There is nothing that gets conservative juices flowing like a post on Al Franken. Despite trailing Senator Norm Coleman from the begining Franken has now edged ahead in a recent University of Wisconsin poll. From the Post:

Just weeks ago, Coleman appeared to be headed for victory, one of a handful of Republicans expected to win in a tough year for the GOP. But then a bad economy turned grim, the public’s faith in Congress cratered, and support for Franken started to grow. The latest poll, a University of Wisconsin survey that came out Thursday, showed Franken ahead of Coleman 40 percent to 34 percent, his biggest lead of the race. Independent Dean Barkley was favored by 15 percent of those surveyed.

With the race tightening and the Democrats now having a realistic chance of hitting sixty votes in the Senate the alarm bells are going off in G.O.P. land. The United States Chamber of Commerce has moved aggressively on this race, pouring in millions to stop Franken. From the Post:

Officials at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, fearful of a union-friendly Democratic Senate, have dubbed the race “ground zero” in the effort to stop a 60-seat majority. The chamber and its affiliates have spent more than $3 million on ads designed to scare voters about Franken and Democrats, according to sources on both sides.

Norm Coleman’s lead has evaporated along with the Bush Presidency and the McCain candidacy, as he battles tailwinds that are destroying the Republicans nationwide.

But Coleman is struggling to get that message through the anti-Republican mood among Minnesota voters, particularly since the financial markets collapsed and he supported the $700 billion rescue plan. Franken was opposed to the bailout and rails against it on the stump.

In conservative Glencoe, the type of town where Republicans need to do well to offset Democratic strength in cities, Coleman faced heated questions about the bailout. “If I lose this race, it’s because of the American economy and voting for a rescue package,” he said afterward.

At several stops Monday, Coleman did not mention his party’s presidential nominee, Sen. John McCain. A poll this week showed McCain trailing Sen. Barack Obama by almost 20 points in Minnesota. And the only sign of President Bush was a Franken staffer wearing a Bush mask outside a Coleman event in Redwood Falls in southwestern Minnesota, an ever-present attempt by the Democrat’s campaign to remind voters of Coleman’s once-close ties to the White House.

Naturally the money invested here is buying ads, and they are getting tough. Here posted is the latest exchange between Coleman and Franken. Could the first decade in the new century actually be “the Al Franken decade”? For conservatives this thought may be even worse than the idea of eight years of the Obama Administration.