OCTOBER 31, 2008
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Lawsuits! Shady associates! Dirty money! It's very hard
to keep track of what the hell's been going on in these final days of
the Norm Coleman-Al Franken showdown in Minnesota, so here's a little
cheat sheet for you to keep track.
- Rentgate: This was the first of Coleman's several election-season scandals. In June, National Journal reported
that Coleman was living in the Capitol Hill basement apartment of a
powerful Minnesota BFF of his, telemarketing maven Jeff Larson, once described as
"perhaps the most powerful GOP operative nationwide." Coleman was
paying $600 a month, less than the former nursery I rented in a
decaying flophouse when I first moved to Washington as an intern, and
was several months delinquent in his rent. (He sold Larson some
furniture to make up for it.)This one fizzled, but was briefly revived
when Larson was revealed to be the fashionista behind Sarah Palin's
$150,000 Neiman Marcus purchases. - Suitgate: In early October, Ken Silverstein of Harper's alleged
that another big-dollar buddy of Coleman's, Iranian-American
businessman Nasser Kazeminy, was in the habit of dressing Coleman in
fancy suits from Neiman Marcus (the same Minneapolis Neiman Marcus, as
it happens, where $75,063 of the offending Palin duds were purchased! Oh, what a tangled web!).
Kazeminy, a "reclusive" businessman and Bob Dole pal who primarily
lives in a $19 million Palm Beach mansion, was a longtime bankroller --
along with his family members, who all prolifically donate to the same
causes -- of Coleman's political career: The Kazeminys have donated at least $119,800
to Coleman over the years, including a one-time $45,000 deposit into
Coleman's PAC before soft money was outlawed, and sprung for trips to
Paris, Jordan, and elsewhere on Nasser's private jet. A few suits isn't
much compared to $120 grand, but Coleman hadn't disclosed any such
gifts, which, if he did receive the suits, counts as pulling a Ted Stevens.
Coleman finally pseudo-denied the allegation, but only after four days of humiliating, Talmudic non-denials, including a painful press conference
in which his forlorn secretary responded to reporters' specific
questions with the same odd mantra, "the senator has reported every
gift he's ever received," twelve times. - Kazeminy-gate:
Uh oh, Kazeminy came back! This one's the creepiest-sounding Coleman
scandal, and, if true, the worst. This week, Houston businessman Paul
McKim, formerly the CEO of an oil-rig servicing company half-owned by
Nasser Kazeminy, introduced a lawsuit
accusing Kazeminy of -- get this -- forcing him to funnel $75,000 to
Coleman through the Minnesota insurance firm she works at. Juicy
detail: McKim alleges that Kazeminy told the oil-rig servicing
company's CFO that "U.S. senators don't make [expletive deleted]" and
that was why he was ordering payments to the Minnesota firm. On the
dirty-trick side of the evidentiary ledger: Its too-perfect timing, as
well as rumors flying around that the suit has been or will be
withdrawn (as of this writing, it still stands). On the this-is-legit
side: McKim is apparently a Republican donor, not a Democrat; he's retained serious Houston counsel (unlike, say, Obama tormentor Larry Sinclair, whose disbarred, kilt-wearing lawyer did not cast, er, a respectable sheen on his lawsuit); and Coleman initially reacted fearfully to the suit, briefly cancelling some campaign stops.
Where there's smoke coming out of more than one window, there's probably fire.
But
what's the most infuriating thing about all this? Despite the avalanche
of weird news about Coleman, the race is still tight, with Franken
running behind Obama in the state. Yesterday, the Intrade betting
market was down sharply on Franken's chances of unseating
Coleman, giving him just over a 50% shot at a win. Besides some
damaging ethics stories of his own on the tax front, I guess that
doggone it, people just don't like Franken.
Meanwhile, Coleman's now trying to gin up some distractions of his own: Yesterday, he announced he was suing Franken for defamation in one of the comedian's negative ads. So much for Coleman's Yom Kippur resolution to keep the race positive.
--Eve Fairbanks
12 comments
What is infuriating about the race is mostly that it is a race. If the DFL had come up with a candidate not having the sizable and obvious negative baggage that comes with nominating a political satirist, Coleman would be dead meat. In stead, Franken will at best squeak out a little victory in what should have been a walk.
- sdemuth
October 31, 2008 at 2:54pm
These two are extremely unattractive candidates. To know them is to loathe them. What a bizarre election, many Republicans will be holding their noses as they vote for Coleman, and just as many Democrats will be pinching their schnozes as they vote for Franken.
And then there's Michele Bachmann....
- fougasseu
October 31, 2008 at 2:58pm
Please people, do not lose faith. This is, after all "The Al Franken Decade."
- dhuey0
October 31, 2008 at 3:18pm
A truly loathesome piece. Franken indeed has "some damaging ethics stories of his own on the tax front", but "doggone it" why get into that. The bloggers can fling around dreck like this, but a professional journalist?
- lsernoff
October 31, 2008 at 3:29pm
Heard from my loser kid brother last night. I don't even talk politics with him, because he's never previously expressed any particular interest in voting, and he spews all kinds of rightwing talk radio bile when we do talk about current events. I'm tired of hearing him spout off about wetbacks stealing jobs and so on, so I just avoid politics entirely around him.
Anyway, loser kid brother wanted to find out what I thought about Dean Barkley, because loser kid brother was really, really fired up about voting against Norm Coleman. I told him I like Barkley just fine, and reminded him that he had briefly succeeded Paul Wellstone in that Senate seat, and I might vote for him if I lived in Minnesota -- but if my first priority were defeating Coleman, then I'd vote for Franken. Loser kid brother was completely versed in all of the Coleman scandals, and called him "a stuffed suit with a George W. Bush mask," and said he was excited to vote for Obama too just to stick it to the Republicans for the way they stuck it to America. (Which is enlightened discourse by loser kid brother's standards.)
