Sen. Hillary Clinton joined 2,200 supporters of Al Franken at the University of Minnesota on Tuesday evening to support his bid for U.S. Senate. A slew of DFL politicians rallied the crowd, all with a singular message — Franken is the key to a 60-seat, filibuster-proof Senate.

Franken and Clinton are longtime friends, as their banter exemplified. “Al Franken was taking on the vast right-wing conspiracy before other people even admitted it existed,” said Clinton. “Sure, he’s been a comedian, and occasionally he’s even been funny.”

But Clinton also raised the seriousness of Franken’s attempt to unseat Republican Sen. Norm Coleman. “Unless we reach 60 votes in the Senate, we won’t end the Bush era,” she said. “Al Franken, with your help, can be our 60th vote in the United States Senate.”

Joining Clinton and Franken were Minneapolis mayor R.T. Rybak, St. Paul mayor Chris Coleman, assistant majority leader Sen. Tarryl Clark, Speaker of the House Margaret Anderson Kelliher, state auditor Rebecca Otta, 3rd Congressional district candidate Ashwin Madia, and Sen. Amy Klobuchar.

The highest profile flap in Minnesota politics — Rep. Michele Bachmann’s anti-America gaffe — played big throughout the evening, with Klobuchar, Coleman and Rybak all taking shots at Bachmann. At one point during Franken’s speech, a man yelled, “Al Franken, pro-American!”

Franken joked, “I wouldn’t necessarily be so sure…” He stared at the man and said, “Mr. Bachmann.”

Franken urged his supporters to work as hard as they can to win the election. “If you want a senator who’ll give tax breaks to the middle class, rather than millionaires, you’re going to have to fight hard for the next 14 days.”

Watch the full-sized slideshow at Flickr.