Guest post by Scott Hopkins
Just when you thought the Minnesota Senate race couldn’t get any weirder…
In a new television ad and on the campaign trail Saturday, Republican U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman blamed his DFL challenger, Al Franken, for orchestrating an “11th-hour attack” connected to a lawsuit alleging that a top Coleman donor funneled money to Coleman’s wife. That prompted a heated denial from Franken, who said: “Senator Coleman looks the people of Minnesota in the eye and lies.” Coleman offered no proof Saturday of a connection between the lawsuit, which was filed by a Republican businessman in Texas last week, and either Franken or anyone in the Democratic Party.
But in a TV ad that began airing Saturday, Coleman, seated on a couch next to his wife, Laurie, looks directly into the camera and says, “This time Al Franken’s crossed the line. … I’m fair game for his ugly smears. My wife and family are not.”
Within an hour, Franken abruptly canceled an appearance at a campaign rally in Minneapolis to hustle over to a DFL Party news conference, where he denied the accusations and called Coleman’s remarks “insulting to voters.”
Who can really blame Franken for being flabbergasted? And yet, considering it’s not the only lawsuit filed, maybe we shouldn’t expect anything less from Coleman.
The lawsuit filed Monday alleges that a top Coleman donor, businessman Nasser Kazeminy, steered $75,000 from a Houston company that he has a majority interest in to a Minneapolis insurance company that employs Laurie Coleman as an independent contractor. A second lawsuit was filed Friday by minority shareholders in the Houston marine company. Both lawsuits allege Kazeminy said he wanted to provide financial help to the Colemans through an insurance-consulting arrangement between Deep Marine Technology Inc. and Hays Insurance Co.
The polls are neck and neck, but Franken can definitely win with some help from Obama’s coattails and a great ground game. Norm Coleman represents the worst of the Republican party. It’s time to send him packing and put a proud progressive back in Paul Wellstone’s Senate seat.
The final debate is tonight, and it could prove decisive.
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