Norm Watch

[dflprincess]

Wondering what Minnesota's junior senator has been up to? Check out this thread to see the weasel's latest effort for Bushco:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=504667#506882

[PeteC]

1. Knucklehead

Hearing that guy's voice just hurts. Thinking about who's seat he's sitting in hurts more.

[trotsky]

2. I demand an apology.

There is no way a mild term like "knucklehead" should be used to describe the Teeth from Brooklyn. In the future, please try to use profanity. ;-)

[northernsoul]

3. aaargh! Can't this guy just go back to accosting women

and leave the American People alone?

no offense to the women who've survived being propositioned by The Teeth From Brooklyn - I salute your restraint in not strangling the weasel on the spot.

[keep_left]

4. What's the story about Norm's "propositioning of women"?

I know that his personal life must be pretty screwed up, as his "wife" was out in LA for years and they never saw each other. And I kept hearing rumors about him, confirmed in an oblique way in an editorial that Garrison Keillor wrote. Then Coleman's kids were living not with him, but with the grandparents.

I think the Keillor piece was triggered by a very sanctimonious 11th-hour ad campaign that Coleman ran, positioning himself as a "family values" candidate, and even getting his daughter to star in the ad. Keillor just went off about the level of hypocrisy involved, as I recall. I just wish I had saved that article!

[Morning Dew]

5. Does anyone have a pic

of Norm in his draft card burning days?

[keep_left]

6. Dennis Bernstein (KPFA "Flashpoints") does...

Franken was on his show a while back. In the interview, the topic of Coleman came up; Franken was talking about how it had been suggested that he run against Coleman. Bernstein mentioned that he and Coleman both went to Hofstra, and that he had pictures of Coleman that were less than flattering (i.e. Coleman's campus radical days).

[Morning Dew]

7. Thanks

I used to run across one now and again - City Pages, maybe?

Been looking on the web and haven't lucked into a decent one yet.

[no name no slogan]

8. I saw one in the Strib a few years ago

It was a picture of a long-haired Normie lighting up a fatty during some sort of student action at Hofstra in 1970. And it looked like he was inhaling, too :smoke:

[Morning Dew]

10. yeah - that's it !

that's the one I gotta find.

[suegeo]

11. What has his wife acted in?

I read somewhere that the tuna sandwich's wife was an actress. What's she been in? Just curious.

[Supormom]

13. Laurie Coleman

had a small role as a receptionist on NBC's short-lived drama about the drug trade. (I can't remember the name) Rumor was that she received the job as a reward for dropping her plans to divorce Norm before the 2002 election. The producer of the show is a republican.
So much for the rumor mill.
Wish I could give you a link, but it's been almost two years.

[Zookeeper]

14. Feeding the rumor mill...

Someone very close to me has heard many stories directly from females who have worked in restaurants in St. Paul (in particular) about Normie propositioning them and doing some "minor" groping as well. They ALL found him repulsive. He has quite the reputation in the restaurant business!

Republican family values at work once again.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

15. I just about dropped my coffee when I saw that

photo in the Strib (Metro section--CJ's column) of him posing with a bride. Apparently he crashed her reception at 1AM...

But my first thought upon seeing the photo was that he had finally admitted that it was all over with Laurie and had hurried to marry someone else.

[dflprincess]

16. You're not the only one

Then I gagged when I read the comment Normie made to the bride "You're a ravishing bride, my dear." Sounds like Snidely Whiplash.

[northernsoul]

24. "ravishing"? - not a smart choice of words, Norman

Doesn't "ravishing" imply that you'd like to ravish her yourself?

Not a smart choice of words when you've got a reputation like The Teeth From Brooklyn

[Zookeeper]

17. I didn't read the Metro section until this evening...

now I see what you mean. I always wonder how much C.J. knows about Norm that she isn't revealing. If I'VE heard the rumors, I'm pretty sure she has too. Maybe no one is willing to speak on the record?

[Hong Kong Cavalier]

19. Did you hear about the "visiting" incident?

C.J. once mentioned in her column that Laurie Coleman was "visiting" her family in Minnesota, and when the Colemans caught wind of this column, they called C.J. up at 4 or 5 in the morning to chew her out.
First Laurie started griping to C.J., then Norm got on the phone. Apparently they didn't like it when anyone painted them as something else than the Perfect Republican Family Values Copuple (tm).

[Lydia Leftcoast]

20. I thought it was Pat Dorris who

got the after-midnight phone call.

In either case, I was sure that news of that stunt would doom his chances. I could imagine all the old Scandinavians I grew up with shaking their heads and saying, "Uff da, vat's he doing den, making such a fuss over nutting?"

I guess too many old Scandinavians have died off. :shrug:

[Hong Kong Cavalier]

21. Could be...

I thought it was in C.J.'s column, though.

[keep_left]

22. I'm pretty sure that it was C.J.

As for why no one in the media has gone public, I can only think that it's the power of hate radio and the RW think tanks to spin the facts like an F-5 tornado. Remember, we have our own RW think tank right here in MN, the Center for the American Experiment. I'm sure Mitch Pearlstein (director of the CAE) would be on every hate radio station for hours each day denying that Coleman's family was anything other than something out of a Norman Rockwell painting.

Meanwhile, I did a bit of checking with a family member who works closely with MN politicians (let's just say they work for a nonprofit and leave it at that), and they confirmed that Coleman's personal life is common knowledge. In fact, it's common knowledge even among the religious right types that he sucks up to. The level of hypocrisy is just brain-numbing. And the facts are out there in the press; you have to dig a little, that's all. It was reported in the press that the kids were living with the grandparents, and it was also reported that Laurie Coleman had been living in L.A. for years. Laurie was nowhere to be seen during his campaign until the night he won the election, as I recall.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

23. And if the press were to make a fuss about Coleman's

family life, or lack thereof, the right wingers would dream up some far-fetched reason why he's in a blissful, trouble-free marriage, even though his wife is 2000 miles away and his children are not being raised by either parent. And all the cult members would nod dutifully.

[Zookeeper]

26. She was around when Senator Wellstone died...

She was by Normie's side during the media coverage of his reaction. But, that was the first I had seen of her.

[Zookeeper]

25. Yes, I thought it was reported in C.J.'s column...

that Laurie called in the middle of the night and was quite shrill and furious. "Visiting!?! Visiting!?! I don't 'visit' my family!" or something to that effect.

When the subject of their unusual living arrangement has been raised, they go on the defensive with the argument that Laurie has a right to pursue her career, like any other working mom. Which instantly shuts up most of us!

[keep_left]

18. That's what the Keillor op-ed hinted at.

Keillor mentioned the many St. Paul Grill patrons who have witnessed Coleman's little indiscretions, and also went into some detail about what he considers the Colemans' sham of a marriage.

I think the deal was that Keillor was so disgusted by the "family values" ad campaign and public suck-ups to the religious right that he went public on Norm's personal life.

[Something Blue]

9. I truly despise that Blow Dries Blowhard

Just the sight of him makes me angry.

Fer Chrissake, I'm a transplant here ('97) and the first thing that comes to mind when I see him is he's not even Minnesotan!"

[no name no slogan]

12. It's that damn Brooklyn accent

Noaahm Coaahhlman isn't fooling anybody. Cripes, if John Kerry can ditch his NE prep school/"Hahvahd" accent, you'd think Normy-boy could do the same.

But maybe that's too difficult for him. Selah...