Noted Harvard alum, shrill lefty, and pugilist Al Franken has already declared his intent to run for the Minnesota Senate seat once occupied by his deceased friend Paul Wellstone, but Republican incumbent Norm Coleman isn't making it easy for him. According to a website sympathetic to Coleman, Franken has been fined $25,000 by the state of New York for not carrying workmen's compensation insurance for nearly three years.

The fine has technically been levied against Al Franken, Inc., a corporation he established to receive payments for speeches, royalty checks from TV appearances, and other assorted pundit-related endeavors. (Being a talking head is evidently good business: according to a financial disclosure form he filed with the Senate, Franken is worth between $4.3 million and $9.9 million.)

A Franken board spokesperson claims that the non-payment might be the result of a "clerical mistake," but that if Franken really didn't cover the cost, he will pay the fine. Given that the corporation was essentially a shell that employed only one or two employees at a time (and often none), we're thinking the fine is probably a tad higher than he actually would have owed had he not chosen to ignore the letters sent by the Workers' Compensation Board to his New York address.