Sen. Al Franken has found what might be considered an unlikely friend across the aisle: freshman Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky.
Franken and Paul couldn't be further apart politically. Paul plans to start the Senate Tea Party Caucus, the Senate version of Rep. Michele Bachmann's Tea Party Caucus in the lower chamber.
But in a Politico profile of Paul, the freshman Republican and Tea Party favorite says that he and Franken are hitting it off in the Senate. Franken attended Paul's reception after his swearing in, and Paul has requested Franken be his Democratic mentor (each new senator gets a Democratic and GOP mentor), Politico reported.
Franken has decided to take Paul under his wing, his office confirmed.
"I first talked to Sen. Paul after election night to congratulate him on his win, and we hit it off right away," Franken told Politico. "We had a long and very friendly conversation, and we both left the call looking forward to finding some areas of legislation we can work on together."
