Al Franken will mentor Rand Paul

Al Franken will be Rand Paul's Democratic mentor.

​Right-wingers concerned about their favored politicians drinking the Capitol Hill Kool-Aid instead of the tea must be gagging over this news: Freshman GOP Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky wants our very own liberal firebrand Al Franken to be his Democratic mentor.

What? One of Paul's campaign goons head-stomped a liberal protester just before Election Day. And Franken is the author of Rush Limbaugh Is a Big Fat Idiot.

"I think I will surprise some people," he told Politico in a profile piece today. "The way you win battles is by talking to independents, conservative Democrats, and maybe even some liberal Democrats who might agree with you on occasion."

Wager on this: Those occasions will be rare. Paul has announced he's forming the Senate equivalent of Michele Bachmann's House Tea Party Caucus. But Franken's game.

"I first talked to Sen. Paul after election night to congratulate him on his win, and we hit it off right away," Franken told Politico. "We had a long and very friendly conversation, and we both left the call looking forward to finding some areas of legislation we can work on together."

This has all the makings of a Mad Hatter's tea party.