Senator Al Franken: ‘I Hate Ted Cruz’

via Twitter

After winning a very tight race for a Minnesota Senate seat in 2008, Al Franken hunkered down and got serious for the first time in his life. The former “Saturday Night Live” writer, cast member, and star of “Stuart Saves His Family” rarely did any national interviews and appeared all business to his fellow senators. But after winning re-election in 2014, Franken began to lighten up a little and is ready to dish in his new book satirically titled, Al Franken: Giant of the Senate.

In his new book, Franken takes dead aim at Republican Senator and 2016 presidential candidate, Ted Cruz. “You have to understand that I like Ted Cruz probably more than my colleagues like Ted Cruz,” Franken told USA Today, “and I hate Ted Cruz.” Franken has even dedicated an entire chapter to Cruz entitled “Sophistry.” In the excerpt below, tweeted by Jonathan Tilove from The Austin American Statesmen, Franken recalls a time when fellow Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar attempted to write a joke about Cruz for a speech:

via Twitter

Although protocol dictates that Senators refrain from discussing private discussions in public, Franken feels fine about violating the rule when it comes to Cruz. “He is the exception to the rule in the book, which is there’s protocol in the Senate of not writing about a conversation you’ve had with someone and reporting it where it would make them look bad,” Franken said, “but because Ted broke that protocol and called Mitch McConnell a liar on the floor, I felt like, ‘Well, OK!’ ”

Al Franken: Giant of the Senate comes to bookstores on May 30th.