Fox News anchor Geraldo Rivera says that he is “truly contemplating” running for a U.S. Senate seat in his native New Jersey. The Hill caught the comments made by Rivera on his daily syndicated radio program.

“I mention this only briefly, fasten your seatbelt,” Rivera said. “I am and I’ve been in touch with some people in the Republican Party in New Jersey. I am truly contemplating running for Senate against Frank Lautenberg or Cory Booker in New Jersey.”

He did note that he has contractual obligations to FNC and his radio syndicator, but that a run was worth looking into:

“I’m not going to drill this out, because obviously I’ve got commitments to Fox and to here at the radio program and I’m really having a great time,” he said. “But I figure at my age, if I’m going to do it I’ve got to do it.

Rivera anchors a weekend program on Fox News, and is also a correspondent for the network. He joined the channel in 2001.

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On “The O’Reilly Factor” last night, Geraldo Rivera spoke to Bill O’Reilly about the sale of Current TV to Al Jazeera, and shared a story about running into Al Gore.

The year was 2006, and Gore and comedian Al Franken (who is new Senator Franken) were in the lobby of the News Corp, building in New York. Rivera knew Gore, and had interviewed him in his prior jobs.

“I run into the vice president with Al Franken by his side, and he looks me up and down and said, ‘look where you ended up.’ As if to say to me, my goodness how could you possibly sell out to go work here for Fox News,” Rivera recalled. “And I said I am still the same guy, and the Vice President says to me in a very tsk tsk condescending way, ‘I guess you will never bite the hands that feeds you.’”

WATCH:

Minnesota Sen. Al Franken is getting the most ink this morning for his role at yesterday’s Senate Subcommittee hearing into the prposed Comcast/NBCU merger.

NBCU president Jeff Zucker and Comcast CEO Brian Roberts testified before two congressional hearings yesterday.

B&C’s John Eggerton, who live Tweeted the hearings, has a couple write-ups, including the Franken angle.

Franken, who worked with NBCU President Jeff Zucker‘s wife, Karen, at Saturday Night Live, got the pleasantries out of the way quickly, saying how much he owed NBC and how super Zucker’s wife was to work with, before taking off the gloves taking aim at the deal.

In The Washington Post, Lisa de Moraes writes:

NBC’s worst nightmare came true Thursday — the other, non-Conan nightmare — when a former NBC on-air talent/producer turned senator went off on network and Comcast suits during a Senate hearing about the proposed merger of the two media behemoths.

“I worked for NBC for many years. And what I know from my previous career has given me reason to be concerned — let me rephrase that, very concerned — about the potential merger of Comcast and NBC Universal,” said Sen. Al Franken (D-MN).

NYTimes’ Brian Stelter picks up on the comments from Zucker related to maintaining broadcasting as we know it:

Comcast has made several public interest commitments and has said that the NBC broadcast network would remain free to over-the-air viewers. Jeffrey Zucker, the chief executive of NBC Universal, said Comcast’s commitments “give me greater comfort in thinking about the future of broadcasting.”