DFL Senate candidate Al Franken is taking dead aim at what he sees as Sen. Norm Coleman's strategy of burying the campaign's substantive issues beneath personal attacks on Franken's comedic past.

In a TV ad released Thursday, a serious-looking Franken in coat and tie states that instead of the "real debate" that Minnesotans expect, Coleman "and his allies are attacking me for things I said as a comedian.

"Look," Franken says. "I'm not proud of every joke I've ever told. But I know there's a difference between what you say as a comedian and what you do as a U.S. senator."

As a picture of Coleman and President Bush appears on the screen, Franken says that his Republican opponent has supported the war in Iraq and received millions of dollars in contributions from "Big Oil and special interests. Unfortunately, that's no joke."

The Coleman campaign lost no time in firing back. In a statement released Thursday night, Coleman campaign manager Cullen Sheehan said that "Minnesotans are not going to be fooled by a 30-second commercial trying to cover up a 30-year record."

Franken began working as a comedy writer for "Saturday Night Live" in the 1970s and over the years has written numerous skits, books, articles and movies.

Excerpts from some of them have raised eyebrows during the campaign, particularly an X-rated parody about a virtual sex institute he wrote for Playboy in 2000 and a skit involving an imagined rape that he pitched during a TV brainstorming session in the 1990s.

That material, along with Franken's personal financial stumbles, is at the center of a recent Coleman TV ad. Three bowlers mull over the DFLer's insurance and tax problems and "tasteless, sexist jokes," and decide that they're just as qualified as Franken to run for the U.S. Senate.

Franken campaign spokesman Andy Barr said the race is about Coleman's Senate record and "which candidate will be able to address the issues. If we're the only candidate talking about them, it makes a pretty good case that Al's the only candidate who will address them."

Kevin Duchschere • 612-673-4455