“Stuart” comes out from behind the mirror:

“Comedian and political commentator Al Franken ended a three-year stint as a talk radio host by announcing on Wednesday he will seek the Democratic nomination for the U.S. Senate seat now held by Minnesota Republican Norm Coleman.

“I’m not a professional politician. I know I’m going to make some mistakes and this is going to be the hardest thing I’ve ever done,” the 55-year-old Harvard graduate said as he closed the final broadcast of “The Al Franken Show.”

Franken’s weekday program has been a flagship of the Air America Radio network he helped launch in 2004 as a voice for the political left, but the comedian said it was time “to move on to another challenge.”

Air America, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection last October, recently reached a tentative agreement with a New York real estate investor to buy the network for $4.25 million.

“Nothing means more to me than making government work better for the working families of this state,” Franken said in a Web-posted video message to voters in Minnesota, where he grew up and became active in politics campaigning for the late Democratic Sen. Paul Wellstone, his political hero.

Franken is running for Wellstone’s old seat, which Coleman, a conservative, narrowly won in 2002 in a race against former vice president and Minnesota senator Walter Mondale after Wellstone, the incumbent Democrat, died in a plane crash.

Franken likely will face several other would-be candidates for the Democratic nomination next year.

Franken gained fame as an Emmy-winning writer and performer on NBC’s sketch comedy show “Saturday Night Live,” playing such characters as the milquetoast self-help guru Stuart Smalley, whose “daily affirmations” included the catch phrase, “I’m good enough, I’m smart enough, and doggone it, people like me.”

He skewered conservatives with books such as “Rush Limbaugh Is a Big Fat Idiot” and “Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right.”

Bidding farewell to listeners of his radio show, Franken said, “And now I’m going home to make Valentine’s Day dinner for my wife, Franni, and apologize to her in advance for the next 21 months.”

Oh please…..”skewered conservatives”, with what lies from his two “books” that have been debunked?

In your dreams Al. But what the hell, bring it on, we’re ready for you.

UPDATE: Looks like he’s already dead in the water in latest polls.

UPDATE II:¬† Howard Fineman “Al’s a friend of mine“.¬† Says a lot about the friends that Howard keeps.