Franni and Al Franken. MnIndy file photo

Rep. Michele Bachmann continued her anti–Social Security media tour yesterday, calling the program a “tremendous fraud.” She told Fox Business that “we need entitlement reform with Medicare and Social Security… No company could get away with this. They’d be thrown in jail if they ever tried to do what the federal government did with people’s Social Security money.”

Meanwhile Franken — Senator Al’s wife Franni, that is — took issue with Bachmann’s recent statement that Americans must be weaned off Medicare and Social Security. In a press release obtained by Huffington Post, Franni Franken said Bachmann’s words were “hard for me to hear.” Here’s why:

When I was a baby my father, a World War II veteran, died in a car accident. In one tragic day, my mother found herself raising me and my four brothers and sisters on her own. We made it because of Social Security survivor benefits. The idea that a member of Congress would advocate pulling the safety net out from under seniors and families who depend on it every month is absolutely terrifying to me.

Franni Franken is backing DFL state Sen. Tarryl Clark in the race for the Sixth Congressional District seat. In November, it was Sen. Al Franken coming to Clark’s aid: he signed a fundraising email on Clark’s behalf, exhorting supporters to “Help me help Tarryl Clark beat Bachmann.”

Photo: Andy Birkey/MnIndy

At a rally at the State Capitol today, Sen.-elect Al Franken saluted his wife, Franni — without whom, he said, “I would have lost … by kind of a lot.” Franken said once he decided to run, he told friends, “Franni and I are running for the senate. And if we win, I get to be the senator.”Honey, I get to be the senator [Laughter]. I get to be the senator because of you.”

About his wife’s contributions to the campaign effort, Franken told the crowd, “You don’t know the half of it” — a phrase with a weird ring to it, coming from a guy who got barely more than half the votes cast for him or his main rival. 

Franken then broke up with emotion as he moved from talking about his family to his intentions in office:

We’re just lucky. What we’ve been through is just nothing, especially compared to what so many Minnesotans have been going through during this same period.

He said he looks forward to “tackling touch challenges [on behalf of] working families.” His win gives him a chance to work on such issues, he said, “and I’m not going to waste that chance.” He cited Paul Wellstone, the Democrat who held the seat before Republican Norm Coleman: “Politics is about improving people’s lives.”

Sen. Amy Klobuchar spoke to the crowd before Franken. Another noontime rally to celebrate Franken’s victory’s was set to take place in Duluth.

“Running,” the first TV ad that Democrat Ashwin Madia aired in his losing bid to replace U.S. Rep. Jim Ramstad in Minnesota’s 3rd Congressional District, was this morning ranked among the nation’s eight best ads in U.S. House races this year by The Fix, a Washington Post blog. The Fix said:

There are a lot of boring ways to do a biography ad. This was a standout because it broke from convention — telling the story of Madia, an unsuccessful candidate for Congress in Minnesota’s open 3rd district, while he ran along the streets of the district. “When I was in Baghdad I was never able to do this,” Madia said. “Just go anywhere and run.” Powerful stuff.

Last week, The Fix bestowed an equivalent honor on the National Republican Senatorial Committee’s “Angry Al” ad, the bleeped-out highlight reel of bad words and bad attitude from Democrat Al Franken.

The satirical magazine Radar (the print incarnation of which just suffered its second or third and perhaps fatal death) determined that two Minnesota U.S. Senate race ads merited inclusion among its “Best Campaign Ads in Our Golden Age of Politics“: a fairly pedestrian anti-Al spot from the National Rifle Association and another from the National Federation of Independent Businesses that Radar appreciated for its association of Franken with assorted worklife miseries like missing your bus.

Just before Election Day, the Huffington Post corralled 60 campaign ads deemed ”Most Memorable” (not quite the same as “Best”). That list included three from Minnesota: Franni Franken’s testimonial for her husband Al, a Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee spot in which a mother whose son was killed in Iraq blames Coleman, and the National Republican Campaign Committee’s attack on Ashwin Madia that became famous for darkening Madia’s skin tone.

That last one offers flattery of the proverbially sincerest sort to its intended target: It’s built on clips lifted from Madia’s original “Running” ad. Here are those two ads: