Bachmann vs. Franken: Minnesota Pols Dish Up Rivalry at ‘Hotdish Off’

By Jordyn Phelps

ABC News

 

It can be hard to find a truly bipartisan issue on Capitol Hill these days, but the Minnesota delegation came together today for a cause dear to just about every Minnesotan: hotdish.

 

For the last three years, Sen. Al Franken has been hosting the “Annual Hotdish Off,” as a way to bring the Minnesota delegation together in a bicameral, bipartisanship way. Every member of the delegation brings along their favorite variety of hotdish, a casserole dish popular in Minnesota, consisting of some variety of starch, meat, mixed in with soup and other ingredients.

 

“It’s a very neighborly thing to do, and it’s a good excuse to get our delegation, the Minnesota delegation, both the House and the Senate, Republicans and Democrats, we like each other,” Franken told ABC News.

 

At today’s cook-off, it was also clear that the casseroles can also cook up some heated rivalries.

 

Franken recalled running into Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) in the halls of Congress recently, when Bachmann reportedly issued a hotdish threat in jest.

 

“I was over at the House meeting with the peace officers, or at the visitors’ center, and we crossed each other, and she said she was gunning for me,” Franken said, dishing up the story to the rest of the delegation in a lighthearted moment.

 

Bachmann quipped back to correct the senator, to the laughter of her fellow representatives: “What I said is: I am going to smoke you.”

 

Read the full story here.