Other than being mayor of a sleepy town with no parking, what qualifies Norm Coleman to be a U.S. Senator?
The fact that a majority of the voters of Minnesota cast their ballots for him? But you wouldn't know that - the only elections that leftist stooges like yourself recognize are the ones where people like Saddam Hussein and Fidel Castro get 99.9% of the "vote."
I dunno... compared to whom? Someone with magnificent personal and professional accomplishments like... Hillary Clinton? Please...
Yeesh...
Well, well: look what the cat coughed up.
Seventeen years as chief prosecutor and solicitor general of the state of Minnesota.
And it showed today. He did an excellent job of calmly and professionally handling the hearing and not taking Galloway's bait.
It clearly has you rattled.
St. Paul, MN population 821,373
Murrysville, PA population 19,109
You liberals have such a stunning command of facts and analysis.
And nobody voted for you.
"A passion for change and getting things done has defined the life of Norm Coleman from an early age. It has led him from campus organizer in the sixties, to a prosecutor in the seventies, to Solicitor General of Minnesota in the eighties, to mayor of Saint Paul in the nineties, and now to proudly representing all of Minnesota in the United States Senate.
Growing up in a large Jewish family in Brooklyn, New York, he has often said that most of his preparation for a life in politics came from sitting around the huge Coleman family kitchen table. Full-throated debate on the issues of the day and mutual goodwill were always on the menu.
In college at Hofstra University on Long Island, Norm was student body president and a student activist deeply involved in the anti-war and civil rights movements. He went to the University of Iowa Law School where he also served as student body president and graduated with highest honors. And then, drawn by a job opportunity in the office of Minnesota’s Attorney General, he headed north to take his first professional job.
He spent 17 years in the Attorney General’s office, prosecuting cases all over Minnesota and getting involved in a wide variety of public policy matters including drug abuse and civil rights.
In 1993, as a Democrat, Coleman was elected mayor of St. Paul, defeating the endorsed candidate of the Democratic Farm Labor Party. One of his very first actions as mayor was the rejection of a proposed contract with city workers because it included a huge unfunded retirement benefit liability. His action was controversial, but it saved Saint Paul tax payers tens of millions of dollars.
When he took office, the Capital City was experiencing a serious economic decline and increase in crime and other social problems. He set out to reform city services, put a lid on property tax increases and established public-private partnerships. His formula was “hope plus confidence equal investment.” He wanted to prove to the local business community that city government was a reliable partner in their shared goals for the city. His efforts paid off, with more than $3 billion of private investments in St. Paul. In 2002, then-Mayor Coleman received the U.S. Conference of Mayors’ highest award recognizing excellence in public-private partnership. <
An era of rapid change and economic improvement took hold in Saint Paul. Eighteen thousand new jobs came to the city. A new Science Museum was built. The state’s largest software developer, Lawson Software, moved its headquarters to Downtown St. Paul. Harriett Island Park and the land adjacent to the river were rehabilitated, reconnecting the city to its greatest natural asset: the Mississippi River. Increased community involvement in Saint Paul schools and law enforcement also brought measurable improvements. And finally, he engineered the return of a National Hockey League franchise to Minnesota. The nationally recognized Xcel Energy Center is now one of the premier entertainment venues in America and home to the NHL Minnesota Wild.
In 1996, Mayor Coleman made a major change. Frustrated that the Democratic party he had been a part of from his youth had assumed the role of defenders of the status quo, he switched to the Republican party because he felt it held the best opportunity to bring about job growth, quality education and greater public safety. In 1997 he was reelected mayor as a Republican, with 59 percent of the vote.
In 1998 he ran for governor and narrowly lost to Independent candidate Jesse Ventura in a three way race. At 8 AM on the day after the election, he was back at his desk in Saint Paul.
Shortly after his term as mayor ended, he entered the race for one of Minnesota’s seats in the U.S. Senate. He engaged in close and hard-fought campaign with incumbent Senator Paul Wellstone, who tragically perished in a plane crash eleven days before the election. Former Vice President Walter Mondale replaced him on the ticket. In one of the largest turnout elections in the country, Norm was elected with over 1.1 million votes and a 2 percent margin of victory. ...."