U.S. Senate Minnesota

In his speech asking for the DFL nomination for the U.S. Senate race Saturday afternoon, Al Franken apologized for what he described as some “downright offensive” jokes that he wrote during his career as a writer.

“I’ve had some tough conversations this week,” Franken said after about a minute of his speech, and the excited convention hall in Rochester, which had been booming with noise just a few moments before, grew very quiet.

His mea culpa moment had come.

“It kills me that things that I said and wrote sent a message to some of my friends in this room and people in this state that they can’t count on me to be a champion for women, and for all the people in Minnesota, in this campaign and in the Senate. I am sorry for that. [Audience broke into a big round of applause.]

“Because that’s not who I am.

"I’m a husband – married to my favorite person on earth, Franni, for 32 years …

"And, for 35 years, I was a writer. I wrote a lot of jokes. Some of them weren’t funny. Some of them were inappropriate. Some of them were downright offensive.

"I understand that.

"And I understand that the people of Minnesota deserve a senator who won’t say things that’ll make them uncomfortable.

"But I’m in this race because there are some people in Washington who could afford to feel a little less comfortable.” [Another big round of applause.]

Franken then threw himself into a rousing denouncement of President Bush and sitting U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman.

The audience’s reaction to Franken’s speech clearly outdid the reaction to the speech of Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer.

Whether or not Franken would be a better senator than Nelson-Pallmeyer, he gave a clearly better speech Saturday afternoon in Rochester – at a moment when he had to.

Whether it'll be enough will become clear in the next hour.