Al Franken Does His Howard Dean Impression

The man who would unseat U.S. Senator Norm Coleman (R-MN) had a bit of a bad night on Friday evening. Instead of doing his Stuart Smalley bit, he lapsed into channeling Dr. Demented instead:

Air America "star" Al Franken had a meltdown Friday night while accepting the Freedom of Speech Award at Talkers Magazine's New Media Seminar, before being forced to leave the stage by the event's sponsor.

The liberal yakker launched into a 20-minute tirade against his conservative colleagues, taking shots at Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Bill O'Reilly and Bill Bennett, according to WWRL host Steve Malzberg, who witnessed the ugly outburst.

"It was the most bizarre thing I've seen in a long time," Malzberg told NewsMax. "Franken was as obnoxious and arrogant as could be."

After blasting the top talent in his industry, Franken took on the war in Iraq - dissecting a report on a visit to the troops by fellow talk host Rusty Humphries.

As the Air America host droned on, the audience grew restless, with some shouting for Franken to "hurry up."

But according to the New York Post's John Mainelli, Franken wouldn't budge. "It's freedom of speech ... I have about two pages left," he shot back.

Finally, Talkers publisher Michael Harrison gave Franken the hook, beseeching the volatile host: "We honored you, now honor us. Don't kill our party."

Before he departed, however, Franken lept into his own peroration about visiting the troops - appearing to sob as he detailed their injuries.

Seems to me like the Dems running Franken against Coleman in 2008 would be the next best thing to not fielding a candidate at all.

But who knows? Maybe Hillary will have coattails the size of a regulation soccer field and the pair of tugboats necessary to drag Franken's bloated carcass to Capitol Hill.

And maybe after he leaves the DNC, Howard Dean will become the new Mr. Rogers, too.

No guesses as to who his first guest would be.