"I think that what we've seen in these mass murders of late is the use of these assault weapons, and I think that this will save lives," Franken said.

Though Al Franken seemed a bit conflicted about the issue in January, both he and Amy Klobuchar joined the rest of the Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee yesterday to vote in favor of a gun control proposal that would ban some semiautomatic rifles and limit magazine sizes.

SEE ALSO:
-- More Minnesotans were killed in fist fights than by rifles in 2011
-- Pine County Sheriff's refusal to enforce new gun regulations has at least one legislative supporter

"Are we going to see these mass murders go to zero? No, we're not. But I think if we can save one life or a few lives by doing this, then I think it's worth it," Franken is quoted as saying in an MPR report, echoing language used by President Obama when he gave a speech in north Minneapolis last month.

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In these polarized times, Klobuchar enjoys a remarkable amount of bipartisan support.

In the holy trinity of things popular in Minnesota, Amy Klobuchar is right up there with hotdish and Prince, apparently.

SEE ALSO: Amy Klobuchar: "For the first time, there was a traffic jam in the Senate women's bathroom"

According to Public Policy Polling's breakdown of every U.S. Senator's popularity, Klobuchar is the second most popular Senator in the entire country, trailing only Republican John Barrasso, the junior Senator from Wyoming.

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Fighting against jeopardizing "our entire country just to score political points in the House."

The farm bill expired at the end of September, but first the election and now the fiscal cliff have worked like a one-two punch to knock out chatter about it. Trust Amy Klobuchar, though, to try and get our attention back.

Yesterday she took to the Senate floor to remind people just how many billions of dollars and hundreds of programs are hanging in limbo. And how generally badass Minnesota farmers are.

See Also:
- Farming for Federal Dollars: Meet the Minnesotans who receive subsidies for not growing anything
- Amy Klobuchar: "For the first time, there was a traffic jam in the Senate women's bathroom"
- Everything Must Go: How to step away from a hundred years of family farming--in four hours or less


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Klobuchar on longer Senate bathroom lines: "It's wonderful." Apparently she didn't have to go that bad.

Amy Klobuchar was heeding nature's call yesterday when she had an unprecedented experience.

SEE ALSO: For Franken and Klobuchar, does money from big media mean support for PIPA?

"For the first time, there was a traffic jam in the Senate women's bathroom," she told attendees of the Washington Ideas Forum later in the day. "There were five of us in there, and there are only two stalls."

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Bills' first TV ad essentially throws allegations against the wall in hopes something will stick.

During last night's Vikings telecast, GOP Senate candidate Kurt Bills debuted his first TV ad.

SEE ALSO: Daily Caller report linking Amy Klobuchar and Petters "is old rehashed stuff," Ken Avidor says

The ad highlights accusations made in a Daily Caller report last week -- namely, "that U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar helped keep a multibillion-dollar Ponzi schemer [i.e., Tom Petters] out of prison in the late 1990s when she was the County Attorney in Hennepin County, Minnesota." But in a WCCO report, Doug Kelley, the former MNGOP gubernatorial candidate and bankruptcy trustee in the Petters case, calls the allegations made by the Daily Caller and parroted by the Bills campaign "preposterous."

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A Daily Caller report alleges Klobuchar was corrupted by her financial ties to Petters.

On Friday, The D.C.-based Daily Caller published a report alleging "that U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar helped keep a multibillion-dollar Ponzi schemer [i.e., Tom Petters] out of prison in the late 1990s when she was the County Attorney in Hennepin County, Minnesota."

SEE ALSO: Tom Petters, convicted Ponzi schemer, teaches fellow inmates business classes

"Klobuchar used the power of her office in 1999 to ensure Petters was not charged with financial crimes," the report says, noting that Petters later contributed more than $120,000 toward Klobuchar's Senate run. "And despite significant evidence against him, she cleared the way for Petters to build his multibillion-dollar illegal empire by prosecuting only his early co-conspirators."

It's a pretty explosive allegation, right? But what the report only mentions in passing, says local political blogger and longtime Petters watcher Ken Avidor, is that Klobuchar is far from the only Minnesota politician to be sullied by a connection with Petters -- the list also includes Michele Bachmann, Norm Coleman, and Tim Pawlenty.

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The Strib's poll suggests you could double the number of Bills backers in MN... and Amy would still win.

According to a Star Tribune poll conducted by Mason-Dixon, Republican Kurt Bills trails incumbent U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar by a comical margin.

Conducted last week, the poll found that 57 percent of of likely voters plans to vote for Klobuchar, compared to 28 percent for Bills. In other words, Klobuchar is more than doubling up her Republican challenger. Furthermore, 60 percent of the 800 likely voters surveyed don't even know who Bills is! Ouch. (Bills' internal polling shows him trailing by a less ghastly margin of 15 percent.)

SEE ALSO:
-- Amy Klobuchar "surprised" after Kurt Bills throws Bush tax cuts under the bus [VIDEO]
-- Dave Wellstone calls Kurt Bills' homage to his father "completely disrespectful"

Bills has already received a lot of criticism from both the left and right for running a shoddy campaign. Now, he's under renewed fire for issuing two press releases this week that use sexist and derogatory language to describe Klobuchar.

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Bills won't let ideology stand in the way of sound fiscal policy, and he should probably be applauded for that.

BREAKING NEWS: Republicans don't like tax increases, whether they're a result of new legislation or simply allowing tax cuts to expire.

SEE ALSO:
-- Kurt Bills, GOP Senate candidate, says he'd support tax increase, fight Grover Norquist
-- Obama up 7 in Minnesota, Klobuchar up 19, says new poll
-- Michael Brodkorb hates Kurt Bills, wants write-in MNGOP U.S. Senate candidate

And, of course, U.S. Senate candidate Kurt Bills is a Republican. So it was surprising to see him angrily denounce the soon-to-expire George W. Bush tax cuts during a Duluth debate with Amy Klobuchar on Tuesday.


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Romney's deficit is outside the margin of error, but not by much, according to PPP.

SEE ALSO:
-- Romney has halved Obama's Minnesota lead since May, says new SurveyUSA poll
-- Pro-Romney group will air misleading 'Janesville' ad in Minnesota [VIDEO]

Barack Obama has a comfortable, if not insurmountable lead over Mitt Romney in Minnesota, according to a new Public Policy Polling survey.

"In the last three months, President Obama's lead in Minnesota has been cut in half, but he is still a clear favorite to defeat Mitt Romney in the state," says PPP's summary of the poll results. "While Obama led by 15 points (54-39) in PPP's early June survey, he now is ahead only seven (51-44) with likely voters in this fall's election." The poll's margin of error is 3.4 percent.

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Given our nearly $16 trillion in national debt, Bills doesn't think Klobuchar should be making jokes on the job.

SEE ALSO:
-- Dave Wellstone calls Kurt Bills' homage to his father "completely disrespectful"
-- David Carlson savages Kurt Bills in new ad, suggests he wouldn't have ended slavery
-- Kurt Bills' creepy Staring at the Future political film is laughably bad [VIDEO]

If "Quick Kurt" Bills is elected to the U.S. Senate, he promises to refrain from telling a single joke during a hearing until our nearly $16 trillion national debt is paid down.

Okay, Bills didn't say that, but it's the implication of his new campaign ad. The spot, entitled "I Wish You Wouldn't," takes umbrage with the fact that Amy Klobuchar had the audacity to try and make a funny during Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan's 2010 confirmation hearing. It doesn't, however, bother to explain how a Supreme Court confirmation hearing has anything to do with getting the United States back in the black.


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