Glenn Beck Pays Al Franken A Compliment (AUDIO)

Glenn Beck gave an unexpected -- albeit long-winded and backhanded -- compliment to Senator Al Franken on his radio program Wednesday morning. Beck admitted that the Minnesota Democrat was "the last senator that I thought I would ever compliment."

Beck was also careful to preface his compliment with a delicately-worded explanation of his feelings toward Franken:

"I do not agree with him, I don't like him, I don't agree with any of his policies, I do think he's a spineless weasel, however...Al Franken has not become the Alan Grayson of Congress..He has stepped to the plate and become a senator."

His astonished co-host immediately piped up to disagree.

"I don't think you're following him closely enough," said Steve (Stu) Burguiere. "I just read a couple stories the other day about him and I was like 'what an idiot, how is this guy representing anything?'"

Later in the show, Stu played clip of Franken cutting off Joe Lieberman during a health care debate on the Senate floor as proof of the senator's awfulness.

Beck seemed eager to take back his earlier compliment, and in the end the whole program seemed to come to an agreement on Franken: "He's a despicable human being," Beck concluded. "I think he's been an evil progressive, but he hasn't been a loud-mouth evil progressive...he's not Alan Grayson."

Listen:

Before he became a senator, Al Franken called on CNN to fire Glenn Beck.

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