Posted on 11/08/2002 5:13:50 PM PST by AlwaysLurking
Empty victory for a hollow man How Norm Coleman sold his soul for a Senate seat.
http://www.salon.com/politics/feature/2002/11/07/minnesota/index_np.html By Garrison Keillor
Nov. 7, 2002 | Norm Coleman won Minnesota because he was well-financed and well-packaged. Norm is a slick retail campaigner, the grabbiest and touchingest and feelingest politician in Minnesota history, a hugger and baby-kisser, and he's a genuine boomer candidate who reinvents himself at will. The guy is a Brooklyn boy who became a left-wing student radical at Hofstra University with hair down to his shoulders, organized antiwar marches, said vile things about Richard Nixon, etc. Then he came west, went to law school, changed his look, went to work in the attorney general's office in Minnesota. Was elected mayor of St. Paul as a moderate Democrat, then swung comfortably over to the Republican side. There was no dazzling light on the road to Damascus, no soul-searching: Norm switched parties as you'd change sport coats.
Norm is glib. I once organized a dinner at the Minnesota Club to celebrate F. Scott Fitzgerald's birthday and Norm came, at the suggestion of his office, and spoke, at some length and with quite some fervor, about how much Fitzgerald means to all of us in St. Paul, and it was soon clear to anyone who has ever graded 9th grade book reports that the mayor had never read Fitzgerald. Nonetheless, he spoke at great length, with great feeling. Last month, when Bush came to sprinkle water on his campaign, Norm introduced him by saying, "God bless America is a prayer, and I believe that this man is God's answer to that prayer." Same guy.
(Jesse Ventura, of course, wouldn't have been caught dead blathering at an F. Scott Fitzgerald dinner about how proud we are of the Great Whoever-He-Was and his vision and his dream blah-blah-blah, and that was the refreshing thing about Jesse. The sort of unctuous hooey that comes naturally and easily to Norm Coleman Jesse would be ashamed to utter in public. Give the man his due. He spoke English. He didn't open his mouth and emit soap bubbles. He was no suck up. He had more dignity than to kiss the president's shoe.)
Norm got a free ride from the press. St. Paul is a small town and anybody who hangs around the St. Paul Grill knows about Norm's habits. Everyone knows that his family situation is, shall we say, very interesting, but nobody bothered to ask about it, least of all the religious people in the Republican Party. They made their peace with hypocrisy long ago. So this false knight made his way as an all-purpose feel-good candidate, standing for vaguely Republican values, supporting the president.
He was 9 points down to Wellstone when the senator's plane went down. But the tide was swinging toward the president in those last 10 days. And Norm rode the tide. Mondale took a little while to get a campaign going. And Norm finessed Wellstone's death beautifully. The Democrats stood up in raw grief and yelled and shook their fists and offended people. Norm played his violin. He sorrowed well in public, he was expertly nuanced. The mostly negative campaign he ran against Wellstone was forgotten immediately. He backpedalled in the one debate, cruised home a victor. It was a dreadful low moment for the Minnesota voters. To choose Coleman over Walter Mondale is one of those dumb low-rent mistakes, like going to a great steakhouse and ordering the tuna sandwich. But I don't envy someone who's sold his soul. He's condemned to a life of small arrangements. There will be no passion, no joy, no heroism, for him. He is a hollow man. The next six years are not going to be kind to Norm.
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About the writer Garrison Keillor is the creator and host of the nationally syndicated radio show "A Prairie Home Companion," broadcast on more than 500 public radio stations nationwide. For more columns by Keillor, visit his column archive.
My brother worked for former Sen. Rudy Boschwitz (he who Wellstone defeated) in 1990. He would tell me that Boschwitz was fond of saying that if he had a nickel for every "niece" he met, he'd be a millionare. Also had Doug Bandow speak at my college, and he had some very interesting tales about some of our "best and brightest" - on both sides of the aisle.
Then you've apparently forgotten that there were several, including a member of the USSC who the 'Rats couldn't let go of the sex lives of....
Not sure what this means. Like I said I despised Wellstone's philosphy, yet I don't doubt that he truly believed in what he preached.
Wrong as he was, I don't believe he was one of the true evil ones. I'm glad he's not in the Senate, but I could never celebrate his tragic death.
I think it's this kind of good vs. evil stuff that was on display at Wellstone's memorial/rally that cost Mondale the election. There are those on the other side that are truly evil, like the Clintons. Many of the Dems have adopted the worst of the Clinton characteristics. There are some that are merely just wrong thinking. I always viewed Wellstone as one of those.
I actually think he's been married twice. First was a college sweetheart, the second was a lady from Denmark. I started getting A Prairie Home Companion shortly after he was swooning for her on the air.
He's lost his edge, certainly. In Lake Woebegon Days, he came up with one of my all time favourite lines:
"Wayne, you're so dumb you deserve to be a Democrat."
Since then he's been grasping at straws. Liberals and funny rarely go together.
Regards, Ivan
Thank you for your post which I took to be an attempt to outline the facts as you know them. It was complete in this respect and it acknowledges that you have "no hard proof" Let's compare Keillor:
Norm got a free ride from the press. St. Paul is a small town and anybody who hangs around the St. Paul Grill knows about Norm's habits. Everyone knows that his family situation is, shall we say, very interesting, but nobody bothered to ask about it, least of all the religious people in the Republican Party. They made their peace with hypocrisy long ago. So this false knight made his way as an all-purpose feel-good candidate, standing for vaguely Republican values, supporting the president.
Keillor has something to insinuate but nothing to allege "his family situation, shall we say is very interesting". What the hell is that supposed to mean? He has no proof but, rather than acknowledge that omission, he blames its absence on "religious people in the Republican Party" who are "hypocrites" for not "asking about it" and presumably providing the proof which he assures us "everyone knows" anyway.
This is a vicious kind of smear made all the more malevolent because Keillor has marketed himself as such a folksy down home way which dissarms critical analysis by unsuspecting listeners to his publicly supported radio program. His reference to "religious people in the Republilcan Party" borders on despicable anti - christian religious bigotry and should not be condoned.
Keillor is an unfortunate example of the mean spiritedness to which his pary has descended. Shame on NPR.
EPA, China, ESA, OSHA, and on and on.
A liberals wet dream.
Maybe we should let MPR and Garrison know what we think?
Hard as it may be to believe, it is actually possible, even in today's world of loose morals, to be seen eating in a restaurant with a woman not your wife, while your wife is out of town, and to not be dishonoring your spouse. I am blessed that my wife does not jump to dirty conclusions are Keillor does. It would be gross and disgusting for the "Republican Party" to "ask about" Coleman's "family situation."
However, this won't stop me from listening to APHC on the car radio. It sure beats the rest of radio nowadays.
As usual, that is the myth you libs try to pass to the public. The right cared about perjury, obstruction of justice and RAPE. That is what your guy did. Maybe he got BJ's in the oval office at the same time he was discussing using our military, but he committed crimes and got away with it.
In the case of this screed by Keillor, I read it and could conclude only that Keillor is a bitter little man. He had no point to make - - he just wanted to slime somebody.
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