Politics | Al Franken Senator Franken Is Finally Being Funny Again He now seems more comfortable cracking jokes By Harry Kimball Posted Mar 18, 2010 1:21 PM CDT Copied Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., right, huddles with committee members Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., left, and Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn. on Capitol Hill. (AP Photo) Senate colleagues expecting humor from funnyman and freshman lawmaker Al Franken have gotten just the opposite, though insiders say the Minnesota senator is getting into the groove and loosening up a bit. Since taking office last year, Franken has snapped at administration officials, Joe Lieberman, and Republican legislators. Now, he’s the model of bipartisanship with numerous across-the-aisle bills, and he’s even making jokes. “At the beginning, he was trying not to” be funny, Mary Landrieu tells the Washington Post. “But you can't help who you actually are.” One observer thinks that was the problem. “Keeping that huge part of his personality bottled up for so long may have caused some of these eruptions.” Now, he seems well-liked. He’s even been forgiven by John McCain, who called him out when he cut off Lieberman’s comments. Franken “did tell me he had been instructed not to let any speaker go over,” McCain says. “So I said, 'Okay, fine.’” Read These Next Kid Rock has added the R-word to the list of slurs he still uses. Man wakes from coma, says girlfriend crashed car on purpose. Jodi Picoult says she's first author to be banned in two mediums. Andrew Windsor has an uncertain future as a commoner. Report an error