Voting for a Republican who will help undermine his party’s power still looks partisan.
is particularly unseemly for Garrison Keillor
btw, I never missed PHC back in the mid-80s, before GK decided to be the Scouge of SmallTown MidWesternism (turning point- the writing of LAKE WOBEGON DAYS).
At least GK is never shy about telling you where he stands. I heard a bit of a Prairie Home Companion episode on the car radio a few weeks ago, and he said that he would vote for the Democratic candidate, “even if he woofs, and eats his food from a plate on the floor.” He contrasted that with “Second Coming Republicans,” who “wouldn’t vote for a Democrat even if he descended from Heaven, accompanied by trumpets!”
Agree or disagree, those are still damned funny lines. 
Was it really true that Coleman all but called Paul a member of the Taliban before he died, then switched gears after he died and praised him?
Even if so, I don’t blame Coleman for stuff like that, I blame the nasty bussiness of politics.
It’s not politics that’s nasty, it’s politicians. And some quite a bit more than others.
If you are defining Keillor as a politican, I would agree with you.
Although the delicious irony of Garry K. criticizing someone else’s marriage is something to savor for a few seconds.
Regards,
Shodan
I knew Norm Coleman back when he was mayor of Saint Paul and actually relied on the grassroots to get him into office. Unfortunately, it was kind of an underhanded grassroots effort. He won his first election to mayor because the guy opposing him, a state senator, admitted to smoking marijuana only a few months prior to the campaign. Norm made it clear that his dope-smoking days were left in his wild-and-crazy youth. It took eight years in the mayor’s office for Norm to change from a middle of the road, slightly liberal Democrat to a middle of the road, slightly conservative Republican. The man found that his natural constituency in the city Saint Paul were the downtown businesses, moneymakers, and wheelers-and-dealers. That’s where the power lay so that’s where Norm went. It has been his defining characteristic ever since.
Before he turned Republican, Norm was a campaign stumper for a Wellstone run. An endorsement speech for Wellstone was replayed without comment by the Wellstone campaign because it stated everything so well. Paul Wellstone was a Democrat. Norm Coleman was a Democrat.
After failing to gain any influence within the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor party (he was, after all, not your model party member: fiscally conservative, mildly anti-union, and had nearly no voiced opinions on social issues), he fell into the loving arms of the GOP. What a (non)change. Norm became a bastion of ho-hum conservativism. He was not only in bed with big business but now he was also an advocate for a moderately conservative social agenda. Just the kind of Republican everybody expects.
I don’t think Norm has a natural grassroots constituency any more. After he ran for governor and lost to Jesse the Body, he started to work party politics on a national level. He was Bush’s campaign manager in the state of Minnesota and didn’t do a half-bad job (in that there was a point where Minnesota was said to be a “swing state”). Soon after Bush stole the election, the call came in from Washington. Pappy W wanted Norm in the Senate. The Minnesota GOP snapped their heals and saluted, “Yes sir, Mr. President.” The rest you know.
Frankly, Norm is the kind politician that disgusts me. I think there’s a word for it. Oh yeah… “Tool.”
Normie also converted from Judaism to Lutheranism as an obvious pander to rural conservatives who weren’t really too comfortable with voting for a Jew.
So think about it. NC has gone all the way from being a Jewish pro-choice, New York liberal to being a conservative, pro-life, Minnesota Lutheran in the space of about five years. He has now been elected to the senate for six years. what will he be by the end of his term? A Socialist Buddhist? A Green party Sikh? I can’t pin down a single core value to attribute to the man. He is simply space for rent. He is smarm with a suit on. He is utterly artificial.
Keillor is right about one thing, Jesse Ventura would have sooner sawed his own legs off than suck up to GWB (or ANY president) as shamelessly as Coleman has. (One can hardly imagine a more obsequious remark than Coleman’s cringe-inducing assertion that Shrub has been “chosen by God” to lead the country. Ribbit, ribbit, little toady.) He is now heavily indebted to the Bushies for his shiny new senate seat. Without Cheney’s heavy-handed interference in the nomination process, aggressive campaigning by GOP heavyweights in Minnesota and the death of Paul Wellstone Normie would be looking for a real job right now. When pressed for ANY policy issue on which Coleman would oppose Bush he has come up with only two milktoast examples (trade with Cuba, drilling in Alaska. The latter is something he once supported, and doubtlessly will support again once Shrub “convinces” him of its importance to the country.)
I know more about this guy that I can’t post on a BB, but suffice it to say that GK was being extremely gentle about the “personal life” stuff.
Are you sure? Many sources are reporting that he is Jewish. E.g., The Forward (a Jewish newspaper) wrote
Jewish Virtual Library includes him in their list of Jewish Members of Congress.
I’ve been googling the crap out of this but I can’t find anything. I was basing my statement on a local television interview where he talked about “accepting Christ as his saviour,” at least, I could have SWORN I saw that interview. I don’t think I dreamed it, but now I can’t find anything to back up the conversion story. If it’s not true then I apologize, I must have been hallucinating.
All I saw in Keillor’s screeds, other than his vehemence, was a claim that Coleman is an unprincipled and opportunistic politician. Hardly separates Normie from the pack, though, does it?