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Al Franken's Radio Partner Splits

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Are things coming unraveled over at Air America?

Last Friday, Al Franken's radio partner Katherine Lanpher abandoned ship, explaining that she had to leave the show because she snagged a book deal.

Announcing Lanpher's departure last week, Air America's web site said that her book would be a "memoir of her move to New York" - a move she made to co-host Franken's show in the first place.

"Her deadline in mid-January is unusually aggressive and necessitates an almost immediate departure," the message insisted. It was signed, "The Staff of The Al Franken Show."

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  Lanpher's final broadcast was filled with tributes from some of her favorite guests - but co-host Franken decided to bug out early, insisting he had a plane to catch.

A veteran of Minnesota public radio, Lanpher was brought on board when the network launched to help Franken make the transition to live radio.

Earlier this year, Franken himself said he was considering leaving the airwaves to pursue his dream of running for a U.S. Senate seat in Minnesota, his home state.

While there's no apparent connection to Lanpher's departure, the troubled network has recently come under investigation by the New York State attorney general's office over an $875,000 loan obtained under suspicious circumstances from a local social service organization.

Lanpher's abrupt leave-taking left listeners perplexed. In a post to the comments section of the network's web site, one Franken show fan wrote:

"I hope someday, maybe in a later book, Katherine comes clean about why she left. The whole, 'I need to leave to write a book' reeks of manufactured credibility. For a station that continually takes swipes at Fox broadcasting for not being completely up front, it seems Air America has an awful lot it likes to 'diplomatically' relabel."

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