Coleman: "..."I'm here. I'm accessible. I care,"..."

[SoCalDem]

I HOPE Al's people know what they're doing...



http://www.startribune.com/politics/national/senate/38677557.html?elr=KArks8c7PaP3E77K_3c::D3aDhUxWoW_oD:EaDUiD3aPc:_Yyc:aULPQL7PQLanchO7DiU

Coleman went to court, Franken went to Florida; How do you get to D.C.?

As Minnesota's U.S. Senate drama unfolds in a St. Paul courtroom, Norm Coleman has been a prominent presence while Al Franken has stayed off stage.

By MIKE KASZUBA, Star Tribune

Last update: January 29, 2009 - 11:48 PM


As a coatless Norm Coleman trudged through the snow Thursday morning in St. Paul, making his way to the fourth day of the U.S. Senate recount trial, Al Franken had already begun a weeklong vacation in balmy Key West.

"I'm here. I'm accessible. I care," Coleman said as he headed for his customary seat in the courtroom next to his lawyers.

Since the trial began Monday, Coleman, a Republican, has been a fixture in the courthouse, holding brief news conferences, checking his voice mails during recesses and holding a food tray in a state cafeteria as he lunches with his attorneys. His presence as a three-judge panel determines his political fate -- along with appearances like his interview this week with conservative Fox News host Sean Hannity -- suggests Coleman has decided that earnest visibility may help him in the never-ending image duel against Democrat Franken.

It is a contrast with Franken, who has not attended the trial and who, according to his campaign, flew with his wife Wednesday for a Florida vacation. Campaign officials said Franken has not been glued to a video feed of the often-tedious trial, had no plans to attend and instead receives regular updates from his lawyers.

In a variety of subtle ways, the Franken campaign has tried to portray Franken's installation in the U.S. Senate as inevitable -- and the trial now taking place a formality that is Coleman's doing, not theirs. One of Franken's attorneys on Thursday referred to Franken as the "senator-elect." Franken spokeswoman Jess McIntosh added that "when people call Al 'Senator,' he corrects them. It happened all the time," she said, when Franken was recently in Washington, D.C.


snip....

[tavalon]

1. Public to Coleman: "We don't care. Shut up and go away! Loserman!"

[Frank Cannon]

2. Of course he's there. WTF else does he have to do?

He's unemployed, for crying out loud.

[ogneopasno]

3. Look, Franken won. The burden of proof is on Coleman. And frankly, it's quite a burden.

[Morning Dew]

4. Coleman cares

about Coleman.

[treestar]

5. I'm here and accessible in my state, and I care

I do not seem to have been elected to the Senate, though.