Talking Points Memo takes a look at Fox News' reaction to their mortal enemy Al Franken being elected to the senate…

Sen.-elect Al Franken's (D-MN) long-awaited victory in the 2008 Minnesota Senate race seems to have caused quite a lot of stress in the Murdoch-owned press.

Remember, this is the same corporation that sued him for his Lies And The Lying Liars Who Tell Them book back in 2003, with the unintended consequence of giving him tons of free publicity to sell books — and elevating him into being a hero of liberal activists, without which he might never have become a politician!

I hadn't even considered that! So, Bill O'Reilly, Rupert Murdoch and Fox News are in some very real sense — especially considering how small a margin the final tally was — directly responsible for Al Franken's new job opportunity?

That almost makes having Al Franken as a U.S. senator worth it.

Responding to allegations that he has been using his anchor perch to infect his convention coverage with liberal commentary, Keith Olbermann is taking the gloves off and smacking them back and forth across Tom Brokaw's cheeks.

At a forum on Sunday, when Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell called MSNBC "the official network of the Obama campaign," Brokaw said, "I think Keith has gone too far. I think Chris has gone too far."

Insiders say Olbermann is pushing to have Brokaw banned from the network.

In related news, the Provincetown Players have announced that Liev Schreiber "is not welcome" to appear in their fall production of "Talk Radio," and the Clark, IA Chamber of Commerce is pushing to have Michael Phelps banned from the community pool.

What the hell?

Rupert Murdoch — the Australian bazillionaire uber-conservative and Chairman of News Corp, which owns Fox News — almost sounded like he was endorsing Barack Obama for president while he was speaking at a conference last night…

"He is a rock star. It's fantastic." "I love what he is saying about education." "I don't think he will win Florida…..but he will win in Ohio and the election." "I am anxious to meet him." "I want to see if he will walk the walk."

I keep reading the words over and over again, but it never makes any more sense.

Well, maybe he's just saying nice things about all the candidates. Just in case…

"McCain is a friend of mine. He's a patriot. But he's unpredicatble. Doesn't seem to know much about the economy. He has been in Congress a long time, and you have to make a lot of compromises. So what's he really stand for?… I think he has a lot of problems."

I'm getting scared now.

Oh, wait a minute! I know what happened. The liberal bloggers must have gotten to him.

I would love to know how many self-described liberals have shame-bated to this way-too-photorealistic rendering of Ann Coulter in panties and high heels from the new My Wall Street Journal, the parody paper that News Corp CEO Rupert Murdoch has reportedly been trying to make disappear.

Just like the real Wall Street Journal's credibility.

"This guy comes by all the time to bring promotional stuff for The Wall Street Journal — bags, coin trays, stickers," [newsstand worker] Mr. Laurence said.

Sure enough, they found what he was looking for. "He grabbed them all, said, 'I need to buy all of these,'" Mr. Laurence said. "He had been going around to different stands, buying them."The man paid with a corporate American Express card. "

At first he's saying they have to make a correction or it's not supposed to be out yet," Mr. Metz said. "But then he said these are not published by The Wall Street Journal."

Aw, that's sweet. Sounds like Rupert Murdoch's trying to support this journalistic upstart, which includes contributions from The Onion's Todd Hanson, Andy Borowitz, Monty Python's Terry Jones and Indecision 2008 contributing writer Jeff Kreisler.

Or he just really likes that picture of Ann Coulter.

• Dennis Kucinich gets Forbes support as most Kooky-Wacky.

• Hillary Clinton just wants to give Rupert Murdoch's money a decent home.
• John McCain says all his supporters just on vacation from news.
• Many wonder if Fred Thompson lacks the intolerance needed to be President.
• If only Mike Huckabee had money, support, a chance…