Democrat Al Franken, who has kept a generally low profile as the battle for Minnesota's U.S. Senate seat has ground on, will surface Saturday on the Air America radio network, where he once was a talk-show host.

In an interview with Mark Green, the network's president, Franken expresses frustration about the length of the fight with Republican Norm Coleman.

"Well, Frannie and I Iook at each other at night, usually right before we go to bed, and go like: 'How long is this gonna go on?' But, it really looks now that it's going to get resolved in my favor, and soon, and so I'm actually excited to get there. So that sort of overcomes the frustration," he said in a transcript provided by Air America.

He compared his old career as a satirist and radio host with his hoped-for new job.

"On Air America, part of the three hours a day is debunking the right and that kind of thing. But, when you're faced with actually trying to help folks, you know, the past couple of days I've been going around talking to mayors in Duluth and Two Harbors, Minnesota, the mayor of Champlain, the mayor of St. Paul, the mayor of Rochester, county commissioners, etc., trying to figure out how they can get access to the stimulus package, and what they need.

"That's seems much more productive than trying to listen to Rush Limbaugh or Bill O'Reilly and hear what they think about me. Actually, that was one of the nicest things that happened to me once I left the radio show -- I stopped paying attention to them."

Franken also described his original decision to take on Coleman.

"This is right before I announced in December 2006," he said. "I'm weighing this, and I'm thinking, like: 'Oh, what a tremendous burden on my family. This is going to be a couple years of me not having any income.' Then there's a risk to it, and my reputation. And I'm in Iraq [with the USO] with all these guys and women who're there for their third tour, and their families are half a world away and totally anxious every day ... So, I said I'm going to do this

In the context of President Obama's recent stabs at bipartisanship and the closeness of the Senate race, Franken says he'll work with Republicans if he wins the seat.

"Now, if every Republican in the House is going to vote against eve ything and then throw a party afterwards, then I don't know what to do about that," he said. "Certainly the Senate is a different thing, a different kind of body. My intention when I go there, and Mark, you know, I'm in this recount because I only got 42% of the vote. So did Norm Coleman."