Just made me think: Wow. If loser kid brother is that informed and enthused, and if he's at all representative of his cohort (talk-radio-listening working-poor white twenty-something males), maybe I'm overly worried about the outcome Tuesday.
- rhubarbs
October 31, 2008 at 3:34pm
FRIDAY'S MINI-REPORT.... Today's edition of quick hits: * The good news is the Dow finished up about 144 points for the day. The bad news is the Dow lost 14% of its value for the month, making October 2008 among...
- Anonymous
October 31, 2008 at 5:30pm
In response to the comments of sdemuth and fougasseau, the failure of the Democratic Party to come up with a solid candidate to run against Coleman is indicative of a much broader problem for the Democrats in Minnesota than this race. The Minnesota DFL has done a horrible job of grooming candidates, and had no alternative to Franken. Although I have been impressed by Franken and think he is a much better candidate than either sdemuth and fougasseau, he is flawed candiate, both because he has no political experience and because his comedy offends the more puritanical members of the electorate. Coleman was/is extremely vulnerable. He has neither personal nor intellectual integrity (see above and history as opportunistic party switcher), and has been a complete Bush tool. It would be a shame if Minnesota voters do not hold him accountable. By the way, I know Barkely personally, and have worked on his campaigns in the past. He is a good guy, and would be a good senator. He simply cannot win, and a vote for Barkley leaves us one vote stolen from the goal of removing Coleman. I am voting for Franken.
- scdrawe
October 31, 2008 at 6:54pm
Long time reader, first time poster.
I've had the terrible misfortune of living in Minnesota through this ugly, idealism-draining senate campaign. Having finally reached the end of this, it's impossible to argue with sdemuth on his 'flawed candidate' argument. As much as liberals love Al in the land of 10,000 lakes, moderates (even moderate Democrats) do not. The 'angry and partisan' reputation Franken carries has proven difficult to shake.
Look forward to debating with all of you out in cyberspace.
p.s. The MCTC2020 stands for Minneapolis Community and Technical College- of which I am the editor of said college's school newspaper: citycollegenews.com
- mctc2020
October 31, 2008 at 10:19pm
I too live in Minnesota, and I too haven't found it an edifying campaign. Coleman is exactly the weasel he's here portrayed as. But Franken wasn't a candidate who had obvious suitability as a candidate in Minnesota, despite having grown up (I think) in the Jewish neighborhoods in the west Mpls suburbs. He received a stiff challenge from a local professor whose radical politics, once spewed everywhere by the GOP attack machine, would have been fatal. I don't think Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer was going to be the second coming of Paul Wellstone.
I'll hold my nose and vote for Franken. But the Barkley candidacy's success in the polls shows how dissatisfied many are with the choices presented by the establishment.
The poster above who criticized the DFL for its failure to nurture a suitable candidate is on the money. A state that has produced senatorial talent on the level of McCarthy (Eugene, of course), Hubert Humphrey, and Walter Mondale, hasn't been doing so well lately (I exempt Klobuchar, who looks promising). The party is still suffering from the narcissistic ills that ailed the national party for too long. But we haven't had a Clinton or an Obama to turn the ship around: a combination of holdover sectarian liberal dogmatism, along with a sclerotic infrastructure.
- mjhollerich
November 1, 2008 at 4:04am
The DFL has come up with exactly two strong candidates for statewide office in the last 30 years--Paul Wellstone and Amy Klobuchar. Both were phenomena unto themselves and neither ascended throught the party structure. The last gubenatorial election is a good example. The two strongest candidates for the DFL nomination were Steve Kelly and Mike Hatch. (Disclaimer: My wife worked on Kelly's campaign, and considers him a friend.) Kelly was a good candidate, and I believe would have beaten Pawlenty. Hatch had risen through the DFL ranks, and the DFL power structure handed the nomination to him. Even the most superficial political observer should have known that Hatch was an ill-tempered asshole who would ultimately self-destruct under the pressure of a high profile political campaign,which he ultimatly did, leavig us with 4 more years of Pawlenty. A strong party does not allow assholes to ascend through the system to run for statewide office. Pawlently won the election because the Republicans cultivated a likeable candidate, and he won even though his policies were and remain unpopular. Until the Democratic party learns to develop and market strong candidates instead of leaving these things to chance, we will have a weak and inconsistent slate.
- scdrawe
November 1, 2008 at 9:55am
Coleman is a trip. He was a smooth, silver-tongued Democrat before he switched to becoming a smooth, silver-tongued Republican. He is personally repulsive, and everyone in Minnesota talks about, but won't write about, his "unusual" marriage. Let's just say he's Clintonian in more ways than one.
Franken makes Palin look like Churchill. He's never held public office, never run a company, never met a payroll, and has a habit of forgetting to pay his taxes. He's famous for being famous, a professional jokester. This is what the Democrats did to us this year. They couldn't find one respectable candidate. They went for a clown with great name recognition and the ability to raise a lot of cash.
I've been to his fundraisers. He's got the ego of Churchill, if not the experience. He claims to channel Paul Wellstone. He's a real ass: Aloof, condescending, with a wide, moronic grin.
So....Democrats will vote for him. Independents? Unlikely. Obama will probably get this creep elected. And he will then become a thorn in his side. He's going to be a hard-left, headline-grabbing, media-obsessed whore, accomplishing nothing for Minnesota.
Still, better a Democrat creep than a Republican creep. Maybe Klobuchar can whip him into shape.
- fougasseu
November 1, 2008 at 10:21am
Electoral guru Stu Rothenberg has offered up his final House prediction : Democrats could capture Republican
- Anonymous
November 3, 2008 at 5:27pm