there’s no sign that either Norm Coleman or Al Franken will definitively be declared the winner in the race for one of Minnesota’s U.S. Senate seats, allowing him to spend the next six years in Washington.

Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell told Reuters in an interview that it could be many months before all legal challenges are exhausted. “I don’t think we’re going to see the end to this matter any time soon,” McConnell said.

For those who have forgotten about this cliff-hanger: Coleman, the Democrat-turned-Republican first-term senator running for reelection, lagged behind Democratic comedian-author-Franken by only 225 votes after a recount of nearly 2.4 million ballots cast for the two.

Legal challenges followed and the two candidates are awaiting a ruling any day now by a three-judge panel in Minnesota.

But McConnell said that won’t be the end of it. He said Coleman is likely to employ a Bush v. Gore argument and try to convince the courts that there needs to be a uniform standard of counting ballots throughout the state.

It “will be litigated out not only in state court but potentially in federal court as well,” McConnell predicted.

Asked whether he was concerned that Minnesota is going so long without a full team in the U.S. Senate, McConnell replied, “Yeah, it’s a shame.”

In the meantime, Democrats are two votes short of a filibuster proof majority in the U.S. Senate that’s needed to advance most major legislation, instead of the one vote short they would be if Franken was declared the winner based on his narrow margin.

Senator Dick Durbin, the number-two Democrat in the Senate, is getting impatient.

“There reaches a point where Minnesota is entitled to two senators and if it keeps coming up Al Franken the winner, Al Franken the winner,  I think it’s time for the national Republican Party to move on.” Asked whether he and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid might just try to seat Franken at some point soon, Durbin replied,  ”I’m not ready to say that.”

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- Photo credit: Reuters/Mitch Dumke (Franken and Reid meeting in January.)

Republican Norm Coleman, who is in a court battle against comedian and Democrat Al Franken over who won the Minnesota Senate seat in November’s election, decided to visit his old stomping ground on Tuesday, dropping by the weekly Republican policy luncheon.

A mere 25 steps or so from the Senate floor, Coleman entered the luncheon with the new head of the Republican National Committee Michael Steele and told reporters he was just popping in to catch up with his brethren.

“Everyone understands how important this race is, how important this seat is. Folks have been supportive and are still engaged,” Coleman told reporters before the lunch. ”We were ahead on election night, ahead when the recount began and I expect that when all is said and done.”

If Franken prevails, Democrats would then have a 59-41 majority in the Senate, one vote shy of the 60-vote minimum needed to overcome procedural hurdles in the chamber.

Franken, a comedian who gained prominence from his appearances on the satiric Saturday Night Live television show, was declared the winner by a 225-vote margin by Minnesota state officials in early January.

However, Coleman has challenged the outcome in court, arguing in part that some votes were counted twice.  He said his side of the case will be finished later this week and while Franken’s presentation could take a couple of weeks, Coleman said he thought it could be shorter.

Coleman declined to rule out further legal challenges if he did not win the current court case.

“I’m still confident in the end we got the most votes on election night and when all the legally cast votes are counted and any votes that are double counted are taken out we’ll be okay,” he said. “I’m not ruling in or ruling out. Let’s see what the court does and hopefully they’ll do the right thing.”

In the meantime, Coleman has been doing some consulting for the Republican Jewish Coalition.

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- Photo credit: Reuters/Eric Miller (Observers watch judges recount ballots in Minnesota back in November.)

WASHINGTON - Norm Coleman has found a temporary gig while his court battle to hang on to his U.S. Senate seat representing Minnesota begins — the Republican Jewish Coalition.

After recounting the votes, Minnesota officials declared Coleman’s opponent, comedian and Democrat Al Franken, the winner in the race. But the Republican has complained that the recount was conducted unfairly and promised a court challenge that could take weeks to resolve. 

In the meantime, Coleman has found himself a part-time gig, paid of course, to be a consultant and strategic adviser to the Republican organization. However, he will not engage in any lobbying.

He will go on speaking tours, offer advice on policy measures, and help the organization plan its future, according to a statement by the Republican Jewish Coalition.

“We are confident that in a few months Senator Coleman will return to his seat in the Senate, but until that time, we are eager for him to travel across the country on our behalf and to be an important voice within the organization,” said Matt Brooks, executive director for the group.

- Photo credit: Reuters/Eric Miller (Coleman, left, and Franken after a debate last November.)

Detroit CEOs drive their hybrid cars over to the House of Representatives for another serving of humble pie this morning. But it’s still not clear if they’ll get the $34 billion bailout they’re looking for, as several senators remained skeptical after yesterday’s testimony on that side of the Capitol. 
     
Testimony before the House Financial Services Committee begins at 9:30 a.m. 

     
The last outstanding Senate race may finally reach a resolution today, as Minnesota could complete its recount in the contest between incumbent Republican Norm Coleman and Democrat Al Franken. 

But any resolution will be preliminary: there are still about 6,000 ballots that have been challenged and will need further review.

     
The Supreme Court will announce what cases it will hear for the year. 
     
The Drug Enforcement Administration has built its own meth lab! The drug-fighting agency holds a ceremony to dedicate its new facility “that will enable DEA chemists to teach students how to synthesize controlled substances, and conduct research into illicit manufacturing methods.” No word on what they do with the final product. 
    
And somewhere over the Pacific, the Pentagon will test its “Star Wars” ballistic missile defense system this afternoon.

REUTERS/Joshua Roberts (Auto CEOs on Capitol Hill)

REUTERS/Eric Miller (Franken, Coleman at campaign appearances)