Who says Minnesota politics is boring? Al Franken desperately wanted to distract voters here from his tax evasion in 17 states. He decided that throwing mud might distract Minnesotans from his own incompetence, but unfortunately, the local media decided to do their job and check out his latest ad. Result? Epic fail, Franken.

Here’s Al’s ad:

Wow … sounds damning, doesn’t it? And it has that cool Pioneer Press newspaper header to show how full of truthiness Franken’s allegations are! Well, Franken’s full of something, as WCCO discovered when fact-checking Franken:

The Star Tribune was similarly unimpressed. They checked out the story last month and discovered pretty much what WCCO found: Coleman pays $600 a month for a 10×10 room and access to a tiny bathroom. He has a wet bar with a minifridge, and he keeps his room clean. Minnesotans can breathe easier knowing Coleman makes his bed.

The Coleman campaign retorted today with this ad:

They need to trim this down to run it on TV here in Minnesota, but otherwise it’s effective. They take the opportunity to slam Franken again on taxes — Franken opened the door again — which WCCO also reported. It uses a “This is the house that Jack built” rhythm to repeatedly point out that Franken lied, which gets catchier as the spot rolls to the end.

Franken gets an F for both honesty and strategic thinking. Minnesotans aren’t going to think that $600 a month for a 10×10 room and bathroom privileges is a sweetheart deal, but they sure know what tax evasion means — and 17 states does not equal “honest mistake”.