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.
Those of us who live in Minnesota would disagree with the assertion that the press gave him a pass.
Norm is no Jim Talent, but he is certaintly better than MonDull, or Welstone or even Trent Lott for that matter.
The religious faction in the Republican party here are generally Christians. Norm is Jewish, just like Wellstone (as was Rudy Boschwitz.)
Coleman's wife, Laurie, is an actress and as I understand it, lives part time in California. They've been married 21 years.
Check your own mirror, Garrison, for a look at an ...'interesting family situation.'
I disagree with your statement. While I will admit that I don't KNOW that many people, the fact is - those that I do know put no credence in what Keillor pontificates.
If you look at Keillor's fan base, you will find that he's much more popular on the Coasts than in "fly-over country". Thankfully, Minnesotans realized long ago that Keillor is a self-serving blowhard.
Moore is a Michigander, sorry to say. He's probably happier thatn a dog with 2 peters that Granholm was elected Governor here.
The upside of her win is that Ted Nugent announced earlier that if she won, he would run agaiinst her in 2004.
This really pisses me off. Here's Garrison Keillor, whose objection to Norm Coleman is supposed to be that he sold his soul. To whom, Garrison? National Public Radio, perhaps?
What errant bullshit. A man runs and wins as a Republican and this guy starts going on about a man's soul. As if he has a pipeline to God.
Liberals: Arrogant as hell. Dumb as dirt.
Be Seeing You,
Chris
You have a way with words.
Keep it up!
Actually, he was booed at the DFL convention. He was always fighting the more extreme leftists in the DFL. In essense, he burned his bridges by not falling in line with group-think of the DFL. The Republican Party was the only viable career path at that point. He ran as Republican for his second term as mayor of St. Paul, and won as a Republican.
Philosophically he fit better in the Republican party, as the DFL pretty much indicated they didn't want to hear his views.
Dumb me. I had thought that when he makes jokes on his show about what people eat in St. Paul restaurants, he was, well, joking.
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