It seems that Al Franken is in hot water over a 2000 appearance in Playboy Magazine. No, he wasn’t the centerfold (that really would make you go blind). He wrote a very tasteless article that appeared in the magazine.

On Thursday, Rep. Betty McCollum, D-Minn., called the sexually explicit article offensive and potentially damaging to Franken and other Democratic candidates in Minnesota.

The Franken campaign and backers of the candidate said the work was merely satire and faulted McCollum for dividing the party.

“As a woman, a mother, a former teacher, and an elected official, I find this material completely unacceptable,” McCollum said of Franken’s piece, published in 2000 under the headline “Porn-O-Rama!”

“I can tell you it’s not playing comfortably in St. Paul, and I can’t imagine this politically radioactive material is doing very well in suburban and rural districts,” McCollum said.

Star Tribune

It appears that the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party, as they are called in Minnesohhhhta, are in a massive state of chaos. We’re talking large scale “human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together… mass hysteria!” to quote Bill Murray.

Franken campaign spokesman Andy Barr fired back at McCollum Thursday, saying “it’s unfortunate that she’s trying to create divisions in our party rather than working with other DFLers to take on [Coleman].”

Some Franken supporters took a similar line. “I know that Representative McCollum was a co-chair of Mike Ciresi’s campaign, but at a time when Minnesotans are hurting, it’s extremely disappointing that she would rather destroy party unity than focus on beating Norm Coleman,” said Javier Morillo, president of Service Employees International Union Local 26.

That’s right. Winning is more important than integrity! Now, the Franken camp claims this article was written in satire and that’s fairly obvious considering the article was about having intercourse with sexbots of the future, but plenty of voters will undoubtedly be turned off by the shear contents and explicit thoughts that were transfered from Franken’s brain to his pen.

At one point in the Playboy piece titled “Porn-O-Rama!” Franken called the Internet a “terrific learning tool,” writing that his 12-year-old son was able to use it for a sixth-grade report on bestiality.

I imagine Senator Coleman will be sleeping well tonight.