Norm Coleman: Minister of Agitprop (Nation article)

[katinmn]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/thenation/20050723/cm_thenation/137344&printer=1;_ylt=Ao8dpQ73RKg9d2Kn4EaOdkE__8QF;_ylu=X3oDMTA3MXN1bHE0BHNlYwN0bWE-
Ari Berman
2 hours, 44 minutes ago

(Good summary of the stooge except that Coleman was mayor of St. Paul, of course, when he was still a Democrat.)

The Nation -- Minnesota Senator Norm Coleman is once again playing the coveted role of Republican Minister of Agitprop. Leading the smear campaign against Kofi Annan wasn't enough for the once-moderate Mayor of Minneapolis. Now he's been hand-picked by the Republican leadership to be one of Karl Rove's "principle defenders in Congress."

When Coleman's constituents called his office last Wednesday to complain about Rove's role in identifying CIA agent Valerie Plame to reporters, they were "met with a prepared text chalking up any of Rove's problems to simply a partisan attack by Democrats," wrote a Minneapolis Star Tribune reader. The next day, camera-hog Coleman swung into action, holding a press conference where he admonished Democrats for "sucking the oxygen out of the atmosphere of collegiality and constructive cooperation" in the Senate. "Stop the partisan attacks, let's get away from the gotcha politics of Washington," he said. Later that day, after Democrats introduced legislation to revoke Rove's security clearance, Coleman and Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist tried in vain to censor Democratic leaders Harry Reid and Dick Durbin. Irony escapes the attack dog.

At the whiff of any Republican scandal, Coleman quickly takes the lead in echoing GOP talking points. After Condeeleza Rice revealed that Bush had received a memo titled "Bin Laden determined to strike in US" a month before 9/11, Coleman defended Rice by saying: "We've got to get away from finger pointing and the blame game." A month later, Coleman blamed abuses at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison on a "small group of soldiers" and called Donald Rumsfeld's Senate testimony "contrite, candid and thorough," blindly trusting that Bush would hold high-ranking officers accountable. "This is not a time for critics," Coleman said.

L'Affair Rove, however, is especially personal for Coleman. The GOP architect enabled Coleman's ascent to the Senate (replacing the late Paul Wellstone) by persuading Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty not to run against him in the primary. Now Coleman's repaying the favor, repeating the lie that Rove was only benevolently trying to steer Time's Matt Cooper away from a bogus story. "Everyone needs to cool their rhetoric, focus on the business of the people, and allow the investigation to run its course," Zen Coleman remarked in an excerpted RNC press release.

-more-

[Oversea Visitor]

1. Nero playing the violin

While Rome burn.

[DemonFighterLives]

2. I can't take listening to or reading about that oxygen thief

He has sucked all decency out of anything he touches.
:argh: