UPDATE: A week after calling him a "clown," Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.) embraced new Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) on the Senate floor.
Inhofe said he and Franken "physically embraced'' in front of a number of people not long before the Minnesota Democrat took the oath of office on the Senate floor.
"He introduced me to his wife, who couldn't have been nicer,'' Inhofe said.
Of his previous comment about Franken, Inhofe said neither one brought it up. "But believe me, he knew. He kind of looked like a clown when I was talking to him."
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In an interview with Tulsa World, Oklahoma Sen. Jim Inhofe said confidently that a climate change bill wouldn't pass the Senate.
Democrats wouldn't be able to hustle up 60 votes to stop a filibuster, the Republican said. "I'll tell you what a lot of people are thinking, and that is it looks like things are going to be over and we are going to get the clown from Minnesota ... They are not going to get more than 35 votes."
Asked if he was referring to Al Franken, Inhofe confirmed that he was. "I didn't mean to be disrespectful. I don't know the guy, but ... for a living he is a clown. That's what he does for a living."
Inhofe has previously compared people who believe in global warming to Hitler's Third Reich and called "An Inconvenient Truth" a "science fiction" movie.