ROCHESTER, Minn. – U.S. Senate candidate Al Franken took the Democratic-Farmer-Labor nomination by acclamation on Saturday, after a day of questions, speeches and fretting by some activists over whether the controversial satirist can wage a focused campaign to unseat Minnesota Republican U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman.

After being publicly and privately urged to do so, Franken tackled the issue of his sometimes sexually explicit humor head on, with the outright apology many had been waiting for.

“It kills me that things I said and wrote sent a message … that they can’t count on me to be a champion for women, for all Minnesotans. I’m sorry for that. Because that’s not who I am.”

Franken acknowledged that in his often edgy career as a comedian and entertainer, “I wrote a lot of jokes. Some of them weren’t funny. Some of them weren’t appropriate. Some of them were downright offensive. I understand that.”

Franken then deflected attention to his prospective general election opponent, Coleman, saying that “there are some people in Washington who could afford to feel a little less comfortable.”

Drawing on his strength as an acerbic critic of Republicans, Franken said that he would “stand up to Norm Coleman in a way he’s never been stood up to before. Because that’s what I’ve done and that’s what I’m good at.”

In the end, DFLers agreed with him and were preparing to endorse him on the first ballot when Franken’s rival, Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer withdrew and asked the convention to endorse Franken by acclamation.

In a passionate acceptance speech, Franken said he combined the ability to take Coleman to task while laying out a positive and hopeful vision for Democrats that would propel them to reclaim the Senate seat once held by DFL icon Paul Wellstone, who died in a 2002 plane crash.

Republicans were ready with a line of attack that pegged Franken as a “dream candidate” with flaws that would provide ample fodder for the five-month general election stretch. Republican state chairman Ron Carey said that Minnesotans would not be fooled by what he called an “eleventh hour apology made out of political necessity.”

Carey hinted broadly that the GOP would have additional revelations about Franken, who has taken a pounding in recent weeks for tax problems and for his often profane style of humor.

Franken said that further broadsides against him reflected an effort by Republicans to make the race “about anything but Norm Coleman’s record.”

Republicans, he said, “have been at this a long time. I expect them to try to distract from the real issues.”

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(c) 2008, Star Tribune (Minneapolis)

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Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

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AP-NY-06-07-08 2038EDT