It wasn't until he was recruited by Air America Radio that comedian and author Al Franken entertained the notion of becoming a liberal radio talk show host.

But while he was writing his most recent book, "Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right," he realized, "Somebody's got to take these guys on."

Franken revealed that motivation moments before his first Texas broadcast of "The Al Franken Show," which aired live Monday on KOKE-AM (1600) from the State Theater.

The Austin station now airs the show from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. daily, and owner Border Media Partners plans to carry it in Dallas, McAllen and San Antonio.

Franken found no shortage of Texas targets. With the aid of sidekick Katherine Lanpher and his guests, newspaper columnist Molly Ivins and former U.S. Rep. (and possible gubernatorial candidate) Chris Bell of Houston, he took on U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, under fire for alleged ethics violations; President Bush; congressional redistricting and numerous policies backed by the Bush administration.

"In Texas, our politicians are not crooks," Ivins said during one lively segment. "They just have the ethical sense of walnuts."

When Franken pointed out that it's been ages since any state was redistricted twice in one decade, Ivins cracked, "Well, we are the national laboratory for bad government."

When he said, "Let's talk about what you're angry about," she joked, "Every day, there's something else."

That led to discussion of the recent defeat of a bill to increase the minimum wage and to a statistic he said conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh used to criticize the bill.

Claiming that Limbaugh said 75 percent of minimum-wage workers are teens in their first jobs, Franken countered that the Bureau of Labor Statistics says 60.1 percent of minimum-wage earners are 20 or older.

Franken engaged in a heated go-round with the token conservative guest, John Fund, a columnist and editorial board member of The Wall Street Journal.

Franken accused Fund of "rewiring" President Franklin Roosevelt's quotes to support the Bush administration's stance regarding privatizing Social Security.

Franken may believe that he's on the air mainly to combat right-wingers, but three 23-year-olds who drove from Dallas provided another reason.

Alex Vorse said his generation is often accused of not being activist enough, but part of that is because "the news is basically like a movie. You just watch it unfold.

"We want to support organizations that will tell us enough of the story to get us involved."