Al Franken (Photo: CursedThing, Flickr) and Lorne Michaels (Photo: David Shankbone, Wikimedia Commons)

Norm Coleman’s campaign and his henchmen are bloviating overtime about Al Franken’s reported contribution to a Saturday Night Live skit last week mocking John McCain. The skit was conceived from some comments made by Franken in a phone conversation with his old friend and boss, SNL creator and Executive Producer Lorne Michaels.

Yet Michaels, who was the one who pushed for the skit skewering McCain, escaped any criticism at all from the Coleman camp or the GOP. Perhaps that’s because McCain himself has hauled in $5,300 in campaign contributions from Michaels since 2000—$2,300 in the current election cycle.

Michaels contributed $1,000 to McCain 2000 in February 2000; $1,000 to Friends of John McCain in October 2004; $1,000 to McCain’s Straight Talk American PAC in October 2006; $1,000 to John McCain 2008 in March 2007; and $1,300 to John McCain 2008 in May 2007.

One hyperventilating and highly paid Republican blogger posted seven items on the contrived “scandal” in 16 hours.

On Coleman’s campaign blog, Coleman Campaign Manager Cullen Sheehan dredged up the same litany of Franken material his campaign has been flogging for months in an effort to keep the story alive.

“Al Franken can’t help himself,” Sheehan huffed. “Once again he proves he’s more interested in entertainment than service, and ridiculing those with whom he disagrees.”

Local political reporters dutifully lapped up the GOP’s call to arms, as if this were the most important issue in the campaign.

The Pioneer Press made it the lead story on Page 1 in its Monday edition, with reporter Rachel Stassen-Berger opining that while Franken has worked to separate his Senate campaign from his past as a comedy writer, “he blurred the lines between the two roles by suggesting an idea that was turned into an anti-John McCain opening sketch for Saturday’s show.”

The Star-Tribune’s Patricia Lopez helped fuel the false controversy with essentially a rewrite of the Politico and AP stories. “What may have started as a phone call to an old friend has spiraled into the latest controversy to dog the U.S. Senate campaign of Democratic candidate Al Franken,” Lopez wrote.

When the dust settles from this nonstory, it probably would be best summarized by Emily Latella, the beloved Saturday Night Live character from the late Gilda Radner:

“Never mind.”

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