WASHINGTON (AP) -- As Al Franken considers challenging Sen. Norm Coleman, R-Minn., for re-election in 2008, the comedian and liberal radio host is looking to his hometown senator for advice: Hillary Rodham Clinton.
"I asked Hillary, 'Can you give me some suggestions about running for Senate in a state you haven't lived for in a while, or in your case, ever?' " Franken recalled, laughing heartily. "And she said, 'This will be a long conversation,' so we agreed to have a long conversation about it."
Clinton, D-N.Y., moved from Washington to New York to run for the Senate. Franken was born in New York City and lives there now but grew up in the Minneapolis suburbs. He put the odds of running against Coleman at better than 50-50.
"I've thought about it and discussed it with my family more," Franken said. The only holdout, he said, is his 19-year-old son, Joe, who is worried he'll see less of his father.
Coleman declined to comment. Minnesota Republican Party chairman Ron Eibensteiner asked, "This is a joke, right?"
Franken said he probably would not take political action committee money but also would not put any of his own into a race.
"Absolutely not," he said, laughing. "If the staff went out for beers, I'd pick it up."
A month after the debut of his show "The O'Franken Factor" on the fledgling Air America Radio network, Franken said he is happy with the direction of the program. But he acknowledged that it is harder to be funny in the talk-radio format.
"It's certainly difficult to be funny for three hours, because you talk about very serious things," he said. "I'd like to loosen it up a little bit, and try to write a little bit more comedy for it, maybe make it a little less guest-heavy."
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David Brock, the one-time conservative journalist who singled out liberal politicians, is helping to launch a Web site that will highlight what it considers inaccurate claims in media reporting by conservatives.
The group, called Media Matters for America, plans "to correct conservative misinformation in the media."
The 41-year-old former journalist and author wrote pro-conservative books in the 1990s on Anita Hill and her allegations against Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and President Clinton's sex scandals. But six years ago, Brock abandoned the conservative cause and says he understands how the well-financed conservative manipulation of the media works.
Brock said "the nation is awash in conservative misinformation," adding "viewers and listeners are bombarded by conservative misinformation presented as fact." He cited the popularity of conservative talk radio and its hosts such as Rush Limbaugh and of Fox News Channel, which has several popular conservative commentators.
A Limbaugh spokesman said he had no comment on the group's efforts. Brent Bozell, founder and president of the conservative Media Research Center, scoffed: "If they focus on commentators, what are they going to say, that they're opinionated? If anything, the left is far better organized on this."
Slightly more people in a recent poll by the Pew Research Center said news organizations were biased in favor of Democrats, than thought they were biased toward Republicans. But Democrats have become increasingly sensitive to what they perceive as media bias against their party.
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The year was 1978 and George W. Bush was trying to persuade Texans to send him to Congress. Among those he won over in his failed bid for office was his new wife, Laura.
"By the end of the campaign, he even convinced me to vote for him," the first lady told several hundred people during Bush's bus tour stopover in Niles, Mich. As they laughed, she added, "And so far, anyway, he hasn't done anything to change my mind."
Laura Bush, a librarian back then, was new to the political system. On Monday, she was making a rare joint campaign appearance with her husband as his campaign bus rolled through Michigan.
The president, in turn, praised his wife. "Probably the best reason to send me back," Bush told the crowd, "is so Laura Bush will be the first lady for four more years."
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AP Political Writer Ron Fournier in Niles, Mich., and Will Lester in Washington contributed to this report.